Irina Hudova
Irina Hudova was a Finnish ballerina and dance pedagogue, notable for having served as the director of the Finnish National Ballet as well as the first professor of dance in Finland.
Education
Hudova, who was of Russian descent, received her initial ballet training at the Viipuri City Theatre, and in Helsinki.She later studied ballet pedagogy at the Kirov and Bolshoi Ballet companies in the Soviet Union, as well as choreography at GITIS.
Career
Dancer
Hudova was attached to the Ballet of Finland corps de ballet in 1947, and promoted to principal dancer in 1949.Her professional debut performance was in March 1949, in Swan Lake.
She stayed with the company until 1955, when she began touring mostly as an independent soloist.
Pedagogue
In the 1960s, Hudova set up her own private ballet schools in Lahti and Porvoo.She also taught throughout the 1960s and early 70s internationally, in Stockholm, London, Washington DC, Monte Carlo, Milan and in Turkey and Japan. She later returned to La Scala, and continued teaching there into the 1990s.