Born in St. Petersburg, Russia to a poor peasant family, she trained at the Imperial Ballet School until she graduated at age 18. Her main teacher was Marius Petipa. She made her debut at 17, and by 1906 she had become the Mariinsky's principal ballerina. In 1907 she made her first foreign tour, and in 1908, on her second, joined Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

In the first years of the Ballets Russes she worked briefly for Serge Diaghilev. In 1912 she purchased Ivy House in Hampstead, England, where she established her own school of dance. She made her last appearance in St. Petersburg in 1913 and spent the rest of her career almost constantly on tour.

Her most famous showpiece was The Dying Swan choreographed for her by Michel Fokine. The music piece was the Swan part of Camille Saint-Sans the Carnival of the Animals.

She died of pleurisy in The Hague, Netherlands while touring. Her remains were recently moved to the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.