Elizaveta Gerdt

Who was Elizaveta Gerdt?

Elizaveta Pavlovna Gerdt was a Russian dancer and teacher whose career links the Russian imperial and Soviet schools of classical dance.

A daughter of celebrated Paul Gerdt, she studied under Michel Fokine at the Imperial Ballet School, where her chief partner was Vaslav Nijinsky. She married another popular danseur, Samuil Adrianov, who danced with Pierina Legnani and Mathilde Kschessinska, two ballerinas she sought to emulate.

After the Russian Revolution Elizaveta Gerdt and Olga Spesivtseva were the only world-class dancers who chose to remain in Russia, while others emigrated to the West. Quite unexpectedly, in 1928, she resolved to abandon the stage and devote herself to teaching in Moscow. She coached innumerable prima ballerinas of the Bolshoi Ballet, including Alla Shelest, Sulamith Messerer, Maya Plisetskaya, Ekaterina Maksimova, and Raisa Struchkova.