Throwback Thursday and Stanislava Belinskaya
The Nutcracker ballet premiered on Sunday, the 18th of December in St. Petersburg, Russian. The role of Clara (Marie) was danced by twelve year old Stanislava Belinskaya (see above photo). She was a student at the Imperial School. Apparently, Tchaikovsky was pleased with the ballet for he wrote that its splendors wearied his eyes. However, at this time, The Nutcracker achieved only modest success. The use of so many children wasn’t received well by audiences and critics used to seeing children perform only minor roles.
I have found little about Stanislava Belinskaya. She seems to have made her mark in dance history with only a few mentions and a couple of photographs because she was the first Clara. She was a friend and fellow classmate of Anna Pavlova and is mentioned in several of Pavlova’s biographies. But details about Stanislava’a life are sketchy at best. A private listing on Ancestry.com mentions a Julia Stanislava Belinskaya who was born in 1804 in Russia – perhaps an ancestor.
One reference http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/12201-ballerinasdanseurs-who-met-tragic-ends-in-real-life/&page=3 states that Stanislava Belinskaya went insane shortly after her professional career started, due to the constant pressure and expectations placed on her.
From
the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:
Dance
History Factoid #139:
“ The role of Clara in
Nutcracker was first danced by Stanislava Belinskaya.”
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