Avdotia Ilyinichna Istomina (1799–1848)
was the most celebrated Imperial Russian ballerina of the 19th century. Orphaned
at a young age, she was accepted into the Imperial Theater School. She debuted
in the Imperial Russian Ballet in 1815 to immediate acclaim.
Several people were killed dueling for her
heart, and her honor was defended in the fourfold duel (1817): Count Zavadovsky
killed Count Sheremetev, while the Decembrist Yakubovich shot through a palm of
the playwright Alexander Griboedov.
She was the first Russian dancer
en pointe. She served in the Imperial Ballet for twenty years. Istomina died of
cholera on June 26, 1848 in St. Petersburg.
