Gsovsky, Tatjana (1901-1993)

Gsovsky, Tatjana

BALLET DANCER, CHOREOGRAPHER (RUSSIA)

BORN 18 Mar 1901, Moscow - DIED 29 Sep 1993, Berlin
BIRTH NAME Issatschenko, Tatjana
GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf, Potsdamer Chaussee 75-77 (Feld 060/190 (old: Abt. XVI-AW-24/27) (Ehrengrab))

Tatjana Issatschenko was the daughter of a Russian general and the German actress and dancer Claudia Issatschenko, born Baroness Egert von Eckhofen. Her stepfather was a convinced communist who was called into the temporary government by Kerenski in 1917. After the fall of Kerenski's government he was imprisoned. It is unclear when and where she recveived her own training, but she was probably taught in Moscow in 1918. In 1965 she stated that in 1918, aged seventeen, she married the lawyer Alexandrowo Mogewitinoff. On 31 May 1920 her daughter Ljena was born and it is also possible that she married Mogewitinoff only after Ljena's birth.

In 1920 she went to Krasnodar with her daughter to work as a ballet mistress. She worked there as a dancer under the names Tatjana Sokolova (1920), Tatjana Mogewitinova (1922) and as a choreographer as Tatjana Issatschenko (1923). The name Sokolova was also used by her mother. In Krasnodar she met fellow ballet dancer Victor Gsovsky and he became her second husband in 1924 In 1925 they fled to Berlin. Soon after her arrival in Berlin she met her stepfather who had emigrated to Berlin before her, possibly together with Kerenski. Shortly afterwards he shot himself in the Grunewald because of political developments in Russia. After the funeral she had to dance, but on her way to the stage she fell and broke her leg. This ended her active career as a dancer.

In 1928 she started a ballet school in Berlin with her husband. After she staged her "Goyescas" she was banned from working by the nazis. In 1937 they were forced to leave Germany and they lived in Paris until 1945. From 1945 to 1951 she was the ballet mistress at the Berlin State Opera. From 1952 to 1953 she was ballet mistress at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. She returned to Berlin to become ballet mistress at the Deutsche Opera in West-Berlin. She held this position until 1966 and was also ballet mistress at the Opera in Frankfurt am Main from 1959 to 1966. In 1954 she published "Ballett in Deutschland" and in 1955 she founded the Berliner Ballet that toured in Europe. Among her students were Natascha Tromifowa and Alwy Becker. She won many awards and she died in 1993 in Berlin.

Related persons
• was teacher of Chauviré, Yvette
• was teacher of Vernon, Konstanze

Images
According to this memorial plaque Tatjana Gsovsky lived in this house in the Fasenenstrasse in Berlin for sixty years. Picture by androom (27 Aug 2006)	The grave of Tatjana Gsovsky at the Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf, Berlin. Picture by Androom (28 Jan 2008)