Tamara Karsavina a la maison in 1921

This is footage I'm re-posting because I've tided it up somewhat.

It is of Mariinsky Theatre and Balletss Russes Prima Ballerina Absoluta Tamara Karsavina (1885-1978).

It was taken at her home in 1921 and shows her arranging the interior of a doll's house, selecting materials to be made into clothing, reading a letter indoors, exercising and dancing in the garden and, finally, leaving to perform at the Coliseum Theatre in London.

I've introduced the video with some photographs of this great artist - including one of her teaching Margot Fonteyn her old role in Mikhail Fokine's 1911 'Le spectre de la rose'.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Tamara Karsavina
• Ballets Russes
• Mariinsky Theatre
• ballet
• Diaghilev

[tatyvelas]

sorry, I have a question: tamara karsavina was really absoluta? because I was searching in wikipedia the list of ballerinas absolutas and her name is not there. Can you solve my doubt?. Thank you

[nickwallacesmith]

hi tatyvelas - good to hear from you. i think she was absoluta in the sense of being the great diaghilev ballets russes ballerina rather than being given this title in a long established large company based in a particular location, like the paris opera or the mariinsky theatre, best, nick

[tatyvelas]

@nickwallacesmith ok, thank you for your answer

[nickwallacesmith]

hi tatyvelas - happy to reply - maybe someone else will have something to say about the issue, nick

[ggeeooeellee]

it seens me strange to excersise in the garden but i understand that she must was very kind from her face

[nickwallacesmith]

hi ggeeooeellee - i think exercising in the garden was just a response to the film cameras rolling - don't expect she did it as a usual thing, don't you think? nick

[HelgaMaq]

@tatyvelas Of course, she was - like Anna Pavlova and Olga Spesivtseva. In Mariinsky she danced the main roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, la Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty, Corsaire... They say that her tecnique was not so strong , but her individuality, unusual east beauty, expression were unforgetable. In Russia of 1900s she was a symbol of Art; poets like Kuzmin, Gumilev,Akhmatova devoted her their rhimes...

[nickwallacesmith]

@deritpeehs - si interesting to see the great ballerina off stage at home - you get the tiniest sense of her as a person, even through the artifice of a film shoot

[deritpeehs]

what a privileged life- sort of....