Mathilde Kschesinska Romanovsky-Krasinsky

Daughter of a Polish dancer, Felix Adam Valerian Krzesiński (1823-1905), from a noble family, she studied at the Imperial Ballet School in Saint Petersburg. In 1890, she entered the Mariinsky Theater and remained there until 1917. She was named prima ballerina in 1893, then prima ballerina assoluta two years later. She was one of the first Russian dancers to train at the Italian school with Enrico Cecchetti. Famous for her numerous roles in the ballets of Marius Petipa, she combines virtuosity, acting talent and dramatic talent. From the spring of 1890, she had an affair with Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich (future Nicholas II) to whom she was introduced by Emperor Alexander III in person at a ball at the famous Imperial Ballet School in Saint Petersburg. In 1894, the year of the death of Alexander III, the future Tsar Nicholas II prepared to marry Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, broke with her and asked Grand Duke Serge Mikhailovich, president of the Society of Imperial Theaters, to watch over She. She goes on tour to Monte-Carlo, then to Poland. She returned to Russia at the time of the coronation of Nicholas II and pursued a brilliant career. She does not forget to support her talented colleagues, notably Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, and future star Vatslav Nijinsky, with whom she works on her lifts. In autumn 1901 she traveled to Europe with the Grand Duke of Russia Andrew Vladimirovich. In June 1902 her son Wladimir Sergeevitch was born, two months later she returned to the stage.

At this time, the Fokine era began at the Marinsky Theater, that of experiments, of transformations making classical choreography freer and more expressive. Mathilde was classically trained and adapted with difficulty to new things but took part in Fokine's productions. In 1911 she was invited as a soloist by Serge Diaghilev and in five weeks of touring London took part in nine shows. In 1912 she participated in the tour of Diaghilev's ballets in Vienna and Monte Carlo.

During the First World War Mathilde Kschesinska performed on the front and in hospitals and participated in charity concerts. She danced for the last time in Russia in 1917 on the stage of the Petrograd Conservatory. In the summer she left with her son to join Grand Duke Andrew in Kislovodsk, in 1919 they were in Novorossiysk and left Russia to reach France and Mathilde's villa in Cap d'Ail. They married in Cannes in 1921 (morganatic marriage), the Grand Duke recognized Mathilde's son Wladimir, who would become Wladimir Andreevitch. In 1926 Grand Duke Cyril Wladimirovitch granted her and her descendants the title and family name of Prince Krasinsky.

The villa in Cap d'Ail was sold, they moved to Paris where in 1929, she opened a dance school which included among her students: Boris Kniaseff, Yvette Chauviré, Alicia Markova, Tamara Toumanova and Margot Fonteyn, without forgetting Maurice Béjart.

In 1904-1906 she had a private mansion built in the Art Nouveau style in Saint Petersburg, which was occupied in the first weeks of the February 1917 revolution by the Bolsheviks, who set up party headquarters there. Later this private hotel will become the Museum of the History of Russian Politics.

She wrote her memoirs, entitled "Souvenirs de la Kschessinska" (Paris, Plon, 1960) and died in Paris in 1971, aged 99.