Ania Nikulina

Research Assistant Professor, Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellow; Lecturer

German and Russian Studies; Theatre

Background

Ania Nikulina is a research assistant professor and a lecturer in the Theatre Department at ��. Her work explores state-sponsored ballet as a place where cultural projects and government politics meet, often in moments of tension and transition. She focuses especially on the history of ballet performances and dance training in post-Soviet theaters and schools.

Her current book project, Dynamic Borders: Ukrainian Ballet in Transition, examines how ballet communities in Ukraine both change and respond to shifting political structures. This work is particularly significant in the current context of the Russian–Ukrainian war, where cultural institutions and schools face instability and underfunding yet continue to show resilience, creativity and determination in keeping artistic life alive.

Prior to completing the PhD program at UC Riverside, Nikulina earned her master’s degree in Performance Studies from Texas A&M University, focusing on the relationships between state-sponsored dance, artistic protest and political processes.

Nikulina is a former recipient of the Mellon CLIR Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Original Sources, the UC Riverside Dean’s Fellowship, the CIS Humanities Graduate Student Research Grant, the UC Riverside Dissertation Research Grant, UC Riverside Alumni Graduate Research Travel Award and the UC Riverside Dean’s Distinguished Fellowship Award. She has diverse dance training in ballet, modern and jazz dance; her additional interests include ballet ethnography, oral narratives and interviews as off-stage performances.

Invited Talks

November 2023: “Questions of National Identity in Ukrainian Ballet Productions,” ��, REEP Program Seminar Series.
October 2023: “Coding National Identity in Ukrainian Ballet Librettos of the 1930s,” Columbia University, Seminars in Dance Program.

Recent Publications

Nikulina, Ania. “Ballet in Ukraine: From Uncertainty to Defiance and Independence,” Dance Research Journal, April 2023, Cambridge University Press.
Nikulina. Ania. "Navigating Endangered Archives during a Time of Global Instability," Adventure, Inquiry, Discovery: CLIR-Mellon Fellows and the Archives, May 2022, edited by Y. Dong, J. Konova, S. LeJacq, A. Nikulina, D. Oliva, and N. Pitamber (Council on Library and Information Resources, 2023).
Nikulina, Ania, Seth Le Jacq, and Diane Oliva. “Conclusion,” Adventure, Inquiry, Discovery: CLIR-Mellon Fellows and the Archives, May 2022, edited by Y. Dong, J. Konova, S. LeJacq, A. Nikulina, D. Oliva, and N. Pitamber (Alexandria, VA: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2023).
Nikulina, Ania. “Ukrainian Librettos: (De)Stabilizing Nationalism through Ballet Texts and the Female Dancing Body,” Adventure, Inquiry, Discovery: CLIR-Mellon Fellows and the Archives, May 2022, edited by Y. Dong, J. Konova, S. LeJacq, A. Nikulina, D. Oliva, and N. Pitamber (Council on Library and Information Resources, 2023).
Nikulina, Ania. “Maya Plisetskaya’s The Carmen-Suite: Discovering a Hidden Repertoire,” Theatre Journal, Vol. 71, Number 2, June (2019): 191-209.
Nikulina, Ania. "Post-Soviet Primas: Challenging Archive and Repertoire," PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research, Vol. 2, Issue 2, Feb (2019): 1-19.
Nikulina, Ania. “Noize MC: Mediatized Political Protest in Contemporary Russia.” Proceedings of the American Musicological Society Southwest Chapter (2014)

Education

PhD, Critical Dance Studies, University of California, Riverside
MA, Performance Studies, Texas A&M University

Research Interests

State-sponsored dance
Artistic protest and censorship
Dance and Archives
Dance Ethnography
Cultural Diplomacy

Awards

2024: Individual Development Award (IDA), ��
2022-2023: Council on Library and Information Resources Editor Award, “Special Issue: Current State of the Archive” (Spring 2023)
2022: Mellon Foundation Council on Library and Information Resources Travel Grant
2021-2022: Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP) Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Research Fellowship
2021-22: Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellow
2019-2020: UC Riverside Dean’s Fellowship
2018-2019: Mellon CLIR Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Original Sources
2018: UC Riverside Alumni Graduate Research Travel award
2018: UC Riverside Dissertation Research Grant
2018: CIS Humanities Graduate Student Research Award
2014-2018: UC Riverside Dean’s Distinguished Fellowship Award
2014: Vida Chenoweth Student Paper Prize, Society for Ethnomusicology Southern Plains