Tamara Karsavina

Tamara Karsavina
Tamara Karsavina (c. 1912)
Born	Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (1885-03-10)10 March 1885 St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	26 May 1978(1978-05-26) (aged 93) Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
Occupation	Ballet dancer
Spouse(s)	Vasili Vasilievich Mukhin (m. 1907; div. 1917) Henry James Bruce (m. 1918)
Children	1

Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (Russian: Тама́ра Плато́новна Карса́вина, 10 March 1885 – 26 May 1978) was a Russian prima ballerina, renowned for her beauty, who was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and later of the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev. After settling in Britain at Hampstead in London, she began teaching ballet professionally and became recognised as one of the founders of modern British ballet. She assisted in the establishment of The Royal Ballet and was a founder member of the Royal Academy of Dance, which is now the world's largest dance-teaching organisation.

Tamara Karsavina was born in Saint Petersburg, the daughter of Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin and his wife, Anna Iosifovna (née Khomyakova). A principal dancer and mime with the Imperial Ballet, Platon also taught as an instructor at the Imperial Ballet School (Vaganova Ballet Academy). He counted among his students Michel Fokine, a future dancing partner and paramour of his daughter.

Karsavina's older brother Lev Platonovich Karsavin (1882–1952) became a religious philosopher and medieval historian. Her niece, Marianna Karsavina, married Ukrainian author and artistic patron Pyotr Suvchinsky. Through her mother, Karsavina was distantly related to the religious poet and co-founder of the Slavophile movement, Aleksey Khomyakov.

Karsavina's father had once been the favorite pupil of Marius Petipa, teacher and choreographer, but their relationship deteriorated in later years. Karsavina suspected that Petipa was behind the "political intrigue" that resulted in her father being forced into early retirement. Though Platon continued to teach at the Imperial Ballet School, and also retained some private pupils, he was disillusioned by the experience.