Tamara Toumanova

Toumanova and Serge Lifar performing Swan Lake.

Tamara Toumanova (2 March 1919–29 May 1996) was a ballerina and actress of Armenian descent.

She was born Tamara Tumanishvili to Polish and Armenian parents in Tyumen, Siberia, while her mother was fleeing Georgia in search of her husband. They had become separated the previous year during the Russian Revolution. Tamara was 18 months old before her parents were reunited.

The family escaped from Russia to Shanghai, China, where they lived for a year, then moved to Cairo, Egypt. After spending time in refugee camps, the family settled in Paris, France, where there was a large Russian émigré community. Tamara was given piano lessons and studied ballet with Olga Preobrajenska.

"Preobrajenska was my first and only permanent teacher," Toumanova said. "I think always of Madame Preobrajenska not only as my beloved, never-to-be-forgotten teacher, but my immortal friend."

Toumanova made her debut at the Paris Opera at the age of ten in the children's ballet L'Éventail de Jeanne (for which ten French composers wrote the music). George Balanchine saw her in ballet class and engaged her for de Basil's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as one of the three "baby ballerinas." She came to be called "The Black Pearl of the Russian Ballet."

Balanchine made the role of the Young Girl on Toumanova in his ballet Cotillon and had her star in his Concurrence and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.

Léonide Massine also worked closely with Toumanova in the creation of many of his ballets. She played the part of the Top in his Jeux d'Enfants. Balanchine created a role for her in his Le Palais de Cristal (since re-titled Symphony in C) in 1947 at the Paris Opera.

In 1936, while Toumanova was performing ballet in Chicago, a 16 year old boy by the name of Burr Tillstrom came to see her perform. Following the ballet, Burr came backstage and actually introduced himself to her. As they talked Toumanova and Tillstrom became friends. Some time later, Tillstrom showed her a favorite puppet he had made and she, surprised by his revelation, exclaimed, "Kukla," and Burr Tillstrom went on to create a very early (1947) television show for children, titled, Kukla, Fran and Ollie.

In the United States, Toumanova appeared in the movies The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Tonight We Sing (playing Anna Pavlova), Deep in My Heart, Days of Glory, and Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain. In 1944, she married film producer and screen writer, Casey Robinson; the marriage ended in divorce.

Tamara's grandmother Princess Chkheidze, is aunt to renowned pianist Margarita Chkheidze.

She died in Santa Monica, California, on 29 May 1996, at the age of 77.

References

• Denham (Sergei) Records of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, ca. 1936 - 1978

Obituary

• New York Times by Jack Anderson, May 31, 1996

External links

• Australia Dancing — Lutte eternelle
• Tamara Toumanova at Australia Dancing
• The Ballerina Gallery - Tamara Toumanova