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Tamara Karsavina: Diaghilev's Ballerina

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Beautifully produced and containing a wealth of information, this is a must-have for anyone interested in the great Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina, the history of the Russian Imperial Ballet and/or Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. There are hundreds of photographs and the quality and clarity of the images is astonishing.

This book is readily available from Amazon's UK site. International shipping to the US is approximately ten dollars.

Jane Pritchard, Curator of Dance at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, recently reviewed this book for the dance website ballet.co.uk.

Excerpts from her review:

"Written and published by Andrew Foster who has been passionate about the ballerina for the past thirty years and compiled a vast collection of material on her, Tamara Karsavina: Diaghilev's Ballerina is an important and delightful book. Photographs of great dancers help us to understand their appeal in performance and Foster has the great advantage that his ballerina was not only a great dancer but one of the great beauties of the stage.

Karsavina's career has been documented - up to a point. ... What has been needed for some time is a book that fulfilled a similar role to John and Roberta Lazzarini's Pavlova: Repertoire of a Legend (1980). At last we have it and, as with the Lazzarini's volume, the emphasis is on the photographs but these are supported by serious research that adds to our knowledge of the careers of the ballerinas.

After outlining the family background, Foster's book follows Karsavina's career from her graduation performance in 1902, when she danced in the `Kingdom of Ice' scene from The Spark of Love, through to her return to Diaghilev's Ballets Russes for the 1919/20 season.

The arrangement of the book is such that the shape of Karsavina's career is evident. In her early seasons she received mixed reviews although she was recognised as a promising dancer. She was sometimes praised but at other times received lukewarm reviews. ... Foster shows how when she began to appear abroad it gave her confidence, and how the role of Medora in Le Corsaire, which enabled her to act as well as dance, really promoted her to the forefront of the company at the Maryinsky.

What comes through very clearly is that after 1909 Karsavina has two parallel careers. Her anchor is with the Imperial Ballet but she is also in great demand for seasons in Prague, London and with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

Foster's book takes a chronological approach but intersperses his chapters with features on ballets which included important roles for Karsavina and for which there is an abundance of photographs. With some of these ballets the photographs are taken over a period of a decade but Foster has carefully researched each image, identified the photographer and date, adding considerably to our knowledge of the ballets discussed.

One of the very useful features of his chapter on The Firebird is his evidence that the famous photograph of the rehearsal at the Catherine Hall, St Petersburg, by Aleksandrov was taken in April 1910 (not 1909 as has often been stated) and shows a rehearsal of Firebird. There is also a charming series of photographs posing in costume in the studio of the Berlin studio of Georg Kolbe - as Karsavina reclines on a sofa one gets an impression of how she may have looked in flight at the first performances.

For Le Pavillon d'Armide and Le Carnaval Foster unravels the St Petersburg productions from those for the Ballets Russes. The Giselle chapter looks at Karsavina taking over `peasant' pas de deux with Mikhail Fokine during the 1902/03 season when Pavlova took over Giselle. He then examines her appearances in the title role; first in Prague in 1908, then with the Ballets Russes from 1910; and finally at the Maryinsky through to 1918. The studies of Le Spectre de la rose and Les Sylphides combine familiar photographs with others that are new - Les Sylphides of course also includes some superb Chopiniana images.

The book includes a selection of the off-stage photographs - both posed in fashionable outfits and in informal situations such as at the home of Botkin and returning home to St Petersburg in 1912. This last is one that shows her with her first husband, Vasili Mukhin. Foster deals tactfully with her private life - the rejection of Fokine and its consequences, and her marriage apparently set up by her family to Mukhin who was considered far more suitable than the young dancer/choreographer. He also records her affair with Henry Bruce, the birth of their son Nikita and subsequent marriage.

Foster's research on the photographs is impressive. ... Many chapters are introduced by a colour image - designs by Léon Bakst for the Torch Dance, The Firebird, and Echo in Narcisse; by Alexander Shervashidze for Nerilya in Le Talisman, and Doubujinsky's tunic for Karsavina as a Nymph in Midas later re-worked for Sylvia and his costume for Lise in La Fille mal gardée. Then there is a colour photograph of Armida by the Dover Studios in 1911, and also from 1911 the famous posters for the first season of the Ballet Russe [sic] at Monte Carlo showing Jean Cocteau's Spectre illustrations. For Le Carnaval Randolph Schwabe's illustration of Columbine is used. The colour images are well chosen and just lift the book.

It is a great delight to see whole series of photographs of Karsavina in certain roles. Foster points out that Karsavina was often photographed in roles with interesting costumes rather than her greatest roles, but this rather adds to our knowledge of her performances. In this book I was particularly excited by the series showing her as one of the Khan's slave in La Source; in subtle travesty costumes as Medora for her solo of `Little Corsair' and Cupid as a page in Fiametta; in her sari as Nerilya in The Talisman; and from her later career as Lise in Fille."

October 2010

JANE PRITCHARD curated the V&A's major 2010 exhibition:

Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes

The first reviewer already gave more and better information about the content than I can so here I just wanted to suggest you to order from Amazon UK because Amazon US does not have it and the independent seller(s) are asking way more than what it would cost (including overseas) shipping if you ordered from the UK.

My raw impression: at first glance it looks like a "coffee table" book due its size and many photos. Ah the photos! The quality of the pictures (given that they are 100 years old) is amazing. But the text shows a superb historic work, so this is NOT a "coffe table" book!

I just read the first 5 pages and can't stop reading. Already one of my favorite ballet books together with: Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet, Balanchine: A Biography: With a New Epilogue,Costumes By Karinska, Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal, with a new preface, and Holding On to the Air: An Autobiography.

$67.47 including shipping at AmazonUK.This book I can't wait to get.It isn't available anywhere except through sellers.I just finished Theatre Street:The Reminises of Tamara Karsavina which is one of the best ballet books I ever read.It goes through her life and career up to her fleeing to London because of the war.Pick up both these books.You won't regret it.This book is loaded with photos.Buy it from AmazonUK.at the above listed price.