Nicolai was deeply affected by the loss of
his brother and soul mate. Who was more than that, his artistic
counterpart. Nevertheless, his fame was assured; but he handled
fame uneasily. With the retirement of Marius Petipa, veteran
creator of the Maryinsky’s classical repertoire, and the
death of Christian Johansson after his long tenure as Professor
of the Class of Perfection, Nicolai Legat stood unchallenged as
their natural successor. He became Ballet Master and Principal
Choreographer and continued to dance leading roles; but a thorn
in his side was the young Michel Fokine whose revolutionary
ideas and artistic flair were alien to Legat’s
traditional zeal.
Legat’s choreographies have not
survived although it is known that his ballets were full of
flowing dance and that his arrangements were musical and in
good taste. His greatness is remembered for the brilliance and
logic of his teaching which he passed on but which, today, is
uncodified and unrecorded. His dance had lyrical qualities and
effortless ease of the French School which, during his
collaboration with Johansson, had been refined and perfected, a
magical movement and unique in the whole spectrum of ballet.
After 25 years service in the Imperial
Theatre, he resigned his position at the Maryinsky and was
rewarded with a handsome Benefit and a gold cigarette case from
the Tzar Nicholas II. About this time, he became infatuated
with a young pupil, Nadine Nicolaeva (Briger), and seeking a
divorce from his wife Tchumakova, he made Nadine his partner
and eloped with her abroad to make a new life outside Russia.
Legat had already danced abroad with Pavlova, Kschesinska and
Preobrajenska with great success, but now he danced with Nadine
Nicolaeve in Music Halls in London and Paris. Caught by the
outbreak of World War I in Paris, Legat and his young mistress
made their way to London, and by a hazardous route, eventually
arrived back in Petrograd in the spring of 1915.
Finding no place for himself and Nadine
Nicolaeva in the Maryinsky Ballet, he taught in a private
ballet school and produced ballets at Narodny Dom (
People’s Theatre ) in which Nadine danced the leading
parts. In 1919 he eventually obtained an official divorce from
his wife, and Nadine Nicolaeva became his third wife.
Life was fraught with peril during the days
of the Revolution and dancers had to scrape a living by any
means possible. They toured for troops and, for a time, he
became ballet Master at the Bolshoi theatre in Moscow, but as
Nicolai said “ I was a very small cog in a very big
wheel”. If life had turned sour for Nicolai, it was even
worse for the ambitious Nadine, who had been refused admission
to the Maryinsky Ballet and although accepted by the Bolshoi as
a soloist, had failed to be accepted as a ballerina, despite
her phenomenal technique and acrobatic skills.
