Irina Baronova

IRINA BARONOVA

Irina Baronova of Moscow was born March 13, 1919 into the family of a Russian army officer, who became a stage designer in exile.

Her father, Fyodor Baronov, was the first stage designer for American television. Irina spent her childhood in Bucharest, in great need, and then, on the advice of her first mentor, the ballerina Mozhayskaya, she left for Paris with her mother. Here she studied at the school of Olga Preobrazhenskaya, a famous prima of the Imperial Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre.

She made her debut in 1930 at the age of 11 at the Paris Opera. At the age of 14 she danced the part of Odette in Swan Lake. As a member of the Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo she toured nearly the entire world. With the Ballets Russes de Basil she danced solo roles in The Sleeping Beauty, The Golden Cockerel, Petrushka, The Firebird and other productions of the Diaghilev repertory. It was Irina Baronova became the prototype of Vera Baranova, the heroine of the Broadway musical On Your Pointe Shoes (1936).

She shot a little, much more often her picture flashed on the covers of magazines in the secular sections of the chronicle. In 1940, Irina Baronova played a major role in the film "Florian". In the 1940s, she began touring alone with her own troupe in the United States and Mexico. Stage Irina Fedorovna left in 1946 at the age of incomplete 27 years.

Baronova was married twice: to Stanislavsky's nephew Sevastyanov, who was her impresario, and to the English entrepreneur Cecil Tennett, to whom were born two daughters who became Hollywood film actresses. From 1960 to 1970 Baronova lived in Switzerland, then moved to London and at the end of her life she moved to Australia at the request of her daughter.

Irina Baronova was awarded the prestigious Nijinsky Medal, an honorary diploma from the North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Lucia Chase Award from the American Ballet Theatre. Until the end of her life, Baronova remained vice president of the Royal Choreographic Society of Great Britain and a trustee of the Royal Australian Choreographic School. Towards the end of her life, Baronova took part in the production of an Australian documentary about the history of Russian ballet abroad, which was released on DVD under the title "Ballets Russe".

Irina Baronova died in Australia on June 28, 2008.