Video: Black pearl of Russian ballet: how an emigrant from Tiflis conquered La Scala, Covent Garden and Hollywood
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Her mother came from an ancient Georgian princely family, and her father was a Russian officer in the tsarist army. Tamara Tumanova was born on a train on the way from her native Tiflis, which she had never seen, and became famous in France, England and America. Her emigration began even before she first heard about her homeland, and abroad she was called nothing more than "the black pearl of Russian ballet." A mixture of Georgian, Russian, Armenian and Polish blood awarded her with such a bright and exotic beauty that she easily won the hearts of spectators and fans.
In all biographies of Tamara Tumanova, different cities are indicated as the place of birth - Tiflis, Tyumen, Shanghai. This confusion is easy to explain: she was born in a freight carriage of a train that followed from Tiflis to Tyumen. Her mother, Evgenia Tumanishvili, according to a family legend, came from an ancient Georgian princely family. She had to leave her native Tiflis when the Bolsheviks came there in 1919, and she went in search of her husband, an officer of the tsarist army, Vladimir Khazidovich-Boretsky. The family first left for Shanghai, then lived in Egypt for a while, and then moved to France.
In Paris, Tamara attended Olga Preobrazhenskaya's ballet school, at the age of 9 she was already performing on stage, and at the age of 13 she was accepted into the troupe of the Russian Ballet, together with Irina Baronova and Tatiana Ryabushinskaya, into the baby ballerinas trio, which became the largest theater sensation of 1932 Since the surnames of Tamara's mother and father were difficult to pronounce for the Western public, she chose the sonorous pseudonym Tumanov. When her father fell ill, the girl was the breadwinner for the whole family for several years.
Soon, the ballerina conquered all the most prestigious European stages: she was applauded at the Parisian Grand Opera, at Milan's La Scala, at London's Covent Garden, and after she moved to the United States in 1937 - and American theaters. Because of her exotic appearance, dark eyes and hair, and also because of the eccentricity of her talent, Tamara Tumanova was dubbed in the Western media "the black pearl of Russian ballet." And thanks to her artistry and charisma, she was called "a tragic dancer". However, some critics accused her of excessive mannerism and work for the public.
Dancer Yuri Zorich said: “Tamara has always been the pride of the ballet! She has fantastic technique; we joked: when she does an arabesque, then you can go out to dinner, come back, and she will still be standing in the arabesque."
Tamara Tumanova became famous not only as a dancer, but also as an actress. Her first film work was the role of a gypsy fortune teller performing Spanish dances, and her first dramatic role was performed by Tumanova in the film Days of Glory. After that, she played the ballerina Anna Pavlova in the musical We Sing in the Evening. In 1966, she co-starred with Alfred Hitchcock in the film Torn Curtain. Tumanova became the first dancer who managed to conquer Hollywood.
In 1944 Tamara Tumanova married the American writer, producer and director Casey Robinson, who left his family for her. This marriage lasted 10 years, after which Casey returned to his first wife.
Tamara Tumanova retained her extraordinary beauty and charm until her last days, she lived to be 77 years old and died on May 29, 1996 in Santa Monica (California). Shortly before her death, she donated her stage costumes to the Academy of Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg. In the history of American ballet, she is assigned the role of a star of the first magnitude, and in our country, unfortunately, she is rarely remembered.
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