Olga Preobrajenska

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Preobrajenska, Olga (b St Petersburg, 2 Feb. 1871, d Saint-Mandé, France, 27 Dec. 1962). Russian-French dancer and teacher. She studied at the Imperial Theatre School in St Petersburg from 1879, where her teachers included Petipa and Ivanov. Later she trained with Cecchetti in St Petersburg. She graduated in 1889 to join the Maryinsky Theatre. She was promoted to soloist in 1896 and prima ballerina in 1990. During her two decades at the Maryinsky she danced all the leading ballerina roles, although she was particularly noted for her Coppélia, Raymonda, Sleeping Beauty, Fille mal gardée, and Don Quixote. She created roles in Petipa's Bluebeard (1896), Harlequinade (1900), and Les Saisons (1900), in Ivanov and Gerdt's Sylvia (1901), N. and S. Legat's The Fairy Doll (1903), and in Fokine's The Night of Terpsichore (1908), Egyptian Nights (1908), and his second version of Chopiniana (1908). From 1895 she began to make guest appearances abroad, in Paris, London, even S. America. Short, stocky and even ‘plain-looking’ as one critic described her, she was also completely charming on stage and was admired for her strong, precise technique and her versatility as a performer. In 1914 she began teaching in St Petersburg, where her students included Danilova and Vaganova. In 1921 she left the Soviet Union and took her teaching career to Milan, London, Buenos Aires, and Berlin, before eventually settling in Paris in 1923. For almost 40 years she was one of the most famous teachers in Paris, working from her studio at the Salle Wacker, and her students included Baronova, Toumanova, and Youskevitch. She retired in 1960.

This article is about ballerina of the Russian Imperial Ballet. For Russian actress and film director, see Olga Preobrazhenskaya (director).

Olga Preobrajenskaya as Anne in the Petipa/Schenck Bluebeard. St. Petersburg, 1896

Olga Iosifovna Preobrajenska (Russian: Ольга Иосифовна Преображенская Ol'ga Iosifovna Preobrazhenskaya) (2 February [O.S. 21 January] 1871 – 27 December 1962) was probably the best loved ballerina of the Russian Imperial Ballet.

She was born in Saint Petersburg as Ol'ga Iosifovna Preobrazhenskaya (the final syllable of her surname was dropped for professional purposes, and she used the French transliteration Preobrajenska). In 1879, she joined the Imperial Ballet School, where her teachers were Nicholas Legat, Enrico Cecchetti, and Christian Johansson. After 10 years of intensive training, she moved to the Mariinsky Theatre, where she would work for the next quarter a century. In 1900, she earned the title prima ballerina.

After the Russian Revolution, Preobrajenska dedicated her life to teaching new generations of dancers, first in Petrograd, then in Paris. Every major mid-20th-century Western dancer visited Preobrajenska for lessons. Tamara Toumanova, Margot Fonteyn and Irina Baronova were among the many ballerinas she coached.

Olga Preobrajenska died in France in 1962 and was interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris.

External links

• The Ballerina Gallery - Olga Preobrajenska

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