Serafina Astafieva

Serafina Astafieva (; 1876 – 13 September 1934) was a Russian dancer and ballet teacher.

Early life and education Serafina Astafieva was born in Saint Petersburg in 1876, part of the family of noble Alexander Astafyev. She was a grand-niece of the author Leo Tolstoy. Some sources suggest that he advised sending the young Serafina to a ballet school to recover from illness. She was a pupil at the Ballet Department of St Petersburg's Imperial Theatre School, graduating into the corps de ballet in 1895.

Career Considered only a "mediocre" dancer, she remained in the corps de ballet most of her career, finally being promoted to coryphee in 1903, two years before leaving the company.

In 1914, The Tatler reported that she had worked as a nurse for eight months during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War.

From 1911-1913 Astafieva performed with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Hermione Darnborough, Madeleine Vyner, and Joan Lawson. It was at her studio that Diaghilev first saw Alicia Markova dance.

Personal life In 1896, she married the famous character dancer Jozef Kschessinsky, brother of the prima ballerina Mathilde Kschessinskaya.

She is referenced as "Grishkin" in T. S. Eliot's poem Whispers of Immortality.