Ida Rubinshtein - Portrait
POSTED ON03.03.2021
One of the most mysterious and beautiful women of the Russian Empire, who never got proper ballet training, now is still known as a famous dancer thanks to her cooperation with Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe.

Ida Rubinstein was born into a very rich family but became an orphan early in her childhood. She was desperate to become an actress, but after her first amateur performance, the critics claimed that she had bad pronunciation and voice. The aspiring actress went on to take acting classes and to improve all the skills needed for the career of her dream.

She was extremely thin and tall, utterly beautiful and very persistent. In 1907, she started taking ballet classes from the famous Russian choreographer Mikhail Fokine, and that seems to have changed her life.

In 1909, in Paris, she made her debut as a dancer starring in Fokine’s “Cléopâtre” choreographed for Diaghilev’s company. But it was in 1910 that she became a role model for all the ballerinas of the 20th century: she created the role of Zobeide in Fokine’s “Scheherazade”. Paris went mad, the critics were praising her “disastrous sensuality” and “voluptuous grace”. That is what every dancer tries to recreate when dancing Zobeide.

The same year, Russian painter Valentin Serov created her most known portrait. And looking at it we can be sure: she was inimitable and unforgettable.

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