Karsavina, Tamara Platonovna
(1885–1978)> BALLERINA
Karsavina, Tamara Platonovna (9 March 1885, St. Petersburg; 26 May 1978, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, U.K.), Russian ballerina, was the only daughter of the dancer Platon Karsavin , but it was her mother who guided her into a career as a ballerina by arranging for her to take preparatory lessons with Varvara Nikitina and to enter the School of the Imperial Ballet in 1894. Here she studied under the direction of Pavel Gerdt and distinguished herself as an alert, gifted, and graceful dancer…