Olga Spessivtzeva 1959 / Ольга Спесивцева 1959

The legendary Russian ballerina Olga Spessivtzeva (1895-1991) in video clips taken from the Russian two series documentary "Божественная Жизель" (1997) about the life of this unique ballerina. The b/w sequences are originally from the British documentary "The Sleeping Ballerina" (BBC1959) about Olga Spessivtzeva, whose brilliant stage career spanned from 1913 to 1939. She was one of the outstanding classical ballerinas of the 20th century. She was the Aurora of Diaghilevs production of The Sleeping Princess. Her carreer was abruptly interrupted by mental illness. As legend has it, she lost her memory on-stage performing the mad scene in "Giselle." In 1940 she was taken to a psychiatric hospital where she remained for 22 years.
Ольга Спесивцева из фильма "Божественная Жизель" (1997).

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• olga
• spessivtzeva
• russian
• ballerina
• Ольга
• Спесивцева
• балерина
• русский
• балет
• жизель
• Giselle

[deritpeehs]

true brilliance and genius like hers often becomes like a target..... yes, and she also managed to survive through some unfortunate and "dark" times.....

[ditogam]

What a sad story ... like Nijinsky. Thank you very much for posting interesting documentary about legendary ballerina and Kievest for sending to me

[Kievest]

Thank you for posting this rare and precious footage about this elusive and

titanic balletic legend! Your archiving is fabulous and your spirit very generous!

[Neptunekid]

I have been trying to get info on Olga for years to write a book about her....but had to give up as there was so little info. on her (apart from Dolin's book) as she was virtually forgotten for decades. Thismust be a very rare documentary!

[goldenidol]

Thank you for posting this. When I first heard about this, I searched for it like mad.  YouTube is a miracle!

[estnyc]

Wow. How lovely and sad.

[estnyc]

Wow. How lovely and sad.

[galya51]

Tremendous! Please, there must be more!!!

[MrGr4]

Thanks a lot for posting this documentary!

[katerinavander]

Lovely and heartbreaking - a unique artist.