Xenia Makletzova

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

Xenia Makletzova
Xenia Makletzova, from a 1916 publication
Born6 November 1892
St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
DiedMay 18, 1974(1974-05-18) (aged 81)
Long Beach, New York

Early life

Xenia Petrovna Makletzova was born in St. Petersburg. She trained as a dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet School, graduating in 1908.[1]

Career

Makletzova joined the Mariinsky Ballet in 1913. In 1915-1916 she was prima ballerina of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes on its first tour of the United States.[2] She was in the United States premiere of Les Sylphides with the Diaghilev company.[3] 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.[4][5][6] She appeared in court with her mother, and wearing jewelry said to be given to her by the Czar.[7] Her testimony in court was translated, as she did not speak English at the time.[8]

She returned to the Mariinsky in 1917, but soon revolutionary tumult meant she had to leave Russia. She toured in Asia for several years,[9][10] 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,[11][12] and she appeared in a production of Scheherazade at Carnegie Hall.[13] She was still with Kosloff in 1930, when she was a featured performer at the Doge's Ball in Miami, Florida.[14]

Carl Van Vechten 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. "Far from interpreting the ballet," he concluded, "she gave you an idea of how it should not be done."[15]

Personal life

Makletzova died in Long Beach, New York, in 1974, aged 81 years.[1]

References
  1. "Xenia Makletzova Is Dead; Former Russian Ballerina". The New York Times. May 21, 1974. p. 44.
  2. "Dancing Music and Color Merge in Diaghileff Ballet Russe". Indianapolis Star. February 20, 1916. p. 64 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Les Sylphides" Repertory Archive, American Ballet Theatre.
  4. Vanessa Banni-Viñas, "Correcting a Ballerina's Story: The Truth behind Makletzova v. Diaghileff" American Journal of Legal History 53(3)(July 2013): 353-361.
  5. Xenia P. Makletzova v. Sergei Diaghileff, 227 Mass. 100, March 13 1917 — May 25 1917, Suffolk County MA.
  6. "Dancer Wins Suit". Billboard Magazine. June 2, 1917. p. 9.
  7. "Royal Jewels on Russian Dancer". Boston Post. April 12, 1916. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Russian Ballerina Witness in Court". Boston Globe. April 12, 1916. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Russian Dancers at Adelphi" Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (November 18, 1925): 13. via NewspapersSG.
  10. "Prima Ballerina Will Appear at Society Concert". Daily News. February 27, 1927. p. 238 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "The Dance". The New York Times. October 7, 1928. p. X9 – via ProQuest.
  12. [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21212442/xenia_makletzova_1928/ "Russian Dancer Here on Friday|work=Asheville Citizen-Times|date=October 9, 1928|page=10|via=Newspapers.com}}
  13. "Young Musicians Play" The New York Times (May 27, 1928): 33. via ProQuest
  14. ""Noted Russian Ballet Feature of Doges Ball". Miami News. February 9, 1930. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Carl Van Vechten, Interpreters (A. A. Knopf 1920): 152-153.
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