Ida Rubinstein

Dancer, actress, and patron of the arts Ida Rubinstein was born into a wealthy family in Kharkov (today Kharkiv, Ukraine). Following the death of her parents, she was raised by cousins in St. Petersburg, where she studied dance and drama. Rubinstein was famed for her mime, stage presence, and beauty, and first debuted in the titular role in a Leon Bakst–designed production of Antigone (1904) that she commissioned. She studied acting at the Moscow Theatre School and the St. Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy, and dance under Michel Fokine. In 1908, after her performance in Oscar Wilde’s Salomé was closed by the Russian censors, Rubinstein continued to perform her Fokine-choreographed dance, which created a scandal in St. Petersburg that inspired Sergei Diaghilev, the founder of the Ballets Russes, to invite her to join his company in Paris. Over the coming decades Rubinstein staged and starred in numerous performances in Paris, playing leading roles in ballets and dramas well into her forties; she created her own ballet company in 1928, commissioning Alexandre Benois, Bronislava Nijinska, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, and others to design, choreograph, and compose her productions. She converted to Catholicism in 1936 and survived the Nazi occupation of France in England. Efforts to renew her career following the liberation of France were largely unsuccessful and she lived her last years in relative isolation on the French Riviera. The French government has awarded her various honors in recognition of her contribution to the arts.