2 3 Throwback Thursday and Vera Karalli | Ballet Webb

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Throwback Thursday and Vera Karalli


Throwback Thursday and Vera Karalli

Born in Moscow, Russia on July 27, 1889, Vera Alekseevna Karalli received her dance training at the Moscow Theater School. From 1906-1909 she performed as a member of the Bolshoi Theatre and appeared in works by Fokine and Gorsky. In 1909 she went to Paris with The Ballet Russes, under the direction of Sergei Diaghilev. She returned to Russia and continued to perform at the Bolshoi Theatre, dancing leading roles in “Swan Lake” and “Life for The Tsar”.

In 1914, she made her film debut in “Do You Remember?” produced at the Moscow film studio of Aleksandr Khanzhonkov. In 1915 she co-stared in the first film adaptation Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”. But it was her role as Gizella in the 1917 film “the Dying Swan”, (also called “Mad Love”) that made her internationally famous.

According to her biography on Imdb.com: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0179028/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm she was involved in a famous historical murder:

“She was also co-conspirator in the Feliks Yusupov's plot and murder of Grigory Rasputin in December of 1916. Karalli was present at the Yusupov's Moika Palace and allegedly she was there to act as a substitute bait for Rasputin, instead of Yusupov's wife Irina, who was initially shown to the lusty Rasputin as the main bait to lure him into the trap before he was killed. Karalli was chosen for the plot to murder Rasputin, because he knew of her as an actress, she was very pretty and was already a well known film star, who appeared in about twenty silent films in Russia. However, later some of her films were lost or destroyed during the chaos of Communist Revolution and the Russian Civil War of 1917 - 1921.

After this, Karalli left Russia began traveling. She worked again for the Ballet Russe in Paris, then taught dance in Lithuania. She was ballet mistress for the Bucharest Opera in Romania, and later in her life she moved to Austria, where she died on November 16, 1972.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:

Dance History Factoid #113:  
“Vera Karalli was a Russian ballerina who was also an actress in silent films.”

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“For the average person leading an ordinary life, fame holds an hypnotic attraction. Many would sooner perish than exist in anonymity.

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