December 1960
Kschessinska occupies a unique position in the history of Russian ballet: for twenty years she was prima ballerina assoluta of the Imperial Ballet at a time when this company - unrivalled - was at the height of its fame. The youngest daughter of a remarkable Polish dancer, she was admitted to the Imperial School at the age of eight; Petipa, Guerdt, Legat, Johansson and later Cecchetti were among her masters - and partners; she graduated at eighteen with first prize and the Tsarevitch, the future Emperor Nicholas II, in love with her. One has only to come across the smallest reference to her in any book about this period, to catch some echo of the spell she cast: the enchantment peculiar to exceptional artists who are flourishing with work and appreciation. A kind of fever seized the audiences waiting for her appearances, and of them it was said: ‘You would think there had been a sudden influx of light’ and ‘beside her, the word graceful, that we so often use, has absolutely no meaning’. Her most famous ballets were ones that we do not see now, and indeed she danced very little abroad and only twice in this country; with Nijinsky in Diaghilev’s company, and for de Basil at Covent Garden when she was sixty-four.
This book, therefore, in spite of its author being a decided amateur in respect of writing, is a most fascinating record of her career and private life which, put together, read like a fairy-tale or the story of a three-act ballet; but her childhood and early years in St Petersburg are perhaps the most interesting part of the book. After the Tsarevitch marries and she has overcome her despair, she loves his nephew which culminates in a son and eventually in marriage when they emigrate to France after the Revolution. Finally, there is the account of her famous school in Paris where she trained many of the dancers whom we see today. In spite of the fact that she cannot write, one cannot help loving her.