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Tamara Toumanova

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Tamara Toumanova
Tamara Toumanova early in her career, c. 1932
Born
Tamara Vladimirovna Khassidovitch

(1919-03-02)March 2, 1919
Siberia
DiedMay 29, 1996(1996-05-29) (aged 77)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Known forBallet
Patron(s)George Balanchine

Tamara Toumanova (March 2, 1919 – May 29, 1996) was a prominent American[1] ballerina and actress of Russian, Georgian and Armenian descent. She made her debut at the age of 10 at the children's ballet of Paris Opera and was soon discovered by her fellow émigré, balletmaster George Balanchine, who made Tamara the star of his performances in the United States. While most of Toumanova's career was dedicated to ballet, she appeared in several films as well.

Personal life

Tamara Tumanova, born Tamara Vladimirovna Khassidovitch[2] in Siberia, while her mother, Georgian Princess Eugenia Tumanishvili, was fleeing Georgia in search of her husband, Konstantin Zakharov, a doctor of the Caucasian Military District.[3][4] She has been reported as being of partially Georgian [5][6][7][8][9][10], Armenian[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] and Polish[19] descent.

Toumanova's parents had become separated during the Russian Revolution. Toumanova 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. After spending time in refugee camps, the family settled in Paris, where there was a large Russian émigré community. Unable to travel to Georgia herself due to Soviet immigration policies, in 1989, Toumanova called relatives in Georgia and asked to arrange the burial of her mother in Tbilisi, where her brother Zakaria was already buried, but this proved impossible at the time.[20]

Career

Toumanova and Serge Lifar performing Swan Lake.

After moving to Paris, Toumanova was given piano lessons and studied ballet with Olga Preobrajenska, who she described as her "first and only permanent teacher" and an "immortal friend".[21] She 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", because, as A. V. Coton [who?] wrote, "she was the loveliest creature in the history of the ballet", with black silky hair, deep brown eyes and pale almond skin. She was the most glamorous of de Basil's "baby" ballerinas who took London by storm in the Thirties. Throughout her dynamic career her mother was devoted companion, nursemaid, dresser, agent and manager - she was always at the helm.[22]

Balanchine created the role of the "Young Girl" for 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 named 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. [citation needed]

In the United States, she appeared in such films as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Tonight We Sing (playing Anna Pavlova), Deep in My Heart, Days of Glory, and Torn Curtain. In 1944, she married film producer and screen writer, Casey Robinson; the marriage produced no children and ended in divorce.

Death

Toumanova died in Santa Monica, California, on May 29, 1996, aged 77, from undisclosed causes. Before her death, she gave her Preobrajenska costumes to the Vaganova Choreographic Museum in St Petersburg. She was buried next to her mother Eugenia in Hollywood.[23] British choreographer John Gregory, in his October 31, 1996 obituary for Toumanova described her as a "remarkable artist - a great personality who never stopped acting. It is impossible to think of Russian ballet without her."

See also

References

  1. ^ The Examiner. "Is Ballet Dancing Slavery?" April 19, 1952
  2. ^ Dmitri Shostakovich catalogue: the first hundred years and beyond, by Derek C. Hulme, 2010, p. 758, cit. [1]
  3. ^ "Is Ballet Dancing Slavery?", ibid.
  4. ^ Arabesque: Georgian Ballet Magazine No 2 (15) 2010, p. 63
  5. ^ Mason, Francis. I remember Balanchine: Recollections of the Ballet Master by Those Who Knew Him. 1991. p. 103. Tamara Toumanova: "I think he saw kinship with me, with my tristesse, with my being part Georgian."
  6. ^ Gottlieb, Robert: George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker. HarperCollins 2004, p. 136; ISBN 0-06-075070-7
  7. ^ International Encyclopedia of Dance. Ed. Selma Jeanne Cohen. Oxford University Press 1998, vol. 6, p. 182f; ISBN 0-19-512310-7
  8. ^ Tracy & DeLano, Balanchine's Ballerinas: Conversations with the Muses. Linden Press 1983, p. 66; ISBN 067146146X
  9. ^ "Книга А. Васильева: "Этюды о моде и стиле" РУССКИЕ ДИВЫ".
  10. ^ "Is Ballet Dancing Slavery?", ibid.
  11. ^ Arab, Armenian, Syrian, Lebanese, East Indian, Pakistani, and Bangla Deshi Americans: a study guide and source book, Kananur V. Chandras, R&E Research Associates, 1977, p. 44
  12. ^ Прекрасная Маруся Сава: русская эмиграция на концертных площадках и в ресторанах Америки, Михаил Иванович Близнюк - 2007 [2]
  13. ^ The American dancer: Vol 14, Issue 2, 1941 - "Seen on New York's 57th Street, the hub of the ballet social world: Tamara Toumanova, Leon and Hercelia Danielian and William Saroyan, all within a block of each other; one more Armenian and the street would have been roped off..."
  14. ^ Людмила Ильинична Лопато, Волшебное зеркало воспоминаний, 2003г., cit. "Тамара была армянско-польского происхождения, а вовсе не грузинской княжной Туманишвили, как многие думают"./"Tamara was of Armenian-Polish descent, not Georgian, as many people think". Zakharov.ru. Retrieved on 2011-09-30.
  15. ^ Apology for dancing, by Rayner Heppenstall, Faber and Faber ltd., 1936, p. 212: "And the fact that Toumanova is only half Russian (half Armenian)...."
  16. ^ The Criterion, Volume 15 by Thomas Stearns Eliot, 1935, p. 62
  17. ^ One America: the history, contributions, and present problems of our racial and national minorities by Francis James Brown and Joseph Slabey Rouček, p. 308
  18. ^ [3] Beauty in exile: the artists, models, and nobility, by Aleksandr Vasilʹev - 2000: «She was the daughter of army engineer Vladimir Khazidovich-Boretsky and Yevgenia, an Armenian woman».
  19. ^ Людмила Ильинична Лопато, Волшебное зеркало воспоминаний, 2003г., cit. "Тамара была армянско-польского происхождения, а вовсе не грузинской княжной Туманишвили, как многие думают"./"Tamara was of Armenian-Polish descent, not Georgian, as many people think". Zakharov.ru. Retrieved on 2011-09-30.
  20. ^ Arabesque: Ballet Magazine, No 2 (15), 2010, p. 65
  21. ^ Tamara Toumanova notice of death. Michaelminn.net (1996-05-29). Retrieved on 2011-09-30.
  22. ^ Obituary: Tamara Toumanova, The Independent. Retrieved on 2011-09-30.
  23. ^ Find A Grave profile

Sources

Obituary

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