2 3 Throwback Thursday and the Mystery of Matilda Kshesinskaya | Ballet Webb

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Throwback Thursday and the Mystery of Matilda Kshesinskaya



Throwback Thursday and the Mystery of Matilda Kshesinskaya

Born in Russia on August 31, 1872, Matilda Kshesinskaya was the first Russian dancer to master 32 fouettés (previously performed by Italian dancers). She studied with Johansson and Cecchetti at the imperial Ballet School In St. Petersburg. She joined the Maryinsky Theatre when she graduated in 1890.

In 1895 she became Prima Ballerina Assoluta, a title awarded to only one other dancer at the time, Italian ballerina Pierina Legnani (who is said to have originated the 32 fouettés).

But the mystery surrounding Kshesinskaya is a romantic one. She was involved with Nicolas II, of the ill-fated Romanov family. She fell in love with Nicolas, and he called her “Little K”.

In 1892 Kshesinskaya wrote this in her diary (after Nicolas contacted her about wanting to have her photo): “I cannot describe what happened to me when I had arrived home. I could not eat and ran away to my room; I was crying and my heart hurt so much. For the first time I felt that this was not just an infatuation, as I thought of it before, but that I love the Crown Prince madly and deeply and that I never shall be able to forget him.”  Soon she moved out of her parent’s house and into a new mansion that Nicolas bought for her.

The mystery surrounds a newborn baby (named Celina), the child of Matilde’s brother Joseph. But some believe Celina’s parents are actually Matilde and Nicholas and that she was adopted by Joseph to prevent a scandal, (since Nicolas was married at the time). If this is true, Celina would be the only offspring of the last Russian emperor to survive the Revolution.

Is this story true? Many do not think so, but a quote in Nicholas’ diary says: “A very strange phenomenon that I notice in myself: I have never thought that two identical feelings, two loves at the same time, can be compatible within one soul.”


From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Factoid #125:
“Ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya was involved with the famous Romanov family.”

Link of the Day:

Quote of the Day:
“I am not yet ready to be Tsar. I know nothing of the business of ruling.”
- Nicholas II of Russia

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