[1] As a child she danced before the Emperor and his family, in productions such as the Fairy Doll and The Nutcracker; she also witnessed the events of Bloody Sunday at first hand.

As she grew older "she responded instinctively to the expressive choreography of Mikhail Fokine, his rebellion against the stiff academicism of the classical style, and her chance came when she was chosen to join the Ballets Russes... on their European tour in 1910.... Diaghilev knocked a year off her age and promoted her as a child star.

"[3] She stayed with the Ballets Russes only briefly, knowing that she had little future in Russia ("she was the wrong size and shape for the grand roles and there were already plenty of prima ballerinas in St.

[3] She accepted an American offer of 18,000 francs per month, sixty times more than she had earned in Russia,[1] and after the summer tour left for the United States, where she remained for five years, enjoying tremendous success and legally changing her name to Lopokova in April 1914.

[5] When the Ballets Russes came to the United States in 1916 she broke off her engagement, and soon after married the company's Italian business manager, Randolfo Barrocchi.

[3] In 1921, Diaghilev staged a lavish production of The Sleeping Beauty in which Lopokova danced the Lilac Fairy and Princess Aurora.

Until now, Keynes's closest relationships had been with the members of the Bloomsbury group, especially Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, who had been the great love of his life.

They and other members of the group, such as Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey, found Lydia difficult to accept and were resistant to her partnership with Keynes for many years even after their marriage took place.

[16] Lopokova is the central character in 'Firebird', the novel by Susan Sellers, which recounts Lydia's love affair with Keynes, her prickly reception from his friends in the Bloomsbury group, and their marriage, as well as narrating the story of Lydia's earlier life, from her childhood in the Imperial Ballet School through to her tours in America and beyond as a solo artist and celebrity.

Judith Mackrell published her biography, Bloomsbury Ballerina: Lydia Lopokova, Imperial Dancer and Mrs John Maynard Keynes, in 2008.