Well done to all who took part in Intuitive Experiment #10 – I enjoyed reading all the responses.
The woman in the picture is Marina Semenova, a Russian ballerina who is considered by some to be the greatest of all Russian dancers. Some of you picked up that she was an actress, which is correct, in a way.
She was born in St Petersburg in 1908 and died in 2010, aged 102.
Early Life and Work
Her father died when she was young and her mother had to raise six children single-handedly. Semenova joined an amateur dance group at an early age, and auditioned for the St Petersburg Ballet School, where she studied for several years. When she graduated she joined the Kirov Ballet and later on, the Bolshoi.
Political Upheaval and Repression
Semenova’s career began during the Russian Revolution which was a difficult period for ballet. This art form was only permitted if it was light and uplifting, so narratives containing tragedy (such as Swan Lake) had to be altered to have happy endings. Dancers were stifled creatively and many fled to the West. It was against this backdrop that Marina Semenova studied, worked and performed, and many felt that she breathed new life into (and even saved) ballet in Russia during this time, gaining many fans with her perfect technique and wide range.
Marriage
She married twice, first to a leading ballet teacher, Victor Semenova, and the second time to Len Karakhan, a former Trotskyite who associated with Lenin, and who later became a high ranking diplomat. Both men were older than her – 16 and 20 years her senior, respectively.
Her first marriage ended in divorce and her second husband was executed by Stalin in 1937, after being condemned in the Moscow Show Trials.
Following this event, Semenova was placed under house arrest for a while, and was not allowed to tour.
Children
She had a daughter several years later, in spite of the fact that it was forbidden for Bolshoi ballerinas to get pregnant. She began teaching in the mid-forties and her last performance was in 1952. She later claimed that she was forced out of performing ballet (presumably as a result of becoming a mother.)
She taught at the Bolshoi theatre for over 50 years, teaching many of the famous and great Bolshoi dancers, and she didn’t retire until she reached the grand old age of 95.
Personality
Not much is known about her character, apart from this snippet which comes from the autobiography of the Soviet dancer Maya Plisetskaya:
“[Semyonova’s] dancing was dazzling. Her large, excellent, steely legs, impeccably trained by Vaganova, turned, held, and spun her sculpted body wonderfully… When she appeared on stage, no one else existed. But she was quarrelsome and cunning, not gentle. She got lazy early, skipped class, warmed up before performances in the shower instead of at the barre, and put on weight. But I managed to catch her enchanting performances.”
From her obituary in the Daily Telegraph
I tuned into the photos and picked up the following character traits (which many of you also picked up):
- Closed aura
- Distrustful
- ‘No-nonsense’ manner
- Clever and astute
- Extreme self-discipline
- Observant (notices everything)
- Aloof
- I pick up anger from her energy in the second photo.
She was definitely one of the harder subjects to read so well done to everyone who had a go.
I hope you enjoyed the experiment.
How did you do? Please leave a comment below.
Sources of more information on Marina Semenova:
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This was the first time I tried this experiment and I am happy to say I did indeed see her dancing, turning and turning wildly. Pirouettes! It was a flash thought when I first looked at her. I also saw her making beds and looking cross and anxious. Thank you Anna. Wow.
LOL. I seem to be so “off” on these. Is there hope for me?
First, I would like to compliment you on your course. I have had such a good time and has been quite exciting. It is exactly what I needed.
In regards to the photo, I was a bit shy about placing any comments on my first experiment reading, but picked up she was an actress as well. I also saw a bright pink aura around the picture … is this normal?
Thanks for all your help.
John
Exactly! Right on the money. Wow. 🙂
This is crazy though I was way off I have been drawing ballet themed art work for the past week and I normally draw wildlife lol. I did say I could hear music and thought she was a composer and traveled alot
I couldn’t publish my initial comments as follows:
Actress/Entertainer. Well respected and accomplished. Capable, lonely, mischievous, playful, hiding something. Perhaps had a lot of sisters and had to fight for attention.
I had mentioned “I was not able to concentrate for more than few minutes, I get impatient.
To me she gives an impression of being in a people-oriented profession or in general involved more socially. Probably an actress or someone in politics.
While I would not trust her, I would not distrust her either. I would associate but be cautious and on my guard be cause she may change her mind anytime.”
I could not verify my point on trust.
When I first looked at her the impression I got was “artist” a performance artist to be more specific. I wanted to mention that from books on physiognomy I had concluded from her thin lips that it may not be possible, but my gut feeling that she was a performing artist was very strong. So I mentioned her as artist.
The pictures also gave an impression of connection with politics. I don’t know if she influenced politics but she was influenced.
Thanks for the experiment
Hi
This was my first time with and I loved it.
One of the things I wrote was, ‘She is a writer’ because I saw her sitting by a window with trees outside it and she was writing. From the information about her, it’s not clear if she enjoyed writing. Many people do as a creative expression or to journal their personal thoughts. I didn’t feel she wrote as a profession, though I didn’t make this clear in my posting. I guess I didn’t feel the need to.
It’s challenging when you have things come to you that aren’t verifiable. Ex: that she was sexually abused or assaulted. Or that she had a small dog. Anna, is there a lesson to be learned here? Should I be asking myself specific questions? For example, you asked if she could be trusted. I asked myself that and felt she could be wholeheartedly. Should I be asking myself a set of specific questions that could help me direct my psychic impressions so that I can somehow be able to verify if I’m correct?
While I meditated over the photos, I wrote my information down about her as if she was still alive. I think I knew in the back of my mind that she had passed over, but I felt as though she wasn’t ‘dead’. I’m a medium so maybe that’s why for me the distinction between alive and dead doesn’t seem as concrete as it may seem to others. She still exists.
Thanks,
Kelly
I can’t even remember what I said.
Wow so interesting that so many of us seemed to go down the track of world war 2 spy/conflict/loyalties. I wonder is she has an untold story?
Well, I did not see her dancing but I felt that she was a success in her profession, and a huge one; and, second, I felt she had serious troubles in her relationships with men, what proved to be quite correct since both her marriages ended badly.
I did not spend much time tuning in, these were just first impressions, so not bad for the initial “reading” =)
I didn’t get ballerina at all ? I got a little of her
personality. But, I thought maybe she had killed her husband but it was from government. And I felt her being a prisoner, but it was a house arrest, very interesting. I did ok, but wasn’t tuned in enough I feel. Thankx Anna for doing these experiments, I really enjoy them ! <3
New to the newsletter and loving the experiments! I got about 70% correct but did not see her as a dancer but saw her as a famed teacher of many students. I don’t have much to practice on or with others, so I welcome the opportunity of experiments! Would love a whole newsletter filled with them!! Thanks. <3
John – Glad to hear you’re enjoying the course!
I am not someone who often ‘sees’ colours around people, so I don’t really know what bright pink would mean. Would be interesting to look into.
Hi Kelly,
Pleased to hear you enjoyed this!
Yes, that is the issue with doing a psychic experiment on someone whose personal life we don’t have many details about…what people get is not always verifiable. In a way, it doesn’t matter too much – I think you can still learn something from the experience even if you can’t verify everything.
I find that asking questions is often a good idea to direct your intuition.
Dear Anna
I took part in the experiment and wrote down my thoughts for the first time on your blog. I wondered if you saw my post? I saw her dancing, turning and turning, a large fixed smile, pirouettes.. This was a flash thought when I first looked at photo 1. Then I sat quietly and thought about her and found a sadness about a secret and saw her making a bed while looking distressed. However the initial thought was most vivid. Is this claircognisance? I am glad I took part. It has made me pay more attention to my flash thoughts. Many thanks and I look forward to the next one.
Shirl – Yes, there is! It may be you need a more complete technique plus more practice.
If you haven’t already, you can also look back over previous experiment results posts, and take a look at some of the tips I’ve written at the end of each experiment. You can find the psychic experiments on this page, you will need to scroll down: https://annasayce.com/articles
I loved this experiment. I saw her as someone famous, an actress but then not exactly an actress. I also saw her as being very fit and I guessed she may have been an athlete or tennis player, someone who had strong legs. I don’t read anyone else’s comments before trying these experiments in case this puts ideas into my head that may or may not be true.
I do so enjoy your experiments and this is the first time that my initial thoughts were so strong – Marina was most definitely a dancer! She was fiercely passionate about her work and life. Funny that I tried to talk myself out of those initial, strong thoughts of her dancing and then later when I read that she was a dancer, I laughed aloud at my second-guessing my reading. So pleased to get this one right without much effort!
I picked up that she was hiding something of some sort as well. Not necessarily a big known secret but something that weighed heavy on her at one point in her life. This feeling was very strong in the beginning so it prompted me to do some research and found this passage:
“Semyonova’s personal life once again clashed with her professional career when she had a child in her late thirties — motherhood was forbidden to active Bolshoi ballerinas. She started a teaching career in the mid-1940s and gave her last performance in 1952. She refused to discuss what lay behind her career moves, but commented when she was 90 years old: “They pushed me out and trampled me down.” But she added: “I myself resolved my own problems.”
Here is the link to my findings: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/dance-obituaries/7822466/Marina-Semyonova.html.