ludmila burkova. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
oiseaudefeu) wrote2034-02-17 11:07 am
oiseaudefeu) wrote2034-02-17 11:07 am
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LUDMILA BURKOVA
ORIGINAL/HISTORICAL
ABOUT
CANON POINT: 1910, after Ludmila has been sent by her father to Paris to pursue a dancing career there, in an attempt to keep her safe from the unrest in Russia
VISUAL: 1, 2
BUILD: Slender, long-limbed, strong, flexible and athletic
HAIR: Red
EYES: Blue
FEATURES: Elegant, delicate and slightly impish
ATTIRE: A full 1910's wardrobe, along with various ballet costumes, tutus and leotards, pointe shoes
VOICE: Light and a little bit shrill, pearly laughter
ORIGINS: An old manor, called the Lark House, outside Saint Petersburg
FAMILY: Duma member, Dmitry Berkov (father) and minor princess, Olga Berkova née Solovyova. Three brothers, two older and one younger, Anatoly, Igor and Boris.
RELATIONSHIPS: Crush on her Imperial Ballet School classmate, Katerina, before she left for Paris. In Paris, she meets and falls in love with Anne-Élise Cauchy, her new sponsor.
OCCUPATION: Ballerina, the Ballets Russes season 1910-
HISTORY: Born in 1889 to a wealthy landowning family, her father later elected into the Imperial Duma. Third child out of four and the only girl. Spoiled and pampered as she grew up, being the favourite of both her mother and her father, though for different reasons. Her mother saw herself in her, wanting her to pursue the career in ballet that she was never allowed to have and her father, because he also saw her mother in her and adored her for that same reason. Her parents had a very happy, harmonious relationship and it secured her a safe, comfortable upbringing.
As an eight-year-old her mother started taking her to the Imperial Ballet in the city, to try and get her interested in the art form, and it worked. Little Luda fell in love with the pretty ballerinas in their tutus and begged to be allowed to take classes, something neither of her parents could deny her. In the beginning, she received private tutoring by a former prima ballerina at the Lark House, but eventually her teacher would have to convince her parents to let her try out for the Imperial School in Saint Petersburg, since she has great skill in dancing. Her mother insisted and Ludmila pestered, and her father couldn't refuse either of them, so he agreed for her to try-out for the next summer audition. Luda was eleven years old, then, a late-comer, but she was accepted into the strict school and thrived there, seeing her family only on the weekends. Instead, she built the foundation of a new one.
Then, as Europe and the whole West began preparing for war, and Ludmila finished her final ballet exams with great marks, her father had the idea that she would fare better outside Russian borders, less likelihood of harm coming her way. He'd followed impressario Diaghilev's work in Paris for some time and when the first season of his Ballets Russes was a success, Ludmila's father decided to pull some strings, got her an audition with the man and sent her off to Paris. To live her dream. And to be safe while living it.
Although, Diaghilev was a whim-prone man, he hired Ludmila and she got her contract with his company, where she began dancing in soloist roles from the 1910 season forward. When the very wealthy French sponsor, the mysterious Cauchy, took an interest in her, Diaghilev encouraged her to meet with them and "make a good impression", as it would be good for the ballet's finances. But when she meets Cauchy, it isn't a male patron at all, but a young woman, only a handful of years older than Ludmila.
Far away from her family's prying eyes, their initiate an intense, curious relationship...
EXTRA SECTION:
VISUAL: 1, 2
BUILD: Slender, long-limbed, strong, flexible and athletic
HAIR: Red
EYES: Blue
FEATURES: Elegant, delicate and slightly impish
ATTIRE: A full 1910's wardrobe, along with various ballet costumes, tutus and leotards, pointe shoes
VOICE: Light and a little bit shrill, pearly laughter
ORIGINS: An old manor, called the Lark House, outside Saint Petersburg
FAMILY: Duma member, Dmitry Berkov (father) and minor princess, Olga Berkova née Solovyova. Three brothers, two older and one younger, Anatoly, Igor and Boris.
RELATIONSHIPS: Crush on her Imperial Ballet School classmate, Katerina, before she left for Paris. In Paris, she meets and falls in love with Anne-Élise Cauchy, her new sponsor.
OCCUPATION: Ballerina, the Ballets Russes season 1910-
HISTORY: Born in 1889 to a wealthy landowning family, her father later elected into the Imperial Duma. Third child out of four and the only girl. Spoiled and pampered as she grew up, being the favourite of both her mother and her father, though for different reasons. Her mother saw herself in her, wanting her to pursue the career in ballet that she was never allowed to have and her father, because he also saw her mother in her and adored her for that same reason. Her parents had a very happy, harmonious relationship and it secured her a safe, comfortable upbringing.
As an eight-year-old her mother started taking her to the Imperial Ballet in the city, to try and get her interested in the art form, and it worked. Little Luda fell in love with the pretty ballerinas in their tutus and begged to be allowed to take classes, something neither of her parents could deny her. In the beginning, she received private tutoring by a former prima ballerina at the Lark House, but eventually her teacher would have to convince her parents to let her try out for the Imperial School in Saint Petersburg, since she has great skill in dancing. Her mother insisted and Ludmila pestered, and her father couldn't refuse either of them, so he agreed for her to try-out for the next summer audition. Luda was eleven years old, then, a late-comer, but she was accepted into the strict school and thrived there, seeing her family only on the weekends. Instead, she built the foundation of a new one.
Then, as Europe and the whole West began preparing for war, and Ludmila finished her final ballet exams with great marks, her father had the idea that she would fare better outside Russian borders, less likelihood of harm coming her way. He'd followed impressario Diaghilev's work in Paris for some time and when the first season of his Ballets Russes was a success, Ludmila's father decided to pull some strings, got her an audition with the man and sent her off to Paris. To live her dream. And to be safe while living it.
Although, Diaghilev was a whim-prone man, he hired Ludmila and she got her contract with his company, where she began dancing in soloist roles from the 1910 season forward. When the very wealthy French sponsor, the mysterious Cauchy, took an interest in her, Diaghilev encouraged her to meet with them and "make a good impression", as it would be good for the ballet's finances. But when she meets Cauchy, it isn't a male patron at all, but a young woman, only a handful of years older than Ludmila.
Far away from her family's prying eyes, their initiate an intense, curious relationship...
EXTRA SECTION:
PERSONALITY
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic good
ATTITUDE: Playful, light-hearted, optimistic, spoiled
VIRTUES: Courage, social intelligence
VICES: Excess, vanity and pride
QUIRKS: Tends to sit on the floor with her legs out to the side at any given opportunity, sprawls herself wherever she can...
LIKES: Ballet, girls, her family, pretty clothes, expensive things, dogs
DISLIKES: French language, young men, cats, politics
HOBBIES: Ballet, shopping, piano playing, reading
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: You look at Ludmila and you might understand why the French would behead Marie Antoinette, because she's the same, careless and self-absorbed, greedy and vain, driven by her need to escape the world she's been born and brought into. With her red hair and her blue eyes, she's a classic beauty, and with her wit and charm, she's a real little princess, too, but beneath the innocence and naivity, a determined heart beats that will do anything to procure the things she wants for herself. She will stop at nothing to obtain her own happiness and more than her fine manners and her fine features, this is what shines through.
MOTIVATIONS: Being the younger sister and the only girl in the family, Ludmila lives to assert herself as someone who can become as prominent a member of the Burkov family as any of her brothers, though she insists on doing it in her own way. Not through politics or business, but through art and dance. She is also driven by a great indenpendent streak and an acceptance of her own differences from the rest of her family. She knew from a young age that she was interested in girls romantically and although she has, for obvious reasons, not divulged this to anyone elsee, it is not something she feels any great self-loathing or doubt about. It just is and she's find a way to make it a possibility for her to outlive.
FLAWS: She tends towards some degree of arrogance and pride, easily forgetting that she isn't by default better than everyone else, seeing as that is the mindset she has been brought up with. She can also be somewhat cruel in her eternal search for entertainment and playtime, willing to make fun of people and pull pranks on them to have a moment's laugh and merriment.
ATTITUDE: Playful, light-hearted, optimistic, spoiled
VIRTUES: Courage, social intelligence
VICES: Excess, vanity and pride
QUIRKS: Tends to sit on the floor with her legs out to the side at any given opportunity, sprawls herself wherever she can...
LIKES: Ballet, girls, her family, pretty clothes, expensive things, dogs
DISLIKES: French language, young men, cats, politics
HOBBIES: Ballet, shopping, piano playing, reading
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: You look at Ludmila and you might understand why the French would behead Marie Antoinette, because she's the same, careless and self-absorbed, greedy and vain, driven by her need to escape the world she's been born and brought into. With her red hair and her blue eyes, she's a classic beauty, and with her wit and charm, she's a real little princess, too, but beneath the innocence and naivity, a determined heart beats that will do anything to procure the things she wants for herself. She will stop at nothing to obtain her own happiness and more than her fine manners and her fine features, this is what shines through.
MOTIVATIONS: Being the younger sister and the only girl in the family, Ludmila lives to assert herself as someone who can become as prominent a member of the Burkov family as any of her brothers, though she insists on doing it in her own way. Not through politics or business, but through art and dance. She is also driven by a great indenpendent streak and an acceptance of her own differences from the rest of her family. She knew from a young age that she was interested in girls romantically and although she has, for obvious reasons, not divulged this to anyone elsee, it is not something she feels any great self-loathing or doubt about. It just is and she's find a way to make it a possibility for her to outlive.
FLAWS: She tends towards some degree of arrogance and pride, easily forgetting that she isn't by default better than everyone else, seeing as that is the mindset she has been brought up with. She can also be somewhat cruel in her eternal search for entertainment and playtime, willing to make fun of people and pull pranks on them to have a moment's laugh and merriment.
PERMISSIONS
BACKTAGGING: Big yes
THREADHOPPING: No
FOURTHWALLING: Telling her she's a fictional character, no, but knowing about her day and age in a historical perspective, yes
ROMANCE: F/F only
MINDREADING: Ask me first
MANIPULATION: Ask me first
FIGHTING: No
INJURY: Nothing graphic, but it can be assumed in relevant scenes
KILLING: Let's plot first
Feel free to contact for more information and plotting!
THREADHOPPING: No
FOURTHWALLING: Telling her she's a fictional character, no, but knowing about her day and age in a historical perspective, yes
ROMANCE: F/F only
MINDREADING: Ask me first
MANIPULATION: Ask me first
FIGHTING: No
INJURY: Nothing graphic, but it can be assumed in relevant scenes
KILLING: Let's plot first
Feel free to contact for more information and plotting!
PREFERENCES
MEMES: I can do single threads or multiple threads with continuity
PSLS: Love arranged marriage/lavender marriage tropes and soulmate AUs, so if any of that is of interest to you, hit me up!
TAG STYLE: Brackets pref, present tense; can do prose, but I'm very slow with it
TAG SPEED: One tag a day generally, sometimes fewer
PSLS: Love arranged marriage/lavender marriage tropes and soulmate AUs, so if any of that is of interest to you, hit me up!
TAG STYLE: Brackets pref, present tense; can do prose, but I'm very slow with it
TAG SPEED: One tag a day generally, sometimes fewer