 Irina: Ballet, life and love.
Author: Baronova, Irina Published: 2006 The autobiography of Irina Baronova, one of the most popular of Colonel de Basil's 'baby ballerinas. Born in Russia to privilege, she and her family fled to escape the Bolsheviks, and she made her debut as a dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet, at the age of 11. Soon spotted by George Balanchine, she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and soon became one of its biggest stars. Her dancing career lasted for less than 15 years before marriage claimed her, but she returned to the dance world as teacher and coach. Over the course of her life, her friends and associates grew to include luminaries from a dazzling array of disciplines, husband Cecil Tennant, Marlene Dietrich, Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall, Ivor Stravinsky, and of course a host of friends and associates from the dance world, from Tatiana Riabouchinska and Tamara Toumanova to Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. |
