Reflections: Serafina Astafieva

As part of Voices of British Ballet’s Reflections series Jane Pritchard, former curator of Dance at the Victoria and Albert Museum, talks to Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, about the Russian ballerina and teacher, Serafina Asatfieva.

Born in St Petersburg in 1876, Serafina Astafieva became an important teacher in London in the early years of the 20th century. She ran a school on the King’s Road in Chelsea. Her pupils included Anton Dolin, Alicia Markova and Margot Fonteyn.

Reflections is a collection of personal responses to the topics and ideas that our archives highlight. These illuminating recordings sit alongside the Grace Notes section of our website. Grace Notes is a nod to the musical practice of embellishment, and also to British composer Arthur Bliss, who used the words to describe his “Grace Notes on Ballet” in Peter Noble’s 1949 book, British Ballet.

Dancers spend their careers engaging with the ideas of choreographers. Thus, having a colourful and enriched perspective on the world around them is essential. Ballet does not live in a bubble. These embellishments, both written on our website, and recorded in this special Reflections series, show the wider social and artistic context from which ballet springs and within which it thrives.

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