Violetta Elvin

Violetta Elvin
Born 3 November 1924
Moscow, USSR (now Russia)
Occupation Ballet dancer
Spouse(s) Harold Elvin, British architect

Violetta Elvin (born 3 November 1924) is a Russian former prima ballerina.

Early life

Born Violetta Prokhorova on 3 November 1924 in Moscow, USSR (now Russia).

Career

Elvin graduated from the Bolshoi Ballet in 1942. Elvin was only 20 when she had already danced the leads in Swan Lake, Marius Petipa's Don Quixote and The Fountain of Bakhchisarai with the State Ballet of Tashkent.[1]

In 1945, she met and married British architect Harold Elvin in Moscow, and was allowed to leave the USSR. On the journey, she played chess with Dimitri Shostakovich.[1]

From 1951 to 1956 she was a prima ballerina of Sadler's Wells Ballet, now The Royal Ballet, before retiring and moving to Italy.[2]

In 1986, The Times described Elvin as “the only rival ever to give Fonteyn a run for her money”.[2]

Personal life

In 1945, she met and married British architect Harold Elvin in Moscow.

Elvin had been one of two nightwatchmen at the British Embassy in Moscow during World War II, and in 1958 published A Cockney in Moscow covering events in the three months before and three months after the 1941 German invasion of Russia. The Montreal Gazette commented on its "lucid and evocative style", noting that it had been awarded the "Atlantic Award for Literature" while still in manuscript form.[3]

Repertoire

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Violetta Elvin". Ballet Magazine. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Happy Birthday: Violetta Elvin, 87". The Times. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  3. ↑ "Embassy Highlights". The Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 25 June 2013.