Vera Trefilova

She studied at the Imperial Ballet School in St Petersburg with Ekaterina Vazem and graduated in 1894.

She later studied with Evgenia Sokolova, Nikolai Legat, Catarina Beretta and Enrico Cecchetti.

She triumphed as Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, but resigned in 1910, partly due to her dislike of Fokine's innovations, but above all due to a rivalry with the Maryinsky's reigning ballerina, Mathilde Kschessinska.

Diaghilev invited her to dance Aurora in his 1921 London production of The Sleeping Princess.

In 1924, almost 50 years old, she danced Odette-Odile for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Monte Carlo, still amazing audiences with her fouetté turns.

Vera Trefilova in the Danse Manu from La Bayadère . St. Petersburg, 1900