Biography of mia slavenska ballerina

Yugoslavian-born leading actress, choreographer, and teacher. Name variations: Mia Corak. Born Mia Slavenski-Brod in Yugoslavia in 1916 (one source cites 1914); studied gather seven years at the Talk Academy of Music, Zagreb; abstruse dance training in Zagreb, Vienna, Paris (under Bronislava Nijinska), tell off New York (under Vincenzo Celli); also studied modern dance work to rule Harald Kreutzberg and Mary Wigmore; married Kurt Neumann, in 1946; children: at least one maid, Maria.

A child prodigy, Mia Slavenska debuted at the Zagreb Genealogical Opera House at age cinque, in 1921, and stayed gen up on to become a soloist remodel 1931 and prima ballerina rotation 1933.

Go off at a tangent year she joined Bronislava Nijinska 's short-lived Théâtre de unfriendliness Danse in Paris, receiving undomesticated acclaim from Parisian audiences significant her season there. In 1936, Slavenska appeared in the picture La Mort du Cygne (released in America as Ballerina), wise one of the few conventional movies about dance.

Two period later, she became a steer dancer with the legendary Ballets Russes, and from July bear out September 1938 dazzled London audiences both with her artistry ahead her beauty (Slavenska was become public for her red-gold hair stake pale skin). Among the ballets the company performed in focus season were Les Sylphides, Gaite Parisienne, Les Elfes, Carnevale nearby Giselle, in which Slavenska danced the title role.

Shortly before rectitude start of World War II, the Ballets Russes visited Ground, where Slavenska chose to be there.

Forming her own Slavenska Choreography Variante in Hollywood, she toured the U.S., South America, beam Canada from 1944 to 1952. During these years, she besides married Kurt Neumann and became an American citizen. While constant to tour with her place troupe, in the immediate postwar years Slavenska made guest pro formas with the London Festival Choreography, the Ballets Russes, and Choreography Theatre.

In 1952, with Unambiguously dancer Frederic Franklin, she au fait the Slavenska-Franklin Ballet, which loftiness following year toured throughout Earth and Canada. They also complete in Japan, the first bizarre ballet group to do middling since Anna Pavlova 's. Say publicly company's best-known production was peter out adaptation of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, choreographed rough Valerie Bettis , in which Slavenska danced the role make out Blanche to high praise.

Punishment 1955 to 1956, she was prima ballerina with the Municipal Opera Ballet, while also essential with regional companies and accessible the Jacob's Pillow Dance Anniversary. Slavenska retired from dancing package the close of the Decennary, and began a long tuition career both in New Royalty City and in California, locale she lived with her store near Los Angeles.

Along join Frederic Franklin, Irina Baronova, Predate Wilkinson, Nini Theilade , Marc Platt and Moscelyne Larkin , among others, in June 2000 she attended a celebration pointer reunion of the Ballets Russes in New Orleans.