Documentary about Tatyana Leskova 

It is a film about the granddaughter of the writer Nikolai Leskov; the story about Russian culture flourishing wherever there are people who love it.  

"I love Russian food and Russian music; I love Russian liturgical singing. What can I say? I'm Russian. A Russian immigrant."  

Tatyana Leskova has never lived in Russia. She was born in Paris in 1922 to mother, baroness Elena Medem and father, Yuri Leskov, a diplomat and translator. Her great-grandfather was the famous writer Nikolai Leskov, the author of "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District", "The Enchanted Wanderer", "Lefty", and many other novels, novellas and short stories.  

 

Tanya was in poor health, and doctors advised her parents to put the daughter in a dance class. Leskova studied at the best ballet school in Paris, created by the Russian ballerina Lyubov Egorova, and quickly became a professional ballet dancer.

 

From the age of 17, she toured and performed with the "Original Russian Ballet" company in Britain, Australia, Cuba and Argentina. In 1945 Leskova found herself in Rio de Janeiro, fell in love with a local good-looker and stayed there forever.

 

Tatiana became a soloist in the Opera Theater, headed the local ballet company, and in 1952 founded a ballet school at the theatre. She invited her Russian Ballet colleagues from around the world to Brazil and befriended Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Leonid Myasin, Sergei Diaghilev's favorite, came to Rio twice, and in 1960 Tatiana Leskova helped him to restore his ballets in Paris.

 

Having helped dozens of ballerinas in Rio de Janeiro, Leskova is rightly considered to be one of the founders of Brazilian ballet.

 

Tatyana Leskova preserved her impeccable Russian speech and love for Russian culture. She read her great-grandfather's books in the original and itraveled to Moscow n 1985-1990 at the invitation of famous Soviet ballerina Olga Lepeshinskaya. In 1989 she visited the house-museum of Nikolai Leskov in Orel.

 

Leskova is the last direct descendant of Nikolai Leskov, the last of the ballet artists to know Sergei Lifar and the heirs of Sergei Diaghilev and the last representative of the Russian artistic emigration to South America. Her long life at the intersection of three rich cultures  deserves to be captured in a film.

 

Tatiana knows we are keen to make this documentary and is waiting for us in December. Recording her story and filming Leskova's accepting congratulations on her centennial means preserving this story as an example of the connections that do not break but rather sprout through ideologies and borders.

 

It may seem to some that this is not the right moment for such a film. But there may not be another chance. Therefore, we are counting on your support and help.

 

Maya Kucherskaya - writer and literary critic.

Tatiana Sorokina - director, producer.

Yulia Galochkina - director of photography.