Platon Karsavin
Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin (Russian: Платон Константинович Карсавин; 17 November 1854, Saint Petersburg – 1922, Saint Petersburg) was a dancer with the Russian Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg, and afterwards a teacher of dance.
Biography[]
Platon Constantinovich Karsavin was born on 17 November 1854, at St Petersburg. His father had been a provincial actor, but had three children, and to feed his family, had become a tailor and moved to St. Petersburg. When Platon was 6 years old, his father died. The family was again left without money. Therefore, he and his brother Vladimir were placed in the Imperial Theatre School - where children lived and learned free, supported by the imperial treasury.[1] A teacher of Platon Karsavin were Marius Petipa and Christian Johansson.
After Theatre School (in 1875) Platon Karsavin was admitted as a dancer at the Mariinsky Theatre. There he worked from 1875 to 1891. He danced in the ballets of Arthur Saint-Léon, Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.[2]
After completing his career of ballet dancer, he became a teacher at the Imperial choreographic school. Among his pupils were Michel Fokine, Alexander Gorskiy, Adolph Bolm, Vasily Tikhomirov, , Alexandr Chekrygin, (Cesare Pugni’grandson) etc.
He died in 1922 at St Petersburg.
Family[]
- His wife, Anna Khomiakova, was the daughter of a cousin of the philosopher Aleksey Khomyakov.
Their children:
- (1882–1952) was a religious philosopher, poet, and historian of European culture, a professor at St. Petersburg University, was expelled from Russia in 1922, taught at Vilnius University, Lithuania (1928-1939); was arrested by Joseph Stalin’s regime and died in 1952 in a prison camp.
- Tamara Karsavina (1885–1978) was a famous Russian ballerina.
See also[]
References[]
- Russian ballet
- Ballet masters
- Male ballet dancers of the Russian Empire
- People from Saint Petersburg
- 1854 births
- 1922 deaths
- Imperial Choreographic School teachers
- 19th-century Russian ballet dancers