The first recorded use of the title as a company rank was in 1894, when
French ballet master Marius Petipa bestowed it on
Italian ballerina
Pierina Legnani. He considered her to be the supreme leading ballerina in all of Europe. The second ballerina to be given the title was Legnani's contemporary
Mathilde Kschessinska, in 1895. Petipa, however, did not agree that she should hold such a title; although an extraordinary ballerina, he felt that she obtained the title primarily via her connections with the
Imperial Russian court, as she had an affair with
Nicholas II, as well as two other
Romanovs (
Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich and her future husband
Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich). Legnani's heir in the Italian ballet tradition,
Attilia Radice trained with
Enrico Cecchetti at
La Scala in Milan where she became a leading dancer and was appointed
prima ballerina assoluta at
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1935. The only
Soviet ballerinas to hold the title were
Galina Ulanova, acclaimed as
prima ballerina assoluta in 1944, and
Maya Plisetskaya in 1960. The Swiss-born American
Eva Evdokimova became recognised as a
prima ballerina assoluta following guest appearances with the
Kirov Ballet in the 1970s, when she was named as such by the company ballet mistress,
Natalia Dudinskaya. The title was later recognised by a vote of the
Senate of Berlin. Other dancers awarded the title include
Anneli Alhanko from
Sweden (in 1984), and
Alicia Markova and
Margot Fonteyn (in 1979), both from
England. The only French dancer to hold the title is
Yvette Chauviré. Though the U.S. has no process for designation of the title,
Rudolf Nureyev referred to the American ballerina
Cynthia Gregory of the
American Ballet Theatre as the nation's
prima ballerina assoluta; however this has never been formally acknowledged. Another not to hold the title is
Anna Pavlova, one of the best known ballerinas in history. In
South Africa, the only ballerina granted the title
prima ballerina assoluta (in 1984) was
Phyllis Spira (1943–2008). == Honorees ==