Gaisina, Ai-Gul (1946 - )

Stringer, Walter: Ai-Gul Gaisina as Aurora in Peggy van Praagh's production of 'The Sleeping Beauty', the Australian Ballet, 1974

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Ai-Gul Gaisina was born in Kazan, capital of the Tartar Republic in the USSR, and trained at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Leningrad. After her graduation in 1965 she danced with a new classical ballet company in Moscow, 40 Stars of the Russian Classical Ballet. With this company she travelled throughout South America, Cuba, Europe and Australasia and partnered Alexander Godunov before joining the Stanislavsky Ballet Theatre in Moscow in 1971. With the Stanislasky company she created principal roles in several ballets including Khatchaturian’s Gayane.

Gaisina married Australian entrepreneur Andrew Guild in 1972 and in 1973 joined the Australian Ballet as a soloist. Her notable roles with the company at that time included Ronald Petit’s Carmen, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Kitri in Nureyev’s Don Quixote, Michelle in Gillian Lynne’s Fool on the Hill and Valencienne in Ronald Hynd's Merry Widow. After the birth of her first child she rejoined the Australian Ballet for the 1975 season. Despite her contract as a corps de ballet dancer during this second stint with the company, she again danced major principal roles, including those in The Sleeping Beauty and Don Quixote.

Retiring from performing in 1978, Gaisina embarked on her teaching career which began at the Victorian College of the Arts where Anne Woolliams was principal. In 1983 at the invitation of Dame Margaret Scott, she joined the Australian Ballet School where she taught for ten years before rejoining the Australian Ballet as guest teacher and coach. She has also taught at the Royal Danish Ballet, the Houston Ballet and the Hong Kong Ballet company.

Gaisina danced the role of Clara the elder in the Australian Ballet’s revival of Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker - the story of Clara in June 2009. She continues to teach periodically with the Australian Ballet and returned to the Houston Ballet as guest teacher and coach late in 2009.

See also: Australian Ballet, The ; Don Quixote ; Fool on the Hill ; Merry Widow, The ; Murphy, Graeme ; Nutcracker ; Scott, Margaret ; Sleeping Beauty, The ; Woolliams, Anne

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