Prima Ballerinas

Tamara Karsavina as the Ballerina in the ballet Petrouchka. Photograph by Schneider, undated. Howard D. Rothschild Collection. b MS Thr 414.2 (69). Bequest, 1989.

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Photograph of Tamara Karsavina as the Ballerina in Petrouchka

From the time of its first presentation in 1911, the ballet Petrouchka was an audience favorite and was nearly always in the Ballets Russes repertory through all of its two decades. The part of the Ballerina, the beloved of the puppet Petrouchka, was created by the principal ballerina, Tamara Karsavina, and it remained one of her signature roles.