Résumé Chronologique des Faits Saillants de Carrière

 Spessivtzeva rose to become one of the company’s most beloved dancers, dancing principal roles in Esmeralda, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Paquita, Le Corsaire, Bayaderka, The Sleeping Beauty, The Daughter of Pharoah, Don Quixote, and Swan Lake for the next five years. While on a leave of absence, Sergi Diaghilev invited her to tour the Unites States with the Ballet Russes, where she danced with Vaslav Nijinsky in Le Spectre de la Rose, Les Sylphides, and The Sleeping Beauty’s “Bluebirds pas de deux.” She returned to the Mariinsky theater after the Russian revolution in 1917, after which it was renamed the Petrograd Ballet Theater. In 1921, Spessivteva returned to the Ballet Russe, dancing Aurora in Sleeping Princess with Pierre Vladimiov. In 1923, she left Russia for good. She spent a year with Theater Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before moving onto the Paris Opera, where she stayed until 1932. She executed classical roles as well as modern works by choreographers such as Mikhail Fokine and Bronislava Nijnska. The ballerina began to show signs of severe depression while on tour in Australia with Victor Dandre-Alexander Levitiv company. She had a nervous breakdown in 1943 and was sent to a psychiatric hospital for the next 20 years. 

 

 Olga Spessivtseva in Giselle, ca. 1920s.

                                                                                      5 Spessivtseva variations 1930-1960s