Childhood and adolescence

Alla was born in November 1966 in the small village of Kosa, Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug, where fate brought her parents, Vladimir Solomonovich and Galina Vladimirovna Dukhov together.
After graduating from a pedagogical institute, my father was assigned to a local school, where he met a young mathematics teacher. A year after Alla’s birth, the couple moved to Riga, the homeland of Vladimir Solomonovich. My father changed his specialty and got a job as a gas welder at the Riga plant Sarkanāzvaigzne (“Red Star”), the largest manufacturer of mopeds in the Soviet Union. Mom raised Alla and her younger sister Dina, and when the girls grew up, she went to work as an economist at the local House of Culture.

Alla Dukhova in childhood

Alla showed a passion for music and dancing very early. Having seen the ballet “Swan Lake” on TV, she spent hours spinning in front of the mirror, trying to imitate the movements of the dancers. Mother's skirts and dresses were used to make tutus for the young ballerina. But Alla did not get into the choreographic studio right away - first, her parents sent her to a music school, where the girl learned to play the piano.

After music lessons, Alla was in no hurry to go home - choreography lessons began in the next class, which she carefully watched. And when she came home, she stood in front of her favorite mirror and tried to repeat the movements she had seen. At the age of six, she staged her first performance, gathering children from a group of preschool children in a pioneer camp. She herself performed the solo in the image of a “dying swan” and looked very convincing.

Alla Dukhova in her school years

In the end, the mother gave up and took her daughter to the folk dance ensemble “Ivushka”. This was the best group in Riga, classes were taught by teachers from the choreographic school and the Opera and Ballet Theater. Having looked at 11-year-old Alla, they did not immediately believe that this was a self-taught person - her preparation was so good. The girl was immediately entrusted with the solo part, which she handled brilliantly. The dance group became a real family for Alla - the guys not only rehearsed and performed, but also came up with numbers themselves, and also spent their leisure time together and having fun.

In the tenth grade, our heroine made a new friend - Taya Kornilova, the daughter of famous elephant trainers who came on tour to the Riga Circus. Seeing Alla dancing, Taya invited her to work in the “Elephants and Dancers” attraction and brought her to show her parents. They approved Dukhova’s candidacy, all that remained was to persuade her parents.

Alla Dukhova in her youth

Vladimir Solomonovich and Galina Vladimirovna did not immediately give their consent - they had already accepted that their daughter wanted to become an artist and was going to enter the Leningrad Institute of Culture, but the circus... it was too much! But the girl managed to find the necessary arguments and left with the circus to Chisinau, where she learned tricks for two months. But during her first tour in Minsk, the girl broke her leg and spent almost a year recovering from the injury.

Naturally, there was no more talk about the circus, and even about dancing - Alla returned to Riga, after rehabilitation she got a job as a cashier in a store, then worked for a year in the supply department at the Sarkanāzvaigzne plant, and in the evenings she cleaned offices. In the summer, the girl got a job as a counselor at a pioneer camp, was involved in amateur performances and organizing all kinds of cultural events.

Dancing school

From that moment on, “Todes” began to expand, new talented members began to join the team. Alla herself moved away from production work and began to engage exclusively in management. In 1997, the first dance school was opened in Moscow.

Then two more were opened, in Riga and St. Petersburg. Today, the number of schools has exceeded a thousand on all continents, and graduates work in the best dance troupes in the world and contribute to the development of large-scale projects.

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Now the school, which was the first to open in Moscow, has turned into almost a stellar one. The children of famous Russian celebrities study there. According to Alla Dukhova, children need to be instilled with a love of art, music and dancing, and not focus on the status of their parents.

First steps to glory

Alla was noticed by the camp director, who ran one of the Riga Houses of Culture. He suggested that Dukhova form a dance group, and the girl happily seized on this idea. This is how the “Experiment” group appeared, consisting of Alla, her sister Dina and six other girlfriends.

Alla's path to success began with the Experiment group

A year later, the newly formed team took first place in the republican competition. The success was explained not only by the talent and efficiency of the participants, but also by their desire to create something new and unusual for the Soviet stage. The girls' performances were based on modern choreography of the American and Western European schools, which they studied using videotapes with clips of foreign performers.

During the tour, the girls exchanged experiences with other groups, adopting various dance tricks from each other. They performed at the best discos in Riga, went to various youth festivals and even visited BAM.

Interview with Alla Dukhova In the mid-80s, the breaker movement arose in the country and within a few years acquired an all-Union scale. During a performance in Leningrad, Experiment was offered to team up with a popular breaker group and begin touring the country together. This is how the show ballet “Todes” was formed, which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary on March 8, 2021.

"Todes"

Alla was unanimously chosen as artistic director, paying tribute not only to her professional, but also to her leadership qualities.
Dukhova managed to brilliantly cope with this difficult task and turn a group of like-minded people into an organic, cohesive team united by one goal. She placed breakers on the classic machine, which was initially received with great bewilderment. But Alla believed that the academic school is the basis of any dance, and was able to prove this in practice. Soon a group of 14 people staged a program, with which they began to tour the country from the North Ossetian Philharmonic. All performances were successful, but after some time, due to a conflict with the director, they had to resign from the Philharmonic and go on a free voyage.

Alla Dukhova and the ballet “Todes” at the beginning of the journey

It was decided to move to Moscow and try to break into the big stage. The guys rented two rooms in a dorm, slept on mattresses and stole buns from a supermarket in order to somehow feed themselves. The work didn’t work out until Alexander Aronovich Berman, the administrator of the Riga Philharmonic and the father of Dukhova’s girlfriend, came to their aid. He organized a tour for the group in the Chelyabinsk region, and there Sofia Rotaru saw the performance of “Todes”. Selection criteria for Alla Dukhova The singer immediately invited the guys to work together. At the very first rehearsal, it became clear that Sofia Mikhailovna is a great worker and the highest professional, who does not give a single concession to the members of her team. “Todes” traveled half the country with the singer and, over the five years of joint activity, created excellent advertising for themselves. Ballet by Alla Dukhova “Todes” – Super DIM defile Following Rotaru, Valery Leontyev, Vladimir Presnyakov, Kristina Orbakaite, Tatyana Bulanova, Larisa Dolina, Valery Meladze and other Russian pop stars began to turn to them. The team became regular participants in all the most prestigious music festivals in the country and soon reached the international level. Few people know that “Todes” twice performed on the same stage with Michael Jackson as part of his “Mike Jackson and His Friends” world tour.

Now Alla Dukhova's show ballet is the most popular in Russia

At the same time, Alla never left the dream of working solo and creating her own theater. And when the group turned ten years old, Alexander Dostman helped her organize several anniversary concerts of “Todes” at the State Central Concert Hall “Russia”, which were sold out to full houses. At this point it became clear to everyone that Alla Dukhova’s team is a unique phenomenon and an independent creative unit, ready to give people its unique talent and skill.

In 2014, Dukhova’s dream came true - the Todes Dance Theater appeared in Moscow, which never tires of delighting audiences with bright, spectacular performances. Even earlier, Alla Dukhova’s dance schools began to open throughout Russia and beyond its borders, whose students gather packed houses of fans around the world.

Among the students are both children of star parents and ordinary children who have the opportunity to study dance for free at Artek and Orlyonok. For the strongest, the “Todes Fest” is held annually, reports from the concerts of which are posted on social networks. At the moment, more than a hundred branches have been opened in Russia and abroad, which is an absolute record among world dance schools. Alla Dukhova. My hero In 2021, Todes celebrated its thirtieth anniversary at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. Philip Kirkorov, Kristina Orbakaite, Larisa Dolina, Lolita Milyavskaya, Valeria, Jasmine, Alexander Buinov, Oleg Gazmanov, Valery Syutkin, the A-Studio group and other domestic performers with whom the dancers worked came to congratulate the team.

The formation of the ballet “Todes” and the subsequent success of Alla Dukhova

A new chapter in the dancer’s bright biography began after our today’s heroine met members of the St. Petersburg ballet “Todos” in Palanga. The guys also danced breakdancing, but there were no serious successes in their careers at that time.

Despite this, the choreographic skills of the guys from St. Petersburg made a huge impression on Alla Dukhova and her sister Dina, and therefore very soon the dance groups began performing together.

On March 8, 1987, the Experiment group and street breakers from St. Petersburg

performed on the same stage for the first time. On the same day, a new name for the group, “Todes”, appeared for the first time on signs and posters, formed as a result of the merger of the names of two groups.

From the first days of the new team's existence, Alla Dukhova became its leader and ideological inspirer. After the team went on their first tour, our today's heroine also took on managerial responsibilities for the first time.

Alla remains today as the permanent leader of the cult group. Over the twenty-five years of its existence, “Todes” has reached unprecedented heights and has become a special phenomenon on the Russian and Latvian stage. At different periods of time, the Dukhova dance ensemble performed with many Russian and world pop stars. So, in particular, the choreographic team appeared on stage together with Philip Kirkorov, Tatyana Bulanova, Sofia Rotaru, as well as Mariah Carey, Ricky Martin and many other music stars. Currently, the groups of many pop artists are completely formed exclusively from former students of Alla Dukhova.

Alla Dukhova and her ballet make bright shows not only for Russian but also world celebrities

Some members of the Todes group today act as musical performers themselves. Singer Angina, Vlad Sokolovsky - all this is not a complete list of names.

Personal life of Alla Dukhova

Dukhova prefers not to advertise her personal life, stating in an interview that for her family is “Todes”.
In fact, she has three marriages behind her, although not entirely successful ones. Alla got married for the first time at the age of 22. The chosen one was a DJ from one of the fashionable Riga discos. A few years later, her husband thought about emigrating to the United States, but Dukhova, already pregnant, categorically refused to leave her homeland and people close to her. She understood that, left alone with the child, she would face serious difficulties (the father had already died by that time, and the mother was ill), but she courageously decided to divorce.

“For now, everyone is at home” with Alla Dukhova. At this difficult moment, her sister Dina and her husband supported her. While Alla was getting on her feet and building a career, they took care of their little nephew Vladimir (born 1995) as if they were their own son. The guy grew up, received a bachelor's degree from the New York Film Academy and is now engaged in theater directing and writing music. Vladimir is married to classmate Anna and has already given his famous mother a granddaughter, Sonechka, in whom Alla dotes.

Eldest son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter of Alla Dukhova

Dukhova's second marriage also did not last long and ended in separation. The choreographer doesn’t like to talk about him. The third husband and father of the youngest son Konstantin (born 2002) was Anton Kis, lighting designer for the ballet “Todes”. The couple do not live together, but they are still connected by common work and caring for their son.

Alla Dukhova with children

Unlike his older brother, Kostya decided to connect his future with dancing and cannot imagine his life without Todes. Despite his large build, he has unique plasticity and his own vision of dance, which marks him out as a future choreographer.

Alla Dukhova with her sister and sons