Olga Spessivtzeva - In Conversation With Anton Dolin

Many would argue that Olga Spessivtzeva was the supreme Giselle of the C20. In this video, she is in conversation with Anton Dolin, her sometime partner, about her life and career in ballet, and in particular about the role for which she is so famed. John Gilpin is also present and occasionally steps in to interpret what Olga Spessivtzeva is saying -- there is a sense he has perhaps had some special connection and thus understanding of the ballerina. He had also been the long-time companion of Dolin, before he married Princess Antoinette of Monaco in 1983, so perhaps this explains his presence. What is so instructive and fascinating in this conversation are insights given by the ballerina into the legends of late C19 and early C20 ballet - Nikolai Legat, Olga Preobrajenska, Mathilde Kschessinska, Aggrippina Vaganova, Tamara Karsavina and finally Vaslav Nijinsky, with whom she danced in ’Spectre de la Rose’ and ’Les Sylphides’ in the United States in 1916. Particula