This collection is also available in Archives & Manuscripts
View In Archives »
Collection Data
- Description
- Irina Baronova (1919 -2008) was a Russian born ballerina who rose to fame with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and enjoyed a successful career as a dancer, movie star, educator, and writer. The Irina Baronova papers contain correspondence, programs, photographs, scrapbooks, writings and other materials from the ballerina's extensive and varied career.
- Names
- Baronova, Irina (Creator)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1928 - 2008
- Library locations
- Jerome Robbins Dance Division
- Shelf locator: (S) *MGZMD 276
- Topics
- American Ballet Theatre
- Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
- Ballerinas
- Ballet -- History -- 20th century
- Dance in motion pictures, television, etc
- Baronova, Irina
- Genres
- Clippings
- Correspondence
- Photographs
- Programs
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: Irina Baronova (1919 -2008) was a Russian born ballerina who rose to fame with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and enjoyed a successful career as a dancer, movie star, and teacher. She created roles in Léonide Massine's Jeux d'enfants (1932) and Les Présages (1933); and in Bronislava Nijinska's Les Cent Baisers (1935).
Baronova was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and escaped the revolution to Romania with her parents in 1920. She began dance lessons at the age of 7 in Bucharest. In 1928, her parents moved her to France to begin serious ballet study with Olga Preobrajenska, the ex prima ballerina of the Marinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Baronova made her professional debut at the age of 12 with the Paris Opera in a special performance created to showcase young dancers. Immediately following her debut, she began a concert tour of France and Belgium with the Count St. Martin, a famous organist. She also spent a season at the Theatre Femina in Paris in a play with dancing, Francois le Bossu.
In 1932, she was engaged by George Balanchine as a soloist in the operetta Orpheus in the Underworld at the Theatre Mogador in Paris. Following this performance, Balanchine and Colonel de Basil offered her a contract to join a new company they were forming to fill the void created by the death of Serge Diaghilev. The company was to be called The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. In later years the company was known as Colonel De Basil's Ballet Russe.
The writer Arnold Haskell dubbed the Ballet Russe's trio of Baronova, Tamara Toumanova and Tatiana Riabouchinska the "Baby Ballerinas," and the three girls were a sensation with audiences around the world. Baronova danced her first Spectre de la Rose at the age of 13 opposite Serge Lifar. She danced Odette in Swan Lake at age 14, partnered by Anton Dolin. At 17 she eloped with Gerald Sevastianov, a manager of the de Basil troupe.
During the Second World War, Baronova was invited to join the American Ballet Theatre where ballets were created for her by Michael Fokine and Bronislava Nijinska. She also toured as a guest ballerina with Leonide Massine and his company. She was used as inspiration for the ostrich ballerina in Disney's Fantasia in 1939. Between 1940 and 1951, Baronova appeared in several films and plays, including Train of Events (1949) and Florian (1940).
Baronova's marriage to Sevastianov ended in divorce, and in 1946 she met the British agent Cecil Tennant, who asked her to marry him on the condition that she would give up ballet. At age 27, she agreed, and retired. She had three children with Tennant and began to return to work after his death in 1967.
She resumed teaching full time in 1976. She also gave mime and master classes for the Teacher's Training Course at the Royal Academy of Dancing on the invitation of Margot Fonteyn. In 1986 she staged Fokine's Les Sylphides for The Australian Ballet. In 1996 she received a Nijinsky Medal from Poland and an honorary doctorate from the North Carolina School of the Arts. Baronova traveled the world participating in seminars in Italy, Yugoslavia, Australia, Hong Kong, and Russia. In 2000 she moved to Australia to be closer to her daughter.
In 2005, she published her memoirs Irina: Ballet, Life and Love which she wrote entirely in longhand. She also appeared in the documentary Ballets Russes. She remained active in lecturing and teaching up until her death in 2008, and was a patron of the Australian Ballet School.
- Content: The Irina Baronova papers contain correspondence, programs, photographs, scrapbooks, writings and other materials from the ballerina's extensive and varied career.
Baronova's correspondence reflects the many lifelong relationships she cultivated during her years traveling with the ballet and is sorted into personal, professional, and student and fan letters. The bulk of the correspondence is personal and includes letters from Laurence Olivier, Lucia Chase, Jerome Robbins, and many others. The personal correspondence is arranged by name. Her professional correspondence is primarily from the latter half of her career and contains letters inviting Baronova to speak or hold a master class, attend a ceremony or event, or to accept an award. Correspondence with her publisher regarding her book was kept separately with her writings, and can be found there. Student and fan correspondence holds thank you letters and notes from many of Baronova's students, as well as a few fan letters written later in her career. There is an increase in fan mail post-2005 regarding her book.
Baronova's press clippings are loose and bound. Her clippings include reviews and human interest stories regarding the dancer, including beauty tips, many pieces about how "all-American" and down to earth she is, and a 1940 incident where she punched (and knocked out) a 180 pound man.
The collection of programs, both ballet and theater, is just a sample of Baronova's hundreds of performances across the globe. Ballet programs are arranged by year and include examples of programs from the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Ballet Theatre, and Leonide Massine's Ballet Russe Highlights. The theater programs are arranged by title.
Baronova's collection of photographs contains professional press release shots and personal photographs. The photographs taken before 1950 depict Baronova as a working dancer. Of interest are the many non-professional photographs taken (presumably by Baronova's mother) of her performances. While the action shots are often blurry, they offer a raw glimpse of the actual ballets in performance that the posed press photographs do not. There are also pictures of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo troupe on their various tours, aboard ships, lounging on the beach, and exploring new cities. The photographs are arranged by year and most have identifying information. As Baronova repeated roles year to year in her repertoire, to see all the pictures of an individual ballet one should consult all folders during her working years. Some ballets, such as Aurora's Wedding, have new shots for each year she performed the role.
Photographs from 1950 to 2005 are all personal and document Baronova's travels as a teacher and lecturer, as well as her attendance at various awards ceremonies and galas. There are few family photographs.
Baronova's scrapbooks contain small books created when she was dancing at Covent Garden from 1938-1939. They are all non-professional shots of the ballets as well as dancers backstage warming up. There are also two scrapbooks she made during the movie Florian, as well as a scrapbook of her 1986 lecture tour in Australia.
The writings hold Baronova's correspondence, work and drafts relating to her 2005 book Irina: Ballet, Life and Love as well as writings by friends and co-workers, including unpublished memoirs by ballet conductor William McDermott and her ex-husband, German Sevastianov.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 6.79 linear feet (19 boxes)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: (S) *MGZMD 276
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b19320004
- MSS Unit ID: 18577
- Archives collections id: archives_collections_18577
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 3fb20400-e8fa-013b-d50d-0242ac110004
