Galina Samsova

Galina Samsova
Galina Samsova and David Adams in Corsaire
Born	Galina Samtsova (1937-03-17) 17 March 1937 (age 80) Stalingrad, Soviet Union
Occupation	Ballet dancer
Spouse(s)	Alexander Ursuliak (1960-?) André Prokovsky (1972-1981)

Galina Samsova (born 17 March 1937) is a Russian ballet dancer and company director, now retired.

Born Galina Martinovna Samtsova in Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in southwestern Russia, she began ballet training at an early age. She studied at the Kiev Opera Ballet School with Natalia Verekundova and in 1956 graduated into the Kiev Opera Ballet, where she eventually became a soloist. In 1960 she married the Canadian-Ukrainian dance teacher Alexander Ursuliak and moved with him to Canada. The following year, 1961, she joined the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto, having simplified the spelling of her maiden name from Samtsova to Samsova. Hired as a soloist, she was soon promoted to principal dancer and was cast in leading roles in Swan Lake and Giselle as well as in works by Balanchine, Tudor, and Cranko.

In 1963, Samsova was visiting London when she was recommended to Raymundo de Larraín, nephew of the marquis de Cuevas, for the title role in his lavish new production of Prokofiev's Cinderella, to be choreographed by Vaslav Orlikovsky and presented at the International Dance Festival in Paris. Making her western European debut in the role, which she danced almost every day for a month, Samsova won the festival's gold medal for a performance by a female dancer (Rudolf Nureyev won the gold medal for a male dancer). Her lyrical interpretation of Cinderella also resulted in invitations to give guest performances in many companies, including the Marseille Opera Ballet and London Festival Ballet.

Samsova joined London Festival Ballet as a guest artist in 1964 but soon became a permanent member of the company, serving as its principal ballerina for nearly a decade, until 1973. While there, she formed a partnership with David Adams, performing in virtuosic showcases such as Spring Waters and the Medora-Ali pas de deux from Le Corsaire, evening-length classics such as Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, and many other works. The pair won the gold medal at Il Festival de la Opera, Madrid, for their performance of Giselle. In 1966 Samsova went to Johannesburg, South Africa, to dance as guest star in yet another production of Cinderella, staged by French choreographer Françoise Adret for PACT/TRUK Ballet. The role of Prince Charming in this production was taken by André Prokovsky, a Franco-Russian dancer whom Samsova had met in Marseille and who would soon begin to play a large part in her life. Not only her partner on stage, he would become her second husband, after her first marriage failed.