Lidiia Demianovna Chernysheva

Chernysheva, Lidiia Dem’ianovna 

Born May 10 (23), 1912, in Berdiansk; died Sept. 23, 1975, in Simferopol’. Soviet ballerina and choreographer. People’s Artist of the USSR (1967). Member of the CPSU from 1964.

In 1929, after graduating from the Leningrad Choreographic School, Chernysheva first performed with the musical-comedy theater in Kharkov and then with the traveling M. Kotsiubinskii Theater in Artemovsk and other theaters. From 1939 to 1941 she was director of the song and dance ensemble that she organized for the Donetsk Philharmonic Society. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), she headed a song and dance ensemble that performed on the Southern, Transcaucasian, and First Ukrainian fronts. From 1955 to 1970 she was director of the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Kazakh SSR. From 1971 she was director of Tavriia, a women’s vocal and dance ensemble in the Ukraine. Chernysheva’s choreography organically blended music, dancing, lyrics, and singing, and it was distinguished by ethnic distinctiveness and high professionalism.

Chernysheva was awarded the Order of Lenin and six other orders, as well as various medals.