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| Tamara Karsavina,1920. Bassano Ltd. © National Portrait Gallery, London. |
Tamara Karsavina was one of famous Russian ballerinas,the member of Sergei Diaghilev troupe and participant of "Ballets Russes", the teacher of dancer Margo Fonteyn. In 1918, after marrying the british diplomat, she emigrated to Europe. She tried herself in a movie actress, one of her films is " Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit - Ein Film über moderne Körperkultur". In 1930 she published her book of memoirs "Theatre Street" in London, in which she shares her impression and thoughts about Isadora Duncan :
The great sensation caused in the artistic world by the first
appearance of Isadora Duncan was still fresh when, in the spring
of 1907, Fokine produced
his Eunice this time for inclusion in
the repertoire.
Isadora had rapidly conquered
the Petersburg
theatrical world.
There were, of course, always
the reactionary balletomanes, to
whom the idea of a barefoot dancer seemed to deny
the first
principles of what they
held to be sacred in art. This, however,
was far from being the general opinion, and a desire for novelty
was in the air.
I remember that the first time I saw her dance I fell completely
under her sway. It never occurred to me that there was the
slightest hostility between her art and ours. There seemed room
for both, and each had much that it could learn to advantage
from the other.
