Tamara Karsavina: photo, biography and personal life of the Russian ballerina

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Karsavina Tamara Platonovna is a famous Russian ballerina, a famous dancer of the Diaghilev ballet. During her long life, she experienced many worries and anxieties, difficulties and trials, but she was forever remembered by the grateful audience as a talented performer of complex and intricate tricks.

Tamara Karsavina (years of life 1888 - 1978) created more than a dozen bright, unforgettable images on stage, talentedly conveying the emotions, feelings and sensations of her characters with dance.

What is remarkable about this dancer? What is her creative activity and personal life? You will find answers to these and many other questions in this article. There will also be photos of Tamara Karsavina on stage and in everyday life.

Talented parent

The biography of Tamara Karsavina originates in Tsarist St. Petersburg, where the future famous ballerina was born in the spring of 1885, in the family of a talented dancer Platon Karsavin, who served in the Imperial Theater. Father, possessing a virtuoso technique for performing jumps and pirouettes, did notan outstanding artist, but nevertheless, after retiring, he exercised his right to become a hereditary honorary citizen of the Russian Empire.

It happened six years after the birth of Tamara. However, having stopped performing, the father did not leave the stage. For some time he taught ballet at the theater school in St. Petersburg.

According to Tamara Karsavina's memoirs "Teatralnaya Street", the family did not live well, often experiencing material difficulties. Because of this, the parents of the future ballerina were often forced to change their place of residence in search of a cheaper and better apartment.

But, despite all life's difficulties and problems, the father was the real head of the family. He introduced children to art, instilled in them a love of dance and music, encouraged them to pay attention to their creative potential.

Another recollection of Tamara Karsavina about her father's influence on her life is connected with her parents' library, which she read from the age of six. The complete works of Pushkin, Lermontov and other classics have become real guides for the subtle and sensual soul of the future ballerina Tamara Karsavina. The poetry and prose of these literary geniuses taught life and provided much material for reflection.

The understanding, early mature soul of the girl was deeply imbued with the ideals of classical works, she sensitively perceived their essence and their meaning.

Strict mother

The mother of the future ballerina Tamara Karsavina, Anna Iosifovna Khomyakova, was a rather strict but loving parent. She never spoiled children, she tried to instill in themmoral and spiritual norms, but at the same time, the woman was sensitive and attentive to her kids. They always knew that mom would forgive everything, that mom would understand everything.

Children grew up, and Anna Iosifovna tried to help them choose their own path in life. She developed the talents of her son and daughter, providing the necessary opportunities and means for this.

Very soon the woman noticed that Tamarochka loves to dance, that she is good at some pirouettes. Then Anna Iosifovna decided to send the baby to a ballet school in order to develop her natural talents and inclinations.

Controversial issue

Watching his daughter's dance technique, her father also saw extraordinary abilities in her. There was something in the girl's dance that made me wonder and admire at the same time. It wasn't tenderness or smoothness. There was no expressionism or intensity inherent in some in Tamara's performance. No. However, the girl conveyed the emotions of music in such a peculiar, original way that it was simply impossible to reject her talent and innate skill.

And yet the father did not want to see his daughter as a ballerina. He knew too much about the profession, had been behind the scenes too often to let his own child fall into this hornet's nest.

He saw the character of his heiress and considered her a modest and vulnerable young lady, unable to resist the terrible intrigues and harsh treatment of the theater group.

However, the mother, seeing the talent of her favorite and her ardent desireto dance, insisted that the girl try to pass the exams in the ballet school. What came of it?

Training

Tamara Karsavina got into ballet at the age of ten, when she impressed the admission committee of the Imperial Theater School with her dancing abilities. She was accepted despite great competition and limited vacancies.

Yes, and it could not be otherwise. The girl was distinguished by pleasant manners, prepossessing good looks and suitable height. Karsavina Tamara, both in childhood and in adulthood, did not differ either in a too large article, or in an unnecessarily fragile figure. Graceful, plastic and flexible, she seemed like a real little princess.

In an educational institution, Tamara Karsavina was able to overcome her natural shyness and become more relaxed and more artistic. In addition, thanks to her perseverance and constant training, she was able to reach the required heights in the manner of performance. Now her dance compositions were characterized by noble grace and jewelry precision, so necessary for every ballerina.

What was behind such progress? As the dancer herself admits, she worked hard and inexorably, torturing herself with additional workouts in the evenings and weekends. And the result was worth it.

First steps on the big stage

Immediately after graduating from college (which happened in 1902), Tamara Karsavina was accepted into one of the ballet troupes of the Mariinsky Theater, where Matilda Kshesinskaya, a prima ballerina and dance teacher, immediately began to sympathize with her. However, anothertalented performer - Anna Pavlova, disliked the young dancer. As Tamara Karsavina repeatedly wrote in her memoirs, Anna Pavlovna humiliated her several times in front of everyone and tried to ridicule or insult her. Perhaps the older Pavlova saw her rival and competitor in the aspiring artist.

One of the first performances of Tamara Karsavina on the big stage of the Mariinsky Theater were solo, single performances. However, later the aspiring ballerina confidently declared herself as a professional talented dancer.

To a greater extent, this was facilitated by her acquaintance with the main dancer of the theater, Mikhail Fokin, who boldly tried himself in the image of a choreographer. In his first productions, Mikhail Mikhailovich involved Anna Pavlova, but later he began to invite the younger and more plastic Karsavina to lead roles. Since then, the direction in the work of Tamara Karsavina was determined - she became a real prima ballet.

In less than a year, the girl shone on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, performing central roles in the famous classical ballets Giselle, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and others.

However, later a bitter disappointment awaited her - Tamara was diagnosed with malaria. For treatment, the girl went with her mother to Italy, where she fully recovered and was able to take lessons from the famous Katharina Beretta. Returning to St. Petersburg, she began to dance even better and better, more fans and offers appeared. The royal family notedperformance and sent her her thank you gifts.

Tour Europe

In 1909, Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev founded a ballet enterprise, in which Karsavina was to play a second role after Pavlova. However, Anna Pavlovna, for some unknown reason, quarreled with the head of the troupe and left her. Thus, Karsavina Tamara Platonovna took the central place in all productions.

She has had a chance to play magnificent roles, perform on the famous stages of musical Europe, win the awe of the public and the approval of critics.

Some brilliant performances from a talented ballerina

Among the most outstanding performances of that period, one should mention the one-act pantomime ballet Carnival, first staged by Diaghilev in his Russian Seasons in the spring of 1910. Initially, the show was held in Berlin, then the success was repeated in Paris and St. Petersburg.

The ballet was staged in just three days of rehearsals and meant the performance of artists not only on stage, but also in the auditorium. Such an innovative approach was unusual and original, and brought success not only to Karsavina, but to the entire Russian troupe.

Performing the part of Colombina, Tamara Platonovna, dressed as a heroine of Italian comedies, looked charming, and her jewelry pirouettes were subtly combined with some sharpness in her movements. Karsavina's partners in the role of Harlequin were Leonid Leontiev, Vatslav Nijinsky and Mikhail Fokin in turn.

It is also necessary to remember the one-actballet The Firebird, written by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and designed by outstanding artists and decorators Alexander Golovin and Leon Bakst. The production premiered at the Paris Grand Opera in the summer of 1910.

The ballet, based on Russian folk tales about the firebird, was an original fusion of rhythm and tenderness, seething emotions and hidden joy. The young composer, worried about his brainchild, was present at all rehearsals, helping Tamara and her partner Mikhail Fokin to realize the fusion of sounds and correctly convey them in their grotesque dance.

The success of the ballet, like that of Karsavina, was impressive. Many compared it to a tongue of flame, burning with its rhythmic movements and caressing with its grace and tenderness of execution.

Watching the artist dance, the audience was delighted, freezing from her unexpected jumps and pirouettes. The admiration of the audience was manifested in long applause and silent adoration that accompanied the young prima wherever she went.

The following year, Tamara Karsavina performed in Mikhail Fokine's one-act ballet The Phantom of the Rose or (The Vision of the Rose), set to music by Carl von Weber and lyrics by Theophile Gauthier. The show premiered at the Monte Carlo Opera in the spring of 1911.

The plot of the ballet was an interweaving of the memories of a girl who had just returned from her first ball, and her dreams. She remembers her boyfriends and dreams of the only one with whom she will bedance comfortably and calmly all your life. However, with the first rays of the sun, the dance of the young lovers breaks off, the ghost of the rose begins to melt, and the girl wakes up.

The leading roles in the production were played by Vaclav Nijinsky (Phantom of the Rose) and Tamara Karsavina (Girl). They looked so harmonious (not only in this ballet, but also in many other productions) that they went down in history as one of the best ballet couples of that time. Young artists subtly felt not only the musical rhythm, but also each other, which helped them to work harmoniously and fruitfully in the future on numerous joint duets.

Their next successful joint performance was the ballet in four scenes "Petrushka", where young people played the roles of Petrushka and the Ballerina.

The premiere of the production took place in the summer of 1911 in the Paris Chatelet, it was a story of a puppet character in which life woke up and emotions appeared.

The bright and extraordinary talent of young performers manifested itself as never before in the lively and rhythmic music of the ballet.

Personal life at its peak

The success of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes was phenomenal. The more popular the troupe itself became, the more famous and in demand its artists became. The success of Tamara Karsavina was simply amazing. She impressed everyone not only with her plasticity, beauty and artistry, but with a rich inner world, erudition, education. Thanks to this, the girl has a lot of fans who want to give her not only their hand, but alsoheart.

One of them was the promising officer Karl Mannerheim, the court physician Sergei Botkin and even the choreographer Fokin. However, the artist chose a completely different person as her husband - a poor and complaisant aristocrat Vasily Mukhin, who loves the art of music and the dancer herself.

However, this union lasted only a few years. In 1913, Tamara Karsavina's personal life changed dramatically. Prima met Henry Bruce, the British ambassador to the Russian Empire. The man was so inflamed with passion for the artist that he decided to take her away from the family to his homeland, where they signed in 1917. Soon the young woman gave birth to a son.

Naturally, pregnancy and childbirth affected the dancer's career. She stepped off the stage for a while to take on the most important role of motherhood.

Life abroad

However, Tamara Karsavina was not going to leave the stage. She still shone in Diaghilev's ballets, touring with the troupe throughout Europe and even America.

The most successful post-war performance of a young woman can be called Leonid Myasin's ballet "The Three-Cornered Hat", designed by Pablo Picasso and first staged at the London Alhambra in 1917. The piece was later shown again in 1920 in Paris and Monte Carlo.

Ballet was a harmonious combination of classical and folk dances. Written in the style of Spanish folklore, it consisted of several central numbers linked to each other by pantomime scenes.

The plot was simple and uncomplicated -Melnik (Leonid Myasin) and his Wife (Tamara Karsavina) live in love and harmony, but the Governor (Leonid Vuytsikovsky) tries to seduce the woman, which leads him to ridicule.

Other activities

Without leaving the ballet, the young woman simultaneously performed in the English dance ensemble Balle Rambert and performed solo compositions at La Scala.

In addition to dancing, the Russian ballerina was engaged in teaching. For example, starting in 1930, she served for twenty years as vice president of the British Academy of Dance, where she developed a new technique for recording dance movements.

In the 1920s, the artist participated in the filming of several German and British films, for example, “The Way to Strength and Beauty”. True, she got minor, one might even say episodic roles, but still she was involved in the art world and in demand. And that was the most important thing for her.

Life with husband

According to numerous responses, Tamara Karsavina lived with her husband, a diplomat soul to soul. Henry Bruce was a very polite and gentle man who adored his wife and admired her unimaginable talent.

However, as other sources say, not everything was smooth in this union. For example, for a long time there were rumors about a romantic relationship between the American poetess of Spanish origin Mercedes de Acosta and the heroine of our article. It is worth mentioning that Mercedes de Acosta is more famous not for itsliterary works, but bright and long lesbian novels with Hollywood movie stars. Whether the rumors about her connections with Tamara Platonovna are reliable or whether it is a figment of the imagination of journalists and paparazzi is not known for certain. However, the question of Tamara Karsavina's sexual orientation is still open.

A famous dancer in London has died at the age of ninety-three.