📍Rossi Street, Saint Petersburg, Russia
1894 – 1902“I was born in Saint Petersburg in March 1885. My father, Platon Karsavin, was a principal dancer and mime of the Imperial Ballet, once the favourite pupil of Marius Petipa, and later a teacher at the Imperial Ballet School, and my mother, Anna, was related to the poet Aleksey Khomyakov. My older brother, Lev, became a philosopher. My father's career ended early, after his friendship with Petipa soured, and money was short at home, but he taught me my first steps. In 1894, when I was nine, I entered the Imperial Ballet School on Theatre Street, the long, elegant street of identical yellow and white buildings designed by Carlo Rossi, behind the Alexandrinsky Theatre, which is now called Rossi Street. I lived there as a boarder for eight years, in a world of strict discipline, uniforms and endless classes, taught by masters such as Enrico Cecchetti, Christian Johansson and Pavel Gerdt. We were taken to the Mariinsky Theatre in closed carriages to dance as children in the great ballets, and we saw the Tsar himself at our graduation performances. Among my classmates was Anna Pavlova, and we were friendly rivals. I graduated in 1902 and joined the Mariinsky Ballet, and later became the leading ballerina of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, creating the Firebird, and dancing with Nijinsky in Le Spectre de la Rose and Petrushka. After the Revolution I made my home in England, and helped to found the Royal Academy of Dance. I called my memoirs Theatre Street, after the street where I learned to dance.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today