born March 9/10, 1885, St. Petersburg, Russia
died May 26, 1978, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, Eng.
Russian-born British dancer.
She trained at the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg and joined the Mariinsky Theatre company in 1902. She joined the Ballets Russes at its formation in 1909; dancing with Vaslav Nijinsky until 1913, she created most of the leading roles in Michel Fokine 's neo-Romantic repertoire, including Les Sylphides , Carnaval , Le Spectre de la rose , and The Firebird . She settled in London, where she helped found the Royal Academy of Dancing in 1920 and the Camargo Society in 1930 and later coached Margot Fonteyn .