Nadia Nerina (1927-2008). South African-born ballerina

Nadia Nerina (originally Judd) was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1927. She studied in Durban until 1945, then moved to London and attended both the Ballet Rambert School and Sadler’s Wells Ballet School. She joined Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet in 1946, moving to the Sadler’s Wells Ballet at Covent Garden in 1947, when she also took the name of Nerina, after a South African flower. Nerina studied further with Cleo Nordi, and was made a principal dancer in 1952.

Thereafter, until her retirement in 1969, Nerina pursued a glittering career as a gifted and versatile ballerina, which included a number of notable television appearances. She danced all the major classic roles but was particularly associated with choreographer Frederick Ashton, for whom she created the role of Lise in his La Fille mal gardée in 1960. She was also one of Ashton’s ballerinas in his Birthday Offering of 1956.

In 1952 and 1954 Nerina undertook tours of Southern Africa, and in 1960 appeared as a guest artist with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad. Towards the end of her career Nerina also worked with Western Theatre Ballet and appeared in a number of galas. On her retirement in 1969 Nadia Nerina moved to the South of France with her husband Charles Gordon. Nadia Nerina died in 2008.