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Martha Mouravieva was born in 1838 - the daughter of a Russian serf . She was said to be extremely beautiful and had ambitions as an actress. It is not known when she first became interested in the ballet but in 1861 she became a pupil of Arthur Saint-Leon, the brilliant dancer, choreographer, composer, violinist, teacher and author.

In 1863 Saint-Leon took Martha to Paris where she appeared in a production of Giselle. This proved to be a disaster. Possibly she was not suited to the role or perhaps the admirers of previous Giselles resented a newcomer to the ballet. This failure in Paris did not dampen the enthusiasm of either Martha or Saint-Leon. Martha was greatly acclaimed. In 1865 she married a wealthy aristocrat who did not approve of the ballet and considered all theatre performers to be lower class Bohemians. Marta was faced with the dissolution of her marriage or the termination of her career. She chose the latter, but in her retirement she was not happy: she longed again to dance, she missed her companions in the ballet, the applause she had won as an artist. For none years she suffered isolation from the theatre. She lived in luxury but found no consolation for being deprived of her art. She died of consumption, some say grief, in 1897.

Leonard Boucher © February 1998