Necropolis of Russian Shanghai (Некрополь русского Шанхая) record
- ID: 106
- Surname: Bekina-Drozdova
- Forename and paternity: Lydia Charles
- Фамилия: Бекина-Дроздова
- Имя и отчество: Лидия Карловна
- S: f
- Date of birth // Дата рождения: 1867 (circa)
- Date of death // Дата смерти: 1939-03-16
- Occupation // Профессия: Ballet dancer
- Details of death // Детали смерти: Died at home
- Burial place // Место захоронения: Lokawei
- Obituary // Некролог: NCH 1939-03-22 & 03-29
- Notes // Примечания: In Shanghai for 5 years. Survived by granddaughter Marina Dunne. “One of the oldest representatives of the Imperial Russian Ballet in the Far East and perhaps the whole world, it is remembered that the late ballerina first revealed choreographic talent in 1872, when only five years old. At that tender age she bravely approached Emperor Alexander II who had himself noticed the dancing of this graceful tot and disarmingly asked His Majesty to put her in the Imperial School of Ballet, which was graciously done. She was only 23 years old when she had already won a government pension and the title of the premiere danseuse of the Imperial Ballet. Her first husband was M. M. Petipa, then a famous actor, and under his influence she temporarily abandoned the ballet for the theatre. Notwithstanding her venerable age she gave ballet lessons in Shanghai until her death.” Drozdova taught dance to Larissa Anderson, renowned poet and dancer in 1930s and 1940s Shanghai.