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Nadine Wulffius AI simulator
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Nadine Wulffius
Madame Nadine Wulffius (1899–1992) was a ballet dancer and choreographer and the founder of her own Ballet School in Maddington, Western Australia.
Wulffius (née Nadezhda Krivko) was born in Russian ruled Latvia in September 1899 during the reign of the last Romanov Czar Nicholas II. She was the daughter of Fyodor Krivko and Countess Kladiya Alekseyeva-Yaroslavskeya. She recalls in a 1986 Interview with Margita Chudziak the events of her early life.
... I was born in Riga Latvia in 1899. At this time Latvia was part of the Russian Empire. I am from Russian parents. My father was a botanist and historian of Moscow University and my mother was born Countess Alekseyeva Yaroslavskeya. (Her Christian name was Kladiya or Claudia) We lived not far from Riga on an estate and my childhood was most sunny if I can say so. We had governesses and teachers at home. My early childhood was in great surroundings. We had ponies, I rode and we had all that is needed for an ideal childhood. I remember an interesting way in which we were punished if we misbehaved. We had a large dining room with a big fireplace before which stood two great armchairs. At dinner time just before sweets (or dessert) the question was asked "Whoever is under punishment today sit in the chair". We then had to sit in the chair while everyone else ate sweets and nobody was allowed to take pity on us and give us some. On weekends and on Holy Days (of the Church calendar) we were taken to the Theatre. I saw ballet at a very early age. We were also taken to the circus. We had a permanent circus in Riga. There were clowns and girl riders the so-called circus ballerinas. This made a big impression on me especially the riding. I was a good horse rider and after this I started to stand on my horse without a saddle... I would stand on my feet on the horse and it would trot in what was called a roundell. As the horse picked up pace I leaned to the centre to keep balance and I found it was not so difficult to do. Certainly the horse wasn't in a gallop otherwise I would have fallen. So you can see I already as a child had good balance.
Wulffius as a child saw "Sleeping Beauty" done in the German style and this made a deep impression on her and she began to desire to be a dancer. Her parents and aristocratic grandmother were opposed to her becoming a Ballet dancer as it was not considered respectable for a girl of noble origins. However she persisted and due to the fact that on her father's side she had a peasant grandfather she was given permission. Wulffius was firstly instructed by Marietta Balbo a famous former dancer with the Italian Ballet who taught private students in her studio in Latvia. She eventually convinced her family to allow her to enrol in the Maryinski Theatre (Imperial Ballet School) in St Petersburg when she was about 12 or 13. Unlike the other students she was able to travel back and forth from her home in Latvia to St Petersburg for extended periods of time.
Wulffius was taught by Maria Anderson in the lower classes and by Olga Preobrajenska in the higher classes. She recalls
... Later in repertoire and character classes we had male teachers. Music was an obligatory subject and we had quite a lot of theoretical subjects and we had marvellous theoretical teachers. The best of all was Khudekov and he taught the history of dance. The influence and memory of him goes through all my life and I am indebted to him for my understanding and love I have for the ballet. For him ballet and dance in general was life lived on a higher level. He taught us to love ballet. He taught us to understand it. He taught us the knowledge we needed when we would come to teaching. That was all thanks to him. He was already very old when he became my teacher. He would have been in his seventies.... His motto was; " We have forgotten to pray to God with our feet. We have forgotten that once in the great past a divine being touched us and we were nearer to God."...
Wulffius remained at the Imperial Ballet School and the Petersburg University until 1922, when she fled Communist Russia for newly independent Latvia.
In Riga she joined the Latvian Theatre where she danced under the name of Mirceva. She also taught at the Riga University. Her dancing name was based on her surname from her first marriage to Mario Marceva–Marcenos a Greek mountain engineer and a son of a Greek Ambassador. This first husband escaped Russia at the time of the Revolution via Vladivostok and sailed around Asia but died off the coast of Constantinople on the way to his parents home in Athens. Her second husband was a German Opera singer called Conrad Henzel.
Nadine Wulffius
Madame Nadine Wulffius (1899–1992) was a ballet dancer and choreographer and the founder of her own Ballet School in Maddington, Western Australia.
Wulffius (née Nadezhda Krivko) was born in Russian ruled Latvia in September 1899 during the reign of the last Romanov Czar Nicholas II. She was the daughter of Fyodor Krivko and Countess Kladiya Alekseyeva-Yaroslavskeya. She recalls in a 1986 Interview with Margita Chudziak the events of her early life.
... I was born in Riga Latvia in 1899. At this time Latvia was part of the Russian Empire. I am from Russian parents. My father was a botanist and historian of Moscow University and my mother was born Countess Alekseyeva Yaroslavskeya. (Her Christian name was Kladiya or Claudia) We lived not far from Riga on an estate and my childhood was most sunny if I can say so. We had governesses and teachers at home. My early childhood was in great surroundings. We had ponies, I rode and we had all that is needed for an ideal childhood. I remember an interesting way in which we were punished if we misbehaved. We had a large dining room with a big fireplace before which stood two great armchairs. At dinner time just before sweets (or dessert) the question was asked "Whoever is under punishment today sit in the chair". We then had to sit in the chair while everyone else ate sweets and nobody was allowed to take pity on us and give us some. On weekends and on Holy Days (of the Church calendar) we were taken to the Theatre. I saw ballet at a very early age. We were also taken to the circus. We had a permanent circus in Riga. There were clowns and girl riders the so-called circus ballerinas. This made a big impression on me especially the riding. I was a good horse rider and after this I started to stand on my horse without a saddle... I would stand on my feet on the horse and it would trot in what was called a roundell. As the horse picked up pace I leaned to the centre to keep balance and I found it was not so difficult to do. Certainly the horse wasn't in a gallop otherwise I would have fallen. So you can see I already as a child had good balance.
Wulffius as a child saw "Sleeping Beauty" done in the German style and this made a deep impression on her and she began to desire to be a dancer. Her parents and aristocratic grandmother were opposed to her becoming a Ballet dancer as it was not considered respectable for a girl of noble origins. However she persisted and due to the fact that on her father's side she had a peasant grandfather she was given permission. Wulffius was firstly instructed by Marietta Balbo a famous former dancer with the Italian Ballet who taught private students in her studio in Latvia. She eventually convinced her family to allow her to enrol in the Maryinski Theatre (Imperial Ballet School) in St Petersburg when she was about 12 or 13. Unlike the other students she was able to travel back and forth from her home in Latvia to St Petersburg for extended periods of time.
Wulffius was taught by Maria Anderson in the lower classes and by Olga Preobrajenska in the higher classes. She recalls
... Later in repertoire and character classes we had male teachers. Music was an obligatory subject and we had quite a lot of theoretical subjects and we had marvellous theoretical teachers. The best of all was Khudekov and he taught the history of dance. The influence and memory of him goes through all my life and I am indebted to him for my understanding and love I have for the ballet. For him ballet and dance in general was life lived on a higher level. He taught us to love ballet. He taught us to understand it. He taught us the knowledge we needed when we would come to teaching. That was all thanks to him. He was already very old when he became my teacher. He would have been in his seventies.... His motto was; " We have forgotten to pray to God with our feet. We have forgotten that once in the great past a divine being touched us and we were nearer to God."...
Wulffius remained at the Imperial Ballet School and the Petersburg University until 1922, when she fled Communist Russia for newly independent Latvia.
In Riga she joined the Latvian Theatre where she danced under the name of Mirceva. She also taught at the Riga University. Her dancing name was based on her surname from her first marriage to Mario Marceva–Marcenos a Greek mountain engineer and a son of a Greek Ambassador. This first husband escaped Russia at the time of the Revolution via Vladivostok and sailed around Asia but died off the coast of Constantinople on the way to his parents home in Athens. Her second husband was a German Opera singer called Conrad Henzel.