Throwback
Thursday and Mathilda-Marie
Feliksovna Kschessinskaya
Mathilda-Marie Feliksova Kschessinskay was born on the 31st
of August 1872. She was the second person to receive the title of Prima
Ballerina Assoluta. However, the first ballerina to have this title was Pierina
Legnani, and she believed that Kschessinskay wasn’t worthy to hold such a high
honor. Legnani claimed that the only reason she received the title was due to
politics: her influence with Tsar Nicolas, with whom she had a romantic
relationship.
Apparently Marius Petipa felt the same way, and although Petipa
had a great respect for Kschessinskaya as a dancer, he referred to her in his
diaries as " ... that nasty little swine."
This rivalry with Legnani wasn’t Kschessinskaya's only one. She also sparred with ballerina Olga Prebrajenska and tried to sabotage her performance one night by letting live chicken's loose onstage.
Later in life, Kschessinskaya seems to have put such escapages aside. She moved to Paris after the Russian Revolution and began to teach. She coached two dancer who were destined for stardom: Alicia Markova and Margot Fonteyn.
She died just shy of her 100th birthday
on December 6, 1971.
From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Secret #:
“Mathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya
may have been Russia’s most notorious ballerina.”
Link of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
“Never waste a minute thinking about
people you don't like.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower
― Dwight D. Eisenhower
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