Nikolai Gustavovich Legat (Russian:Никола́й Густа́вович Лега́т) (30 December 1869, in Moscow – 24 January 1937, in London) was a ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher.
Nikolai Legat was born to a family of Swedish origin, all of whom were dancers—his father Gustav Legat was asoloist of theImperial Ballet of St. Petersburg and teacher of ballet at theMoscow Theatrical School while his mother Maria Semyonovna Legat (née Granken) was a character dancer. Like his four siblings, the young Nikolai was accepted into the Imperial Ballet School at the age of ten, and during his years there, he countedMarius Petipa,Pavel Gerdt andChristian Johansson among his teachers. Legat graduated in 1888 and was immediately offered a position with the Imperial Ballet in the rank ofsujet (soloist), completely bypassing having to dance in thecorps de ballet. Both he and his younger brother, Sergey, became ballet masters and caricaturists.
Legat is considered to be the main successor to Pavel Gerdt. Legat later served as aballet master in Russia, teaching and passing on the repertoire of the Imperial ballet company, whose groundwork was the legacy of the greatchoreographer-ballet master, Marius Petipa. He left Russia with his third wife, Nadine, in 1922 and eventually settled in England in 1926. The couple opened their first ballet school in Kent. They were later able to start classes in Hammersmith, London. Among their notable pupils wereNinette de Valois andMargot Fonteyn.[1]
Legat's wife, Nadine Nicolaeva, was aballerina of the Imperial and State theatres of Moscow and St. Petersburg.[citation needed] She choreographed dances based on the Movements Exercises ofGurdjieff and later founded the Legat School of Ballet inKent. One of her students wasAnneliese von Oettingen.[2] Nadine Nicolaeva-Legat was a follower ofP. D. Ouspensky. She choreographed dances based on the Movements Exercises ofG. I Gurdjieff. In 1938, Ouspensky and his followers acquired Colet House in London, from Nadine Legat, where they established theHistorico-Psychological Society.[3]
Legat's granddaughter, Tatiana Legat (1934–2022) was a Soviet and Russian ballerina, soloist in Leningrad Kirov Ballet (Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia) and ballet pedagogue.[4]
