Born Olga Preobrazhenskaya in
January 1971, Olga was an unlikely candidate for a life in professional ballet.
She was born with a crooked spine, and despite repeated attempts to be selected
for ballet training, she was always rejected. But in 1879, after three years of
trying, her persistence paid off and she was finally accepted into the Imperial
School. She was eight years old.
She studied with such masters as Lev
Ivanov and Marius Petitpa and although her spine was always a problem, she
developed into an accomplished dancer. She shortened her name by one syllable,
and made her debut in 1892 in Kalkabrino by
Petipa. She went on to dance many other Petipa ballets. By 1895 she began to
travel, making appearances in Paris, London and the United States. In 1900, she
achieved the title of prima ballerina.
In 1914 she turned her attention to
teaching. She began in Saint Petersburg where one of her students was Alexandra
Danilova. After the Russian Revolution she moved between Milan, London and
Buenos Aires before settling down in Paris.
In Paris she became an established
teacher with pupils such as Tamara Toumanova and Igor Youskevitch. She
continued to teach until her retirement in 1960. She died two years later, at
age 91.
From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Factoid #165:
“Olga Preobrazhenska was a
Russian ballerina born with a crooked spine.”
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“It doesn’t matter
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time than you were knocked down.”
― Roy T. Bennett
― Roy T. Bennett
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