Matilda Kshesinskaya is already known for the fact that she was the first to perform 32 fuete and completely overshadowed the foreign approx. People like Matilda were called absolute ballerinas. There were only eleven of them all over the world. The name of the talented performer was forgotten at home for many years.
The house where the famous dancer Matilda Kshesinskaya, the “generalissimo of the Russian ballet”, once lived, has become known in history as the “headquarters of the Leninists”.
Origin
Matilda or Malya, as her relatives called her, was born in 1872 in a creative family. The girl's father, Felix, came from the Polish theatrical family of the Krzhezinsky (Kshesinsky is his stage name).
The grandfather of the future prima was a virtuoso violinist, had a wonderful voice and sang at the Warsaw opera. Great-grandfather Wojciech was a famous dancer.
According to family legend, it was the great-grandfather who came from a noble Polish family and had to inherit a huge fortune. Due to intrigues, he lost everything he had and was forced to earn a living dancing in France.
His son became a professional teacher of this art and came to the capital of Russia at the invitation of the emperor himself. There were legends about how Felix performed the mazurka. It is thanks to him that this national dance has become so popular in high society.
Taking the pseudonym Kshesinsky on the stage, Felix has always performed with success. In the theater, he met the ballerina Yulia Dominskaya.
She had five children from a previous marriage to the dancer Lehde. Four more appeared in the family with Felix. Both Joseph and Julia also became virtuoso dancers. The last child was Matilda Maria.
Everyone loved this amazingly charming girl. Her father especially adored. Malya was born in Ligov near St. Petersburg. Felix always took the girl with him to the theater. She was early acquainted with the artistic world and could not imagine another career for herself.
The adult Kshesinskaya Jr. was notable for her love of life and giggle. She attracted everyone's attention. A hard worker, the renowned performer was amazing.
Towards excellence
Nothing was given to her for nothing. Fouette Matilda means hard work, constant improvement of technology, bringing it to the heights of mastery. Legends were made about the performance of Kshesinskaya.
At the age of nine, Malechka made her stage debut in the ballet Don Quixote. By that time, the girl had studied at the school for only a year. She got the solo part at seventeen.
The passion for ballet began after watching the dance of Virginia Zucchi, who had arrived in Russia on tour. The famous dancer has become the idol of Mali.
Kshesinskaya-the second, as the girl was called, to distinguish from Julia's older sister, began to take lessons from Enrico Cecchetti. She has reached such a degree of mastery that she managed to become a real prima.
All foreign performers were off the stage, and the hearts of true connoisseurs of ballet were conquered by the young pearl. At the evening in honor of the completion of the school, Empress Maria Feodorovna immediately singled out a mobile, graceful girl of miniature stature.
She was advantageously different from her friends. At a gala dinner, Malya was seated between Emperor Alexander III and his son Nicholas. From the moment she met the Tsarevich, the life of Kshesinskaya was forever connected with the Romanovs' house.
The famous ballerina did not pay attention to evil tongues: she had wisdom. She calmly accepted Nikolai's wedding, became a friend of his wife.
Matilda left the theater without a scandal after being accused of intrigue and returned triumphantly after proving her innocence to them. At her own expense at the dacha in Strelna, the famous ballerina maintained two infirmaries for the wounded. Having lost all her wealth after the revolution, Kshesinskaya regretted only the alcohol-based rose, presented to her by Virginia Zucchi, her idol.
Difficult time
Often, performances staged at the Mariinsky were financed with Matilda's money. She paid for the scenery, costumes. The prima left the theater, tired of the constant gossip behind the scenes. The romance with the future heir to the throne lasted only a year. However, after its completion, the prima found a forever loyal admirer and knight in the person of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich. Until the last moment, before parting, he made her proposals.
His love closed even the wicked mouths. Matilda fell in love with another Romanov, Andrei Vladimirovich, also the Grand Duke. He became the father of her son. The boy immediately received the nobility and became Krasinsky in memory of his distant ancestor. Sergei Mikhailovich took care of this.
The Grand Duke helped the ballerina to leave revolutionary Petrograd. He himself did not manage to leave. He died along with the royal family. At one time, it was he who gave the beloved Malechka the legendary mansion, wishing to give her a special status in high society.
Alexander von Gauguin, who designed the building, was awarded a silver medal for the construction of an architectural gem. Rumor attributed many scandalous novels to Matilda Feliksovna.
Whatever it was, but she married a loved one, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, great-grandson of Alexander II. The wedding took place in Paris after the death of the mother of the future spouse. Maria Pavlovna categorically objected to unequal marriage.
The son of Kshesinskaya and Andrei Romanov, Vladimir, whom his mother herself jokingly called "All Russia Vova", became Andreevich. The family lived happily ever after.
Life in exile
Matilda took care of the family. After moving to Paris in 1929, she founded a ballet studio that became very popular very quickly. Her name still thundered.
Without advertising, the number of schoolgirls reached one and a half hundred by 1939. Among them were both Shalyapin's daughters and Tatyana Ryabushinskaya. The last performance was "Russian", performed in London at Covent Garden in 1936.
The Second World War became an ordeal for the performer. In 1940, her only son was arrested. Kshesinskaya has always been an outstanding person. The ballerina was not afraid to help her beloved son out of the Gestapo during the occupation of France by the Germans.
Kshesinskaya continued to work about ripe old age. In 1951 she was invited to a meeting of the Federation of Classical Russian Ballet. The great ballerina was offered to give lessons to preserve the main canons of classical Russian dance and to teach using the methodology developed in the imperial ballet schools.
Matilda gladly responded to the offer. In exile, the Parisian ballerina's house became the center of attraction. It was attended by Chaliapin, Karsavina, Diaghilev. Kshesinskaya had an amazing gift. She possessed an incredible dramatic and mimicry talent that made all ballet roles unique.
Last years
As it turned out later, Matilda Feliksovna was not deprived of her writing skills. She became the author of the book “Matilda Kshesinskaya. Memories.
This strong woman began to write it after the death of her beloved husband in 1956, a serious fracture, being forced to remain motionless. The work turned out to be invaluable in itself, because its author was a historical person.
The memoirs were written in good language, in an excellent style. They are very interesting to read and remain popular to this day.
One of the most memorable Kshesinskaya events in her biography was a tour of the Bolshoi Theater in Paris in 1958. In her memoirs, she wrote that she had broken the seclusion in which she had stayed after the death of her husband and went to the Opera.
What he saw did not disappoint the great prima: the national ballet remained just as beautiful. The great actress and ballerina lived a long and interesting life.
Longevity was in her family. The legendary dancer did not live to see her centenary for nine months. The mega-star of the ballet, Grand Duchess Romanovskaya-Krasinskaya, Honored Artist of the Imperial Theaters, Kshesinskaya Matilda Feliksovna, left in 1971.
