Uploaded June 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
This video shows Vera Karalli and Leonid Zhukov performing 'Toréador et Andalouse’ from the 1915 silent film ‘The Love of State Councillor’. The choreography was by Alexander Gorsky
The setting is a C19 studio theatre and the film shot from the audience's point of view - that is from the auditorium into the proscenium. So the public and its reaction to the ballet are also included in the footage.
Karalli was born in Moscow in 1889. She graduated from the Moscow Theatre School in 1906 (class of Gorsky).
Her strength was more of dramatic talent and stage presence than classical technique.
With the Bolshoi Theatre she was promoted to soloist after two years and to ballerina in 1915.
In 1909 she danced with Diaghilev's company, as well as in 1919 and 1920.
She was Gorsky's favourite ballerina and danced all his classical stagings, frequently with Mordkin as her partner.
Her oriental beauty and plastic expressiveness brought her widespread fame. She also became one of Russia’s first film stars.
She danced and taught in Kaunas, Lithuania, in the 1920's. Between 1930 and 1935 she was ballet mistress of the Romanian Opera in Bucharest. She had her own studio in Paris 1938-41, then taught in Vienna.
Enjoy!
This video shows Vera Karalli and Leonid Zhukov performing 'Toréador et Andalouse’ from the 1915 silent film ‘The Love of State Councillor’. The choreography was by Alexander Gorsky
The setting is a C19 studio theatre and the film shot from the audience's point of view - that is from the auditorium into the proscenium. So the public and its reaction to the ballet are also included in the footage.
Karalli was born in Moscow in 1889. She graduated from the Moscow Theatre School in 1906 (class of Gorsky).
Her strength was more of dramatic talent and stage presence than classical technique.
With the Bolshoi Theatre she was promoted to soloist after two years and to ballerina in 1915.
In 1909 she danced with Diaghilev's company, as well as in 1919 and 1920.
She was Gorsky's favourite ballerina and danced all his classical stagings, frequently with Mordkin as her partner.
Her oriental beauty and plastic expressiveness brought her widespread fame. She also became one of Russia’s first film stars.
She danced and taught in Kaunas, Lithuania, in the 1920's. Between 1930 and 1935 she was ballet mistress of the Romanian Opera in Bucharest. She had her own studio in Paris 1938-41, then taught in Vienna.
Enjoy!
