Xenia Makletzova (6 November 1892 – 18 May 1974), sometimes seen as Xenia Maclezova, was a Russian ballet dancer.

Early life

Xenia Petrovna Makletzova was born in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. She trained as a dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet School, graduating in 1908.

Career

Makletzova joined the

Mariinsky Ballet The Mariinsky Ballet () is the resident classical ballet company of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the world's ...

in 1913. In 1915–1916 she was prima ballerina of

Sergei Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario an ...

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...

on its first tour of the United States. She was in the United States premiere of ''

Les Sylphides () is a short, non-narrative '' ballet blanc'' to piano music by Frédéric Chopin, selected and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. The ballet, described as a "romantic reverie","Ballet Theater", until 1955. A compact disk of ABT's product ...

'' with the Diaghilev company. She was fired for insubordination by Diaghilev, after she refused to add another ballet to her repertoire or dance with Alexander Gavriloff, without an increase in her pay. She was replaced with Lydia Lopokova. Diaghilev sued, but Makletzova countersued, and she was awarded $4,500 by a jury in Massachusetts. She appeared in court with her mother, and wearing jewelry said to be given to her by the Czar. Her testimony in court was translated, as she did not speak English at the time. She returned to the Mariinsky in 1917, but soon revolutionary tumult meant she had to leave Russia. She toured in Asia for several years, then joined Mikhail Mordkin's short-lived Russian Ballet Company in the United States in 1926. In 1928, she toured with the Alexis Kosloff Ballet, and she appeared in a production of ''

Scheherazade Scheherazade () is a major character and the storyteller in the frame story, frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the ''One Thousand and One Nights''. Name According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade ...

'' at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

. She was still with Kosloff in 1930, when she was a featured performer at the Doge's Ball in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Carl Van Vechten Carl Van Vechten (; June 17, 1880December 21, 1964) was an American writer and Fine-art photography, artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary estate, literary executor of Gertrude Stein. He gained fame ...

admired the dancer's technical skill, saying "I have forgotten how many times Mlle. Maclezova could pirouette without touching the toe in the air to the floor, but it was some prodigious number." However, he found her lacking in "grace, poetry, and imagination", and judged that Makletzova "really offended the eye" in ''

The Firebird ''The Firebird'' (; ) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine, who c ...

''. "Far from interpreting the ballet," he concluded, "she gave you an idea of how it should not be done."Carl Van Vechten, ''Interpreters'' (A. A. Knopf 1920): 152–153.

Personal life

Makletzova died in

Long Beach, New York Long Beach is an oceanfront city in Nassau County, New York, United States. It takes up a central section of the Long Beach Barrier Island, which is the westernmost of the outer barrier islands off Long Island's South Shore. As of the 2020 ...

, in 1974, aged 81 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makletzova, Xenia 1892 births 1974 deaths 20th-century Russian ballet dancers Ballerinas from the Russian Empire Dancers from Saint Petersburg White Russian emigrants to the United States Mariinsky Ballet dancers Moscow State Academy of Choreography alumni