Baronova, Irina

Irina Baronova, born in Petrograd, was one of the three legendary 'baby ballerinas' engaged by George Balanchine for the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. She continued to dance with the de Basil Ballets Russes companies until 1939, coming to Australia on tour with the Covent Garden Russian Ballet in 1938-1939. Baronova left de Basil in 1939 and soon after began a new stage of her career in the United States. Baronova lived the last eight years of her life in Australia, in the hinterland of Byron Bay, where she completed her memoirs which were published in 2005 as Irina: ballet, life and love.

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. Baranova 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).

Baranova'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.