Irina Baronova

Irina Mikhailovna Baronova FRAD (Russian: Ири́на Миха́йловна Баро́нова; March 13, 1919 – June 28, 2008) was a Russian ballerina and actress who was one of the Baby Ballerinas of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, discovered by George Balanchine in Paris in the 1930s. She created roles in Léonide Massine's Le Beau Danube (1924), Jeux d'enfants (1932), and Les Présages (1933); and in Bronislava Nijinska's Les Cent Baisers (1935).

Baronova was born in Saint Petersburg (then known as Petrograd) in 1919, the daughter of a lieutenant in the Imperial Navy, Mikhail Baronov, and his wife Lidia (née Vishniakova). In November 1920 the Baronova family escaped the Russian Revolution by dressing as peasants and crossing the border into Romania. After first arriving in Arges, Romania, the family eventually settled in Bucharest. Irina’s father found work at a factory and, for the next several years, the Baronova family lived in the slums surrounding the various factories where Mikhail was employed. Their start on life in Bucharest was a tumultuous one, having arrived in this foreign country without speaking the language and with no money. But with Mikhail’s hard work and determination their circumstances eventually started to look up.

Irina’s mother, who loved the ballet and often attended the theater in St. Petersburg, found a ballet teacher in Bucharest for Irina. In 1927, at the age of seven, Irina began taking her first ballet lessons. Mme. Majaiska, who was a former corps de ballet member of the Maryinsky Theatre Ballet, and a refugee like the Baronovas, conducted these ballet lessons. The lessons took place in Mme. Majaiska’s one room house, where Irina would hold onto the kitchen table as a barre, and was accompanied by her mother’s humming as music. When Irina was 10 years old, the family moved to Paris to provide her with professional training. She was taught by Olga Preobrajenska. She also studied with fellow ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska. Baronova made her debut aged 11 at the Paris Opera in 1930.

The crucial point in Baronova's career came in 1932, just a few months short of her thirteenth birthday. She, along with two other girls, Tamara Toumanova, 12, and Tatiana Riabouchinska, 14, were hired by George Balanchine to become ballerinas in the newly formed Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Their extreme youth and technical perfection won them fame around the world. During their first season in London with the Ballet Russe, English critic Arnold Haskell coined the term “Baby Ballerinas” for Toumanova, Riabouchinska and Baronova.

Baronova's first principal role was Odette in Swan Lake, partnered by Anton Dolin, which she performed at just 14 years old. Irina was an animal lover and travelled the world with her pet marmoset, Miky. On tour in Barcelona in 1937, she bought Miky a friend, whom she named Piki. From then on, Irina toured with her two monkeys and they lived with her happily for the next nine years.

At age 17, she eloped with an older Russian, German ("Jerry" or "Gerry") Sevastianov. Two years later they had a church wedding in Sydney, Australia, where she was on tour. She then joined the Ballet Theatre in the USA, under the patronage of Sol Hurok, and she and Sevastianov subsequently divorced. While in Britain in 1946 she met the agent Cecil Tennant, who asked her to marry him if she would give up ballet. Aged only 27, she agreed and retired.

Between 1940 and 1951, Baronova appeared in several films, including Ealing Studios Train of Events (1949) and worked as ballet mistress for the 1980 film Nijinsky.

Baronova and Tennant had three children, Victoria, Irina and Robert. Through Victoria, she became the mother-in-law of Steve Martin. In 2014, Victoria published a pictorial biography of her mother's life titled Irina Baronova and the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo.

In 1967, Cecil Tennant was killed in a car accident, and Baronova moved to Switzerland. Later, she resumed her relationship with her first husband, Jerry Sevastianov, who died in 1974. She returned to teaching master classes in the United States and United Kingdom in 1976. Margot Fonteyn asked her to conduct a training course for teachers. In 1986 she staged Fokine's Les Sylphides for The Australian Ballet. In 1992 she returned to Russia to help the Mariinsky Theatre with an archival project. In 1996 she received a Vaslav Nijinsky Medal from Poland and an honorary doctorate from the North Carolina School of the Arts.

Baronova's daughter Irina moved to Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia and, after visiting her in 2000, Baronova decided to settle there as well. In 2005 Baronova appeared in the documentary "Ballets Russes" and published her autobiography, "Irina: Ballet, Life and Love," which she wrote it in longhand despite having lost much of her sight.

Baronova was Vice President and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Dance (FRAD). She was also a patron of the Australian Ballet School.

Only five weeks before her death, she spoke at a symposium in Adelaide, South Australia, on the Ballets Russes' tours of Australia. She died in her sleep at Byron Bay on June 28, 2008, aged 89.

• Tennant, Victoria. Irina Baronova and the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-226-16716-9
• Irina: Ballet, Life and Love Autobiography, 2005, Penguin/Viking, ISBN 978-0-670-02848-1, University Press of Florida ISBN 978-0-8130-3026-5
• Lister, Raymond (1983) There was a star danced... Linton, Cambridge (A limited edition art work on Baronova)

• "Raymond Lister" obituary, The Daily Telegraph (30 November 2001)