Uploaded June 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
My interest in Vera Karalli (1889-1972) is as much as anything due to the diversity of her career - a soloist and then ballerina at the Bolshoi Theatre after graduating from the Moscow Theatre School, a member of Serge de Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company in 1909 and then again in 1919 and 1920, a choreographer, a silent film actress and a teacher. Add to this, she was a mistress of the Russian Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and reputedly present in the palace of Felix Yussupov on the night of Gregori Rasputin's murder.
This footage is from Yevgeni Bauer’s film ‘Umirayushchii Lebed’ (‘The Dying Swan’ or ‘Mad Love’, 1917). What is interesting to me about her dancing is that she seems at times to incorporate aspects of Anna Pavlova’s performance, such as the broken jagged movements of the dying swan.
Enjoy!
My interest in Vera Karalli (1889-1972) is as much as anything due to the diversity of her career - a soloist and then ballerina at the Bolshoi Theatre after graduating from the Moscow Theatre School, a member of Serge de Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company in 1909 and then again in 1919 and 1920, a choreographer, a silent film actress and a teacher. Add to this, she was a mistress of the Russian Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and reputedly present in the palace of Felix Yussupov on the night of Gregori Rasputin's murder.
This footage is from Yevgeni Bauer’s film ‘Umirayushchii Lebed’ (‘The Dying Swan’ or ‘Mad Love’, 1917). What is interesting to me about her dancing is that she seems at times to incorporate aspects of Anna Pavlova’s performance, such as the broken jagged movements of the dying swan.
Enjoy!
