Nadia Nerina
| Nadia Nerina | |
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Nadia Nerina as Lise and David Blair as Colas in the Pas de Ruban from the premiere of Sir Frederick Ashton's La fille mal gardée, London, 1960
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| Born |
Nadine Judd 21 October 1927 Bloemfontein, South Africa |
| Died | 6 October 2008 (aged 80) Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France |
| Occupation | Ballet dancer; prima ballerina |
| Spouse(s) | Charles Gordon (m. 1956–2008) |
Nadia Nerina (21 October 1927 – 6 October 2008) was a South African dancer who was "one of the most gifted, versatile, and inspiring ballerinas of The Royal Ballet" during the 1950s and 1960s. She was known "for her technical virtuosity, lightness afoot, effortless-seeming jumps, and joyful charm onstage, especially in comedic roles."
Born as Nadine Judd in Bloemfontein, the provincial capital of the Orange Free State (now Free State Province) in central South Africa, she was a descendant of British settlers who had immigrated to the diamond-rich area in search of a new life. Her parents, who were in the English-speaking minority of the city, where Afrikaans was the official language, encouraged her childhood interest in theater. Her first stage appearance was at the age of 8 or 9, when she appeared as Cio-Cio San's child in a local production of Madama Butterfly. Her serious study of dance did not come until after her parents moved the family to Durban, the major city in the coastal province of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). There she studied drama with Elizabeth Sneddon at Natal University, ballet with Eileen Keegan, a gifted teacher who had danced with Anna Pavlova's company, and stagecraft and mime with Dorothea McNair. Keegan is credited with laying the foundations of Nerina's strong classical ballet technique. After Judd's mother died, while she was in her early teens, her teachers advised her father to send their talented pupil to England for further instruction.
In 1945, not long after World War II had ended in Europe, Mr. Judd arranged passage for his daughter on a ship sailing from Cape Town to Southampton. She was 17 or 18 at the time. Once settled in London, with aspirations to join Ballet Rambert, she sought out and took classes with Marie Rambert, who befriended her and encouraged her. She then went on to the Sadler's Wells Ballet School, under the direction of Ninette de Valois, and to the studio of Elsa Brunelleschi, where she studied Spanish dancing. While still a student at Sadler's Wells, she appeared as a nursemaid to the baby Princess Aurora in the famous production of The Sleeping Beauty mounted for the reopening of the Royal Opera House on 20 February 1946. The following summer, intent on improving her classical technique, she went to Paris with her friend Elaine Fifield, to study with Olga Preobrajenska, a former star of the Russian Imperial Ballet in Saint Petersburg.
Upon returning to England in the autumn, Judd danced briefly with the Sadler's Wells Opera Ballet, which soon was reformed and renamed the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet. There, under the guidance of ballet mistress Peggy van Praagh, she worked with Leo Kersley, who became a close friend, Kenneth MacMillan, Peter Darrell, and emergent choreographer John Cranko, a fellow South African. At this time, she assumed the stage name Nadia Nerina, derived from the delicate, lily-like flowers called nerines, a species native to South Africa. Cast as the Circus Dancer in Andrée Howard's Mardi Gras, she enjoyed her first big success, winning approval of balletomanes and applause from audiences whenever she appeared. In December 1947, she joined the main Sadler's Wells company at Covent Garden as a soloist. Within three days, she was on stage, dancing a solo in Michel Fokine's Les Sylphides. Set to Chopin's Mazurka in D Major (op. 33, no. 2), it showed her light, high jumps, fleet footwork, and soft port de bras to particular advantage. Soon thereafter, de Valois saw her in a solo in the Swan Lake pas de trois, which she had learned from Preobrajenska, and, recognizing her individuality, encouraged her in what Nerina described as "my natural style."
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