Nadia Nerina
Nadia Nerina (21 October 1927 – 6 October 2008) was a South African dancer who was "one of the most gifted, versatile, and inspiring ballerinas of The Royal Ballet" during the 1950s and 1960s. She was known "for her technical virtuosity, lightness afoot, effortless-seeming jumps, and joyful charm onstage, especially in comedic roles." Early life and training Born as Nadine Judd in Bloemfontein, the provincial capital of the Orange Free State (now Free State Province) in central South Africa, she was a descendant of British settlers who had immigrated to the diamond-rich area in search of a new life. Her parents, who were in the English-speaking minority of the city, where Afrikaans was the official language, encouraged her childhood interest in theater. Her first stage appearance was at the age of 8 or 9, when she appeared as Cio-Cio San's child in a local production of Madama Butterfly. Her serious study of dance did not come until after her parents moved the family to Durban, the major city in the coastal province of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). There she studied drama with Elizabeth Sneddon at Natal University, ballet with Eileen Keegan, a gifted teacher who had danced with Anna Pavlova's company,