Olga Spesivtseva

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Olga Alexandrovna Spessivtseva (July 18, 1895—September 16, 1991) was a Russian ballerina whose brilliant stage career spanned from 1913 to 1939. She is widely considered to have been one of the outstanding classical ballerinas of the 20th century.

Olga Spessivtseva was born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. She entered St. Petersburg's Imperial Ballet Academy in 1906 where she was a student first of Klavdia Kulichevskaya and later of Yevgenia Sokolova and Agrippina Vaganova. After graduating in 1913, she joined the Mariinsky Theater, where she was promoted to soloist in 1916. An exquisite romantic dancer with perfect technique, ideally suited for roles such as Giselle and Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, she quickly became one of the most admired dancers in the company.

In 1916, Diaghilev invited her to tour with the Ballets Russes in the United States, where she danced with Nijinsky in Le Spectre de la Rose, Les Sylphides and the Bluebird pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty. In 1918 she returned to the Mariinsky, renamed the Petrograd Opera and Ballet Theater, and was promoted to ballerina. She continued to perform with the Ballets Russes abroad, dancing Aurora in Diaghilev's renowned The Sleeping Princess in London in 1921, and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1923. She left Russia for the last time in 1924, accepting an invitation to dance as an étoile (prima ballerina) at the Paris Opera Ballet, where she remained until 1932. During that time, she maintained her relationship with the Ballets Russes. In 1932 she made another historical guest appearance in London, dancing Giselle with Anton Dolin. From 1932 to 1937 she toured with a number of companies throughout the world, performing roles from both the classical repertoire and contemporary ballets by choreographers such as Michel Fokine and Bronislava Nijinska. When dancing abroad, she was frequently billed as Olga Spessiva.

Spessivtseva had experienced periods of depression as early as 1934, and in 1937 she left the stage due to a nervous breakdown. She did some teaching, then briefly returned to performing, making her farewell appearance at the Teatro Colon in 1939. That same year, she moved to the United States where she taught and served as an advisor to the Ballet Theatre Foundation. She suffered another nervous breakdown in 1943, for which she was hospitalized. She remained institutionalized until 1963 when, with the help of her friends Anton Dolin, Felia Doubrovska and Dale Fern, she was discharged and settled in the Tolstoy Farm, a Russian community run by the Tolstoy Foundation in Valley Cottage, New York. Recovered, she lived there in peaceful retirement for nearly three decades, dying at the age of 96.

An immaculate stylist possessing fine classical technique, long slender limbs, a beautiful face and an air of spiritual purity, she was the ideal incarnation of the romantic heroines she portrayed on stage, particularly the title role in Giselle. In 1998, Russian choreographer Boris Eifman made her the heroine of his ballet Red Giselle. Today, she is remembered as one of the greatest classical dancers of all time.

[edit] References

Craine, Debra and Mackrell, Judith. The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-860106-9.
The Great History of Russian Ballet: Its Art and Choreography. Bournemouth, England: Parkstone Publisher; The Great Encyclopedia of Russia Publishing House, 1998. ISBN 1-85995-175-9.
Kahane, Martine (text) and Wild, Nicole (images), Les Ballets Russes à l’Opéra. Paris: Editions Hazan, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1992. ISBN 2-850-25-249-2.
Koegler, Horst. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet. Second Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-19-311330-9.
LeMoal, Philippe. Larousse Dictionnaire de la Danse. Paris: Larousse, Librairie de la Danse, 1999. ISBN 2-03-511318-0.
Dolin, Anton. "The Sleeping Balllerina" Muller, London, 1966