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Olga Preobrajenska

{{Short description|Russian ballerina (1871–1962)}}

{{About|the Russian ballerina|Russian actress and film director|Olga Preobrazhenskaya (director)}}

{{family name hatnote|Iosifovna|Preobrazhenskaya|lang=Eastern Slavic}}

{{Infobox dancer

| name = Olga Preobrajenskaya

| image = Corsaire -Olga Preobrajenska -1899.jpg

| caption = Preobrajenskaya as the Tsar Maiden in Alexander Gorsky's revival of The Little Humpbacked Horse. St. Petersburg, 1912.

| birth_name = Olga Iosifovna Preobrazhenskaya

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1871|1|21|df=y}}

| birth_place = Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1962|12|27|1871|1|21|df=y}}

| death_place = Paris, France

| occupation = Prima ballerina, ballet teacher

| groups = Russian Imperial Ballet

| spouse =

| awards =

}}

Olga Iosifovna Preobrajenska ({{langx|ru|О́льга Ио́сифовна Преображе́нская}}; born Preobrazhenskaya; {{OldStyleDate|2 February|1871|21 January}} – 27 December 1962) was a Russian ballerina of the Russian Imperial Ballet and a ballet instructor.

Biography

She was born in Saint Petersburg as Olga Preobrazhenskaya (the final syllable of her surname was dropped to shorten her name for professional purposes, and she used the French transliteration, Preobrajenska).

Olga—born frail and with a crooked spine and one hyper-extended knee—was an unlikely prima ballerina. But she had dreams of being a dancer, and for years her parents tried unsuccessfully to get her enrolled in dance school. The selection committee repeatedly rejected her as a candidate. But after three years of trying, her parents succeeded and the eight-year-old Olga entered the Imperial Ballet School in 1879.{{cite news|url=http://www.belcanto.ru/preobrajenska.html |script-title=ru:Ольга Иосифовна Преображенская |trans-title=Olga Iosifovna Preobrazhenskaya |publisher=BelCanto |date=5 April 2011 |access-date=21 March 2015 |language=ru}}

Despite her physical shortcomings, Preobrazhenskaya grew strong with training under Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov and Anna Johansson.{{cite news|url=http://www.ballerinagallery.com/preobraj.htm |title=Olga Preobrazhenskaya |publisher=BallerinaGallery.com |access-date=21 March 2015}} She developed excellent turnout and toe point, though her hunched back remained troublesome. She was naturally expressive, bringing new life to a "hackneyed" repertoire, and exhibited the desired softness and grace of a dancer.{{cite news|url=http://www.russianculture.ru/formb.asp?ID=79&full|script-title=ru:Преображенская Ольга Иосифовна |trans-title=Preobrazhenskaya Olga Iosifovna |publisher=RussianCulture.ru|author=Yuri Bakhrushin |access-date=21 March 2015 |language=ru}}

File:Raymonda -Grand Pas Hongrois -Olga Preobrajeska -1903.jpg, 1903. Preobrajenskaya was the first ballerina to perform the role after its originator, Pierina Legnani, retired in 1901.]]

In addition to her love of dance, Preobrajenskaya had musicality to go with it; she studied singing, performed opera arias, and played the piano masterfully.

In 1892, she made her debut in Kalkabrino, the first of her many performances in Petipa creations, which included Bluebeard (1896), Les Millions d'Arlequin (1900) and Les Saisons (1900). She also performed in Ivanov and Gerdt's Sylvia (1901), Nikolai and Sergei Legat's The Fairy Doll (1903), and Mikhail Fokin's The Night of Terpsichore and Chopiniana (1908).

In 1895, she began to make international appearances, including in Paris, London and the United States. In 1900, she achieved the title of prima ballerina. One of her finer moments as a performer was dancing at Milan's La Scala theatre. She received critical acclaim and audience adoration, no small feat for a Russian ballerina trained in the Italian school.

She then began to pay more attention to ballet instruction; in 1914, she began her teaching career in Saint Petersburg, where her pupils included Alexandra Danilova. In 1921, following the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Union, she emigrated and taught for two years in Milan, London, Buenos Aires and Berlin, then settled in with the large white émigré community in Paris.

For the next several decades, she was one of the most prominent ballet teachers in Paris, instructing Irina Baronova, Tatiana Dokoudovska, Tamara Toumanova and Igor Youskevitch. She retired in 1960; she died two years later, aged 91. She was buried in the Russian Orthodox section of the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery.

Pupils

{{columns-list|colwidth=15em|

}}Pieter van der Sloot

See also

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

External links

{{commons category}}

  • {{find a Grave|8486389}}
  • {{youTube|JDgEB5iK-9o|Footage of her teaching in 1959}}
  • {{youTube|5ePPIIYNlVY|Photo tribute}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Preobrajenska, Olga}}

Category:1871 births

Category:1962 deaths

Category:Dancers from Saint Petersburg

Category:Russian prima ballerinas

Category:Ballerinas from the Russian Empire

Category:Russian ballet teachers

Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France

Category:Burials at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery