Janina Pankrate: A Latvian Ballet Dancer’s Journey With Helena Tangijeva-Birzniece

In her memories, Janina Pankrate marks the very beginning of her career as a dancer: “When I entered the ballet studio of Helena Tangiyeva-Birzniece, I was scared. I barely held back tears of fear. There were many girls. I stood at the table, on the other side of which sat the head of the studio. She looked at me carefully and asked, “What’s your name, girl?” – “If… nina,” I quietly whispered back. “Okay, Nina, you’ve been accepted into the studio and you’re going to be a ballerina.” – Since that time, Tangiyeva only called me Nina.”

Latvian ballet dancer, ballet master and teacher Helena Tangijeva-Birzniece (1907-1965). 1958, photo portrait of Jānis Ozolas. Photo: Song Festival Repository

Her teachers have been the excellent choreographers Helena Tangijeva-Birzniece and Yevgenijs Čanga, as well as Marika Reke, with whom she learned pop dances, including tap dance, in Germany (1942-43).

The brightest ballet roles can be seen in the performances “I Play, I Dance” (1950, Lelde; 1955, Baroness), “Romeo and Juliet” (Juliet) and “Bakhchisaray Fountain” (Maria). Prime Ministers Māris Liepa and Haralds Ritenbergs have been partners, but Pankrate danced the longest with her husband Aleksander Lembergs.

With Sašina, as she affectionately called her lover, she danced in Riga’s finest night club “Alhambra” during the first years of the free state. Soviet reality both threw them into a deep abyss (for example, Alexander had to spend a couple of years in the Gulag) and raised them to heaven – because it turned out that art is an ideological weapon.

Aleksandrs Lembergs as a young man in the ballet “Esmeralda”, 1939. Latvian National Opera and Ballet Archive. Photo: Latvian Cultural Canon

Her work as a ballet master could best be appreciated in the Operetta Theater, because Sašiņš was the main one in the Opera at that time, but Janina did not want to be second. Janina did not fall on her face, she learned to say both harsh epithets and sweet words, but she never allowed herself to get on her head. My colleague Jura Kaprālias was invited, almost forcibly dragged to Condensation the department of choreography to teach us, young ballet masters, the secrets of pop dance. However, when the head of the department initially told her to learn how to fill in class journals and prepare class methodology descriptions, Janina simply turned and left…

2023-11-24 22:00:40
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