Sophie Pflanz (March 24, 1892 – September 30, 1978), also known as Zofia Maria Pflanz-Dróbecka, was a Polish

ballet dancer A ballet dancer is a person who practices the Art (skill), art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet. They rely on years of extensive training and proper technique to become a part of a professional ballet company. B ...

with the

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 ...

from 1911 to 1917.

Early life

Zofia Maria Pflanz was born in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, the daughter of Wincenty Wilhelm Pflanz and Janina Kazimiera Maria Kęszycka Pflanz. She trained as a dancer in Warsaw, and at the Imperial School in

Petrograd 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, ...

Career

Pflanz danced with the Ballets Russes under

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 ...

, touring in the company with

Adolph Bolm Adolph Rudolphovich Bolm (; September 25, 1884 – April 16, 1951) was a Russian-born American ballet dancer and choreographer, of German descent. Biography Bolm graduated from the Russian Imperial Ballet School in Saint Petersburg in 1904 ...

Léonide Massine Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin (), better known in the West by the French transliteration as Léonide Massine (15 March 1979), was a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer. Massine created the world's first symphonic ballet, ''Les Présages'', and ...

Xenia Makletzova 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 Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg. She trained as a dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet S ...

, Valentina Kachouba,

Tamara Karsavina Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (; 9 March 1885 – 26 May 1978) was a Russian prima ballerina, renowned for her beauty, who was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and later of the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. After settling ...

Enrico Cecchetti Enrico Cecchetti (; 21 June 1850 – 13 November 1928) was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers from Civitanova Marche, he was born in the costuming room of the ''Teatro Tordinona'' in ...

, and many others. She appeared in productions of ''

Khovanshchina ''Khovanshchina'' ( rus, Хованщина, , xɐˈvanʲɕːɪnə, Ru-Khovanshchina_version.ogg, sometimes rendered ''The Khovansky Affair'') is an opera (subtitled a 'national music drama') in five acts by Modest Mussorgsky. The work was writte ...

'' (1913), ''

Papillons ''Papillons'' (French for "butterflies"), Opus number, Op. 2, is a Suite (music), suite of piano pieces written in 1831 by Robert Schumann when he was 21 years old. The work is meant to represent a masked ball and was inspired by Jean Paul's novel ...

'' (1914), ''Midas'' (1914), ''

Prince Igor ''Prince Igor'' (, ) is an opera in four acts with a prologue, written and composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the early Russian epic '' The Lay of Igor's Host'', which recounts the campaign of the 12th-centur ...

'' (1914), and '' La Légende de Joseph'' (1914) in Monte Carlo, Paris, and London. On tour with the Ballets Russes in the United States, she danced in ''Prince Igor'', ''

Daphnis et Chloé ''Daphnis et Chloé'' is a 1912 ballet and orchestral concert work, subtitled ''symphonie chorégraphique'' (choreographic symphony), for orchestra and wordless chorus by Maurice Ravel. It is in three main sections, or ''parties'', and a dozen s ...

'',

Nijinsky Vaslav or Vatslav Nijinsky (12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry. He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. Nijinsky was celebrated for his virtuosity and f ...

's ''Afternoon of a Faun'' (1916), ''

Till Eulenspiegel Till Eulenspiegel (; ) is the protagonist of a European narrative tradition. A German chapbook published around 1510 is the oldest known extant publication about the folk hero (a first edition of is preserved fragmentarily), but a background i ...

'' (1916), and ''

Cléopâtre ''Cléopâtre'' is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Payen. It was first performed at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 23 February 1914, nearly two years after Massenet's death. ''Cléopâtre'' is one of three o ...

'' (1917). After her time with the Ballets Russes, Pflanz returned to Warsaw, where she continued to dance as a soloist, and was head of a ballet company that toured abroad. She taught ballet in Warsaw and later in Torún, for many years. One of her students in Warsaw was .

Personal life

Sophie Pflanz married Stanisław Burma-Dróbecki, Diaghilev' s private secretary, in London in 1911. She died in 1978, aged 86 years.

References

External links

Troy Kinney Troy Sylvanus Kinney (December 1, 1871 – January 29, 1938) was an American artist, etcher, and author. Troy Kinney was most notable for his works portraying dance performers, fanciful subjects, and classically styled nudes. He worked with danc ...

, "Sophie Pflanz in Cleopatre" (1917), in the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...

.
A 1917 photograph of Sophie Pflanz
from the J. Willis Sayre Collection of THeatrical Photographs, University of Washington Libraries. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pflanz, Sophie 1892 births 1978 deaths Polish ballerinas Entertainers from Warsaw 20th-century Polish ballet dancers