Mathilde Kschessinska (1872–1971). Russian prima ballerina assoluta and teacher

Mathilde Kschessinska was born in Ligova, Russia, in 1872. She studied ballet at the Imperial Ballet School under Christian Johansson and Enrico Cecchetti and graduated into the Russian Imperial Ballet at the Maryinsky Theater in 1890. By 1895 she was prima ballerina, dancing the full range of the Maryinsky repertoire. Kschessinska appeared as a guest artist abroad and was partnered by Vaslav Nijinsky in Serge Diaghilev’s staging of Swan Lake for the Ballets Russes in London in 1911. Much favored in Imperial Russia, Kschessinska is famous for being the mistress the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II , when he was heir to the throne, and in 1921 she married his cousin, the Grand Duke André, after they had left Russia. Her close connections with the Imperial family meant Kschessinska exerted considerable influence on the directors of the Imperial Ballet, including the allocation of roles. For example, for many years Kschessinska was the only ballerina allowed to perform the title role in La Esmeralda, a role she guarded jealously.

After the Russian revolution, Kschessinska lived and worked in Paris, opening her studio in 1929. She had a multitude of students and influenced generations of great dancers. She remained both a force of nature; a lesson for gracious tenaciousness and a monument of one of the greatest periods of Russian ballet history. Mathilde Kschessinska died in 1971.