Yekaterina Vazem

She moved to Saint Petersburg, where In 1866, she was named the best student of the Imperial Theatre School (now the Mariinsky Ballet).

Vazem – a terre-à-terre virtuosa – climbed the ranks of the Imperial Ballet to become one of the company's most celebrated dancers.

Reviews were uniformly complimentary although they did register complaints of Petipa's license in dealing with historical facts.

For example, in the Kingdom of the Shades scene, the appearance of a magic palace was mistimed and delayed until after Nikiya had turned to face it.

[citation needed] She authored a book of mémoires dictated to her son, entitled Записки балерины Санкт-Петербургского Большого театра.