Tamara Karsavina

Tamara Karsavina
Tamara Karsavina (c. 1912)
Born	Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (1885-03-10)10 March 1885 St. Petersburg, Russia
Died	26 May 1978(1978-05-26) (aged 93) Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, Britain
Occupation	Ballet dancer

Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (10 March 1885 – 26 May 1978) was a Russian ballerina. She began her career in the Imperial Russian Ballet and later danced with the Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

Karsavina created the title role in The Firebird, the Ballerina in Petrushka, and The Young Girl in Le Spectre de la Rose. After she settled in Hampstead, London, she began teaching ballet professionally. She assisted in setting up The Royal Ballet, and was a founding member of the Royal Academy of Dance. Her pupils included Dame Alicia Markova and Dame Margot Fonteyn. She wrote two books: the autobiography Theatre Street (1930) and the dance textbook Classical Ballet: the flow of movement (1962).

Tamara Karsavina (left) rehearsing Margot Fonteyn for Le Spectre de la Rose

Other websites

• Karsavina: A website with complete information about Karsavina's birth and death.