Spesivtseva O.A. (1895-1991), ballet dancer

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
SPESIVTSEVA Olga Alexandrovna (1895-1991), ballet dancer. After graduating from the St. Petersburg Theatre School where she studied under K.M. Kulichevskaya, Spesivtseva worked at the Mariinsky Theatre from 1913 to 1924. She was the lead dancer in M.I. Petipa's ballets Giselle, La Bayadere, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Pharaon's Daughter, Petipa and L.I. Ivanov's Swan Lake, and J. Perrot's La Esmeralda. Spesivtseva portrayed a vulnerable and unprotected sort of character, like a child, seeming deliberately doomed. This cast a tragic shadow on all her interpretations of classical ballets. She repeatedly took part in S.P. Diaghilev's Saisons Russes. Spesivtseva left Russia in 1924. In St. Petersburg, she used to live at 1 Nikolskaya Street (now Glinki Street).

References: Волынский А. Л. Плачущий дух // Жизнь искусства. 1923. № 8. С. 4-6; Лопухов Ф. В. Пять балерин // Театр. 1963. № 6. С. 81-85; Слонимский Ю. И. Чудесное было рядом с нами: Заметки о петрогр. балете 20-х гг. Л., 1984.

G. N. Dobrovolskaya. Dyagilev Sergey Pavlovich
Ivanov Lev Ivanovich
Kulichevskaya Klavdia Mikhailovna
Perrot Jules Joseph
Petipa Marius Ivanovich
Spesivtseva Olga Alexandrovna
Glinka St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Волынский А. Л. Плачущий дух // Жизнь искусства, 1923
Лопухов Ф. В. Пять балерин // Театр, 1963
Слонимский Ю. И. Чудесное было рядом с нами: Заметки о петрогр. балете 20-х гг. Л., 1984 Theatre College
Mariinsky Theatre