Ballet Webb: Throwback Thursday and Mathilde Kschessinska

Throwback Thursday and Mathilde Kschessinska

Mathilda-Maria Feliksovna Kshesinskaya was born in Russia on August 19, 1872. She studied dance under Johnasson and Cecchetti at the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, graduating in 1890. She then joined the Maryinsky Ballet and achieved the title of prima ballerina assoluta. This title was awarded to only one other Russian dancer, Pierina Legnani.

Kschessinska is credited by some as the first dancer to achieve mastery of 32 fouettés. Interestingly, this feat is also attributed to Pierina Legnani.

Kschessinska danced all the major classical ballet roles and performed in Swan Lake in London for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, partnered by Nijinsky. She was a friend (some say mistress) to Nicolas II (who was executed in 1918) and to his cousin the grand duke André. She married André in 1921.

In 1920 she left Russia and moved to Paris. She remained here, teaching many students who went on to dance professionally, such as Tatiana Riabouchinska and Margot Fonteyn. She wrote her autobiography, published in 1960; Dancing in Petersburg: The Memoirs of Kschessinska).

She died in Paris on December 7, 1971.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets

Secret #:

“Mathilde Kschessinska is said to have been the first Russian dancer to master 32 fouettés.”

Link of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2lL0H9DaqE

Quote of the Day:

“Most of life’s big steps require a certain muddling through, a trusting that no one really knows the magical formula for the big firsts in life.”

- Cram, Cusi

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