Thamara de Swirsky (October 17, 1888 — December 24, 1961), sometimes seen as Tamara de Svirsky, Thamara Swirskaya, or Countess de Swirsky, was a Russian-born dancer, known for dancing barefoot.

Early life Thamara de Swirsky was born in St. PetersburgHarry Prescott Hanaford, Dixie Hines, eds. Who's who in Music and Drama (H. P. Hanaford 1914): 95. into a prosperous Russian family. She studied piano in Paris and Munich, and dance in St. Petersburg.Rudolph Aronson, Theatrical and Musical Memoirs (McBride Nast 1913): 212-214.

Her claim on the title "Countess" was disputed. Her mother, Zenaide de Podwissotski, may have been a medical doctor in Paris before accompanying Thamara to the United States."Is She Really a Russian Noble?" Town Talk (November 12, 1910): 13.

Career De Swirsky, publicized in 1911 as having the "most musical body in the world","Countess Who Has Most Musical Body in World" Montrose Daily Press (May 4, 1911): 4. via Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection "created a sensation" in the United States with her barefoot dancing."Thamara de Swirsky, Russian Countess Who Will Appear in Novel Barefoot Dance in Auditorium" Los Angeles Herald (November 13, 1910): III7. via California Digital Newspaper Collection Reviewers assured (or warned) readers that, while her feet were bare, she did not dance nude.Andrew L. Erdman, Blue Vaudeville: Sex, Morals and the Mass Marketing of Amusement, 1895–1915 (McFarland 2007): 104. "Her costumes are triumphs of sartorial amplitude," declared one disappointed critic. "They leave everything to the imagination."Edward F. O'Day, "Thamara de Swirsky Disappointed" San Francisco Daily Times (November 12, 1910): 8. She also performed a "bat dance" with billowing sheer fabric wings.Shaemas O'Sheel, "On with the Dance" Forum (February 1911): 195.Hrabina Thamara de Swirsky (1888-1961), tancerka, tańcząca "Fledermauss valse" (ujęcie całej postaci), Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie. She was the last advertised performer to appear at the Coliseum Garden Theatre in Raton, New Mexico, before it was destroyed in a 1911 fire.F. Stanley, The Grant That Maxwell Bought (Sunstone Press 2008): 169.

Thamara de Swirsky also played piano as part of some of her performances."De Swirsky Seen in Dances" Boston Globe (October 11, 1911): 5. "Her style of dancing is her own," explained one Los Angeles reporter."Tantalizing Thamara" Los Angeles Times (November 5, 1910): I13. Beyond the vaudeville stage, at the Metropolitan OperaGeorge Dorris, "Dance and the New York Opera War, 1906-1912" Dance Chronicle 32(2)(2009): 210. she appeared as a dancer in Orfeo ed Euridice and Zar und Zimmermann, both in 1909.Gerald Fitzgerald, ed., Annals of the Metropolitan Opera: The Complete Chronicle of Performances and Artists (Springer 2016): 224/4C. In January 1910 she danced in Delibes' Lakmé with the Boston Opera, at English's Opera House."Thamara de Swirsky, the Unadorned Russian Dancer" Indianapolis Medical Journal (February 15, 1910): 67. In 1912 she performed a version of her dances in a short silent filmClassical Dances by Countess Thamara de Swirsky (1912). for Independent Moving Pictures."Notes of the Week" The Moving Picture News (February 24, 1912): 25. In 1913 she was part of an advertising campaign for Seduction perfume.Verbinina, "Ads for Séduction perfume by Gellé frères (part 2)" Verbinina (July 3, 2014).

Her opinions, whims, and demands made news."Frown Too Much and Wear Corsets" Times Dispatch (August 21, 1910): 31. via Newspapers.com She smoked cigars and cigarettes."The Knave" Oakland Tribune (June 9, 1912): 26. via Newspapers.com She was said to have insured each of her toes for $10,000 in 1910."Each Pink Toe, Ten Thousand Dollars" Los Angeles Times (November 16, 1910): II1. In 1914, she was a member of Anna Pavlova's company, and her pleas for a more humid New York hotel room were reported in the New York Times."Asked for Damp Room" New York Times (November 1, 1914): C4. Italian artist Piero Tozzi painted a portrait of de Swirsky, titled "His Flame of Life", when she turned away his romantic interest."Eyes Show Russia's Sorrow" Los Angeles Times (January 7, 1911): II1."Will Countess Wed Painter?" Los Angeles Times (December 5, 1910): I18.

During World War I she performed in New York, combining dance and "dramatic art"."Thamara Swirskaya to Dance on Thursday" New-York Tribune (January 13, 1918): 35. via Newspapers.com In 1919 she appeared in a silent film, The Mad Woman, made by the Stage Women's War Relief Fund."When Broadway Favorites Saw Themselves as Others See Them" Theatre Magazine (March 1919): 183.Margaret McIvor-Tyndall, "What Women of the Theatre are Doing for Uncle Sam" National Service (May 1919): 285.

In 1910, John Jacob Astor bought 25 seats for one of her concerts in Newport, Rhode Island, and sat by himself in the center to watch her performance."Countess de Swirsky Tells Marguerite Martyn," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 23, 1911, image 1

Personal life

In 1933 there were reports that Swirskaya was engaged to marry twice-widowed New York lawyer Frederick G. Fischer and that his family committed him to an asylum to prevent the match."Aids Lawyer Fiance" Salem News (October 3, 1933): 5. via Newspapers.com"Dragged the Rich, Aristocratic Old Lawyer to an Asylum as He Was to Wed the 'Perfect Body' Danseuse" Atlanta Constitution (April 15, 1934): SM4.

Thamara de Swirsky professed particular love for Los Angeles as early as 1910, recalling that "I knew when I first touched foot to your soil that here I would find the warmth and the glow which would call out the best that is in me.""Passion of Art Drives Her On" Los Angeles Times (November 22, 1910): II6. She settled in Los Angeles after her dance career; she taught and played piano for a living. She died there in 1961, weeks after she was badly injured in a traffic accident during a storm,"Storm Figures in 7 Deaths, 200 Accidents" Los Angeles Times (December 3, 1961): A. aged 73 years."Rites Planned for Tamara Swirskaya" Los Angeles Times (December 28, 1961): B11.

There is a statuette of Thamara de Swirsky in a dance pose, by Paolo Troubetzkoy, in the collection of the Getty Museum. Her unpublished memoirs have also been discovered in recent years.Anne-Lise Desmas, "The Dancer Statuette by Paolo Troubetzkoy and the Incredible Life of Countess Thamara Swirskaya" Getty Center (February 2, 2014).

References

External links

. Photographs of Thamara de Swirsky in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division Photograph Files, New York Public Library. Photograph of Thamara de Swirsky in the George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress. Photograph of Thamara de Swirsky in an Egyptian-inspired costume and pose, from the Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie. Photographs of Tamara Swirskaya by Bassano Ltd, in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.