Karsavina, Tamara

Karsavina, Tamara (təmä`rə Kərsä`vyĭnə), 1885–1978, Russian prima ballerina. Karsavina was trained in the Imperial Theatre School and the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, making her debut at the latter in 1902. At its inception in 1909 she joined the Diaghilev Balles Russes in Paris and was considered the greatest ballerina to perform with the company. Partner to Nijinsky, she created principal roles in many works, including Les Sylphides, Petrouchka, Firebird, Le Spectre de la rose, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Three-Cornered Hat. She danced with the company until 1929 and was a leading exponent of Michael Fokine's dance theories. In the 1940s she coached the Sadler's Wells company. Her books include her reminiscences, Theatre Street (1931, 2d ed. 1981), Classical Ballet: The Flow of Movement (1962), and Ballet Technique (1968).

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Karsavina, Tamara (Platonovna)

(born March 9/10, 1885, St. Petersburg, Russia—died May 26, 1978, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, Eng.) Russian-born British dancer. She trained at the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg and joined the Mariinsky Theatre company in 1902. She joined the Ballets Russes at its formation in 1909; dancing with Vaslav Nijinsky until 1913, she created most of the leading roles in Michel Fokine's neo-Romantic repertoire, including Les Sylphides, Carnaval, Le Spectre de la rose, and The Firebird. She settled in London, where she helped found the Royal Academy of Dancing in 1920 and the Camargo Society in 1930 and later coached Margot Fonteyn.

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Karsavina, Tamara Platonovna 

Born Feb 25 (Mar. 9), 1885, in St. Petersburg. Russian ballerina. Sister of L. P. Karsavin.

Tamara Karsavina graduated from P. A. Gerdt’s class at the St. Petersburg Theatrical School in 1902. That same year she became a dancer at the Mariinskii Theater (St. Petersburg), where she was prima ballerina from 1912 to 1918. She was M. Fokine’s partner and the principal performer in the ballets he staged. Her roles in these ballets included the title role in Shcher-bachev’s Eunice, Madeleine in N. N. Cherepnin’s Pavilion d’Armide, and Columbine in Le Carnival to music by Schumann. She danced the leading roles in ballets by P. I. Tchaikovsky, A. K. Glazunov, A. Adam, and L. Minkus.

Karsavina’s refined artistry reflected the influence of impressionism on the Russian academic school of dance. Her dancing was characterized by subtle changes of lyrical moods and an accentuated plasticity. Her subtle stylizations in the commedia dell’arte ballets brought her praise (Columbine in Drigo’s Harlequinade). Karsavina danced in the Russian Seasons Abroad between 1909 and 1929 and with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. She was the first to perform the leading roles in Fokine’s stagings of Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Petrouchka, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe. She also danced with V. Nijinsky.

Karsavina left Russia in 1918 and in 1930 appeared with the Ballet Rambert. From 1930 to 1955 she was vice president of the Royal Academy of Dance in London. She is the author of a book on choreography.

WORKS

Theatre Street. London [1930].
Ballet Technique. New York [1968].

REFERENCES

Svetlov, V. “T. P. Karsavina.” Russkii balet. St. Petersburg, 1913, pp. 13–16.
Benois, A. Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet. London, 1941.
Lifar, S. Les Trois Grâces du XX siècle. Paris, 1957.
Sokolova, L. Dancing for Diaghilev. London, 1960.

V. M. KRASOVSKAIA