The Last Days of the Romanov Dancers by Kerri Turner

The stage, the accoutrements that go with it, are my home.

The very air itself, with its familiar smells of paint and old, dried sweat, is trying to drag me into despair. I grind the flat toes of my pointe shoes into the ground my wig is heavy on my head, and the tulle layers of my tutu skirt feel weighted. These are not the usual cries of anticipation I am used to. A refugee in France, she married her surviving partner and lived until she was ninety-nine – forty-seven years longer than Lenin survived. In the midst of ensuing civil war, she made a harrowing on-foot escape from Russia with her son. Mathilde Kschessinska saved her own life with her dancing. She lost, and was forced to dance for Lenin’s men, with the expectation she would be executed afterward. Not one to back down, Mathilde took to Lenin to court to fight for the right to her house. She survived, only to have Vladimir Lenin commandeer her house for his headquarters and release propaganda defaming her. Known for her influence, decadence, and simultaneous relationships with two Grand Dukes, she became a popular target of the 1917 Russian Revolution. She used this connection to help catapult her to the position of prima ballerina assoluta in the Imperial Ballet – the highest rank a ballerina could hold. Once considered the richest and most powerful woman in Russia, Mathilde Kschessinska had an early relationship with then-Tsarevich Nicholas Romanov, which lead to a lifelong friendship. Through community centres she teaches ballet and tap dancing classes for adults, specialising in the unique needs of women over fifty-five. A graduate of Faber Academy, she hopes to one day release a quartet of historical fiction novels which each touch on a different performing art. Since then she has focussed on writing historical fiction. Training for a career as a ballet dancer, she eventually realised her love for dance stemmed from the history surrounding it and other performing arts. Kerri Turner is an award-winning Australian writer based in Sydney.

The Last Days of the Romanov Dancers by Kerri Turner