Lydia Lopokova

Lydia Lopokova, Baroness Keynes (born Lidiya Vasilyevna Lopukhova, ; 21 October 1891 – 8 June 1981) was a Russian ballerina famous during the early 20th century. Lopokova trained at the Imperial Ballet School. She toured with the Ballets Russes in 1910, and rejoined them in 1916 after an interlude in the United States. Lopokova married the renowned English economist John Maynard Keynes in 1925 and was also known as the Lady Keynes. She largely disappeared from public view after Keynes's death in 1946 and spent her remaining years in Sussex. Early life Lopokova was born in Saint Petersburg. Her father worked as the chief usher at the Alexandrinsky Theatre; her mother was descended from a Scottish engineer. Four of the Lopukhov children became ballet dancers; one of them, Fyodor Lopukhov, was a chief choreographer for the Mariinsky Theatre from 1922 to 1935 and again from 1951 to 1956.