Vera Shabshai

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Vera Shabshai
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Vera Shabshai - (Russian: Вера Яковлевна Каган-Шабшай, (1905 – April 8, 1988) was a Soviet teacher and choreographer, the second wife of the graphic artist N. N. Kupreyanov.

Biography

Vera Shabshai was born in 1905, the daughter of Yakov Fabianovich Kagan-Shabshai, an electrical engineer, professor, and collector of Jewish paintings. In 1927, she graduated from the Lunacharsky Moscow State Technical School (later GITIS) and the Choreography Department of the Lunacharsky Technical School. After graduation, she joined the Jewish Theater Freikunst and sought to revive Jewish ballet and pantomime.

To support her endeavors, Shabshai turned to her father for financial assistance and to Mikhail Gnessin, chairman of the Jewish Music Society, for help with program distribution. Notable artists worked on the costumes and scenography of her performances, while music was composed by Mikhail Gnessin, Alexander Crane, and Julius Engel. Shabshai's father subsidized the entire project.

Unfortunately, the time allotted for Jewish ballet and pantomime in Soviet society was brief. In 1935, the Soviet government conducted a "Review of the Art of Dance", which subjected Shabshai's troupe to harsh criticism. Realizing that she would never again stage a Jewish ballet or perform Jewish dance, Shabshai delivered a farewell speech at the last evening of Jewish ballet in Moscow on April 17, 1935.

Her final major work was the production of the ballet portion of "Kоschei the Immortal" to music by Rimsky-Korsakov, which premiered on August 1, 1936, at the "Island of Dance" in Moscow. For the rest of her life, Shabshai struggled to survive by leading groups and helping with amateur artistic activities. Her daughter, Natalia, took up the baton of recreating Jewish dance later in life.

During the years of Stalinist repression, Shabshai was arrested and spent a week in Butyrka prison. She passed away on April 8, 1988.

Literature

Vera Shabshai in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Sources

This article "Vera Shabshai" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Vera Shabshai. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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