Der lebende Leichnam
Koonen was born in Moscow in a family of Belgian origin. At age 16 she joined the Moscow Art Theatre and studied with Stanislavski. She first appeared on the stage in "Woe from Wit" in 1906. At 19 she had her first major role, Mytyl in "The Blue Bird" (1908); she also performed Masha in Leo Tolstoy’s "The Living Corpse" and Anitra in Ibsen’s "Peer Gynt".