Lyudmila Vlasova

Lyudmila Iosifovna Vlasova (; born 2 March 1942) is a Russian ballet dancer. She was a soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre (1961–1982), an actress, and at the present time is a choreographer of dance on ice.

Early life Vlasova was born in 1942 in Moscow, Soviet Union to Iosif Markov, a musician. Her mother worked in Red Army Theatre, but after marriage to Markov left the scene for the family life. After the war, her mother broke up with her father, and raised her by herself. Her mother realized the daughter's potential of becoming a ballerina, and turned her to choreography school.

Career Following graduation, Lyudmila Vlasova joined Bolshoi Theatre with which she performed in London and USA and danced with such greats as Maya Plisetskaya, Ekaterina Maximova, Natalia Bessmertnova and many others. This created an international incident, requiring the involvement of Leonid Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter, leaders of the USSR and the U.S., respectively. After three days of negotiation, Vlasova was allowed to fly back home. The incident was dramatized in a 1985 movie, Flight 222.

After returning to Moscow, Vlasova continued to dance at the Bolshoi Theater until her retirement. After two years, Vlasov and Godunov officially got divorced through the embassy.

After Vlasova's ballet career, she became a sought-after choreographer in ice skating. In this capacity, she worked with prominent skaters such as:

Irina Lobacheva / Ilia Averbukh The second – Alexander Godunov, ballet. Third (since 1981) – singer Yury Statnik (1947). The soloist (since 1976) of the Bolshoi Theatre, Honored Artist of the Moldavian SSR (1976)