Mia Čorak Slavenska
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Mia Slavenska (Slavonski Brod, 1916 - Los Angeles, 2002), birth name Mia Čorak, was a famous Croatian prima ballerina.
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American ballerina of Yugoslavian extraction who appeared rarely on film. A dancer since the age of five, she became the prima ballerina with the Zagreb Opera. After appearing in Jean Benoit-Levy's film Mort du cygne, La (1938) and promoting it in the U.S., she remained there as a teacher and dancer. She formed the Slavenksa Ballette Variante and, later, the Theatre Ballette. In 1954, she became the prima ballerina of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.
Mia Slavenska was born in what was Brod na Savi, Austro-Hungria and later Yugoslavia, and is today Slavonski Brod, Croatia, on February 20th 1916. Born as Mia Corak, she changed the name soon after permanently leaving the country in 1937.
She studied in Zagreb under Josephine Weiss and made her debut in Baranovic's ballet Licitarsko srce in 1924, at what is today the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, where she soon became prima ballerina at the age of 17. At the 1936 Berlin dance Olympics, coinciding with the Olympic games, she won the choreography and dance award. She left Zagreb for Vienna where she danced under L. Dubois, G. Krauss and L. von Weiden; and Paris under L. Jegorova, M. Kschessinska and O. Preobrazenska.
In France she started working on film. For many years she was the leading ballerina of the famous Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and with whom she moved to US in the outset of the World War Two. She gained American citizenship in 1947. Her own company, Ballet Variante, she formed in 1944 in Hollywood. Her greatest roles she achieved with the Slavenska Franklin Ballet Company that she founded with Frederic Franklin in 1950. One of her most highly regarded roles was as a strongly dramatic Blanche DuBois in Valerie Bettis modern choreography of 'A Streetcar Named Desire', premiered in Her Majesties Royal Theatre in Montreal in 1952.
Slavenska was the greatest Croatian (and Yugoslav) ballerina of all times and one of the most influential artists of her time. She performed both coast to coast in US and internationally, including South America, Asia and Africa, becaming the prima ballerina of the New York Metroplitan Opera in 1954 - 55. She opened a ballet studio in New York in 1960, then was teaching at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1969 to 83, and at the California Institute for the Arts (CalArts) from 1970 to 83.
Her brilliance was backed up with her striking red hair and appearance. She married 'Kurt Neumann' , an Austrian born actor, in 1946. They had one daughter, Maria. Slavenska died in Californian retirement home on october 5th 2002.
