Nadezhda Nadezhdina

Nadezhda Sergeevna Nadezhdina (1904/8-1979) was a Russian choreographer, ballerina, and former director of the Russian female dance troupe Beroyzka from its inception in 1948 until her death. She is the daughter of prominent writer Aleksandra Iakovlevna. She is known for the way she taught her dancers to move across a stage without seeming to move their feet. Beneath long, nearly floor-length gowns, her dancers learned to walk on the very tips of their toes, resulting in the impression that they are floating or gliding across the stage. Winner of the Stalin Prize of the third degree in 1950 and the Frederic Joliot-Curie Prize in 1959.