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THE BYRON BAY region on visited her backstage in Berlin; never know what to expect next the North Coast of NSW is that the greatest choreographers … All those artists were such known to boast a musician on of the 20th century – Leonard colourful personalities. They every hill. What is barely known Massine, , were great and, yes, it was a is that on one particularly glorious and golden age for us … but it ridge above a quilt of pastoral – chose to work never made the head grow too green is a prima ballerina who with her; and that artists such big for one’s hat. When I think once performed on the most as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, of them, I think, ‘Gosh’. But illustrious stages of the world, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall and then you take it in your stride. at one time 100 cities in four Salvador Dali designed her So it was Salvador [Dali] who electrifying months. costumes and stage sets. was pinning my skirt. So what?” Ask her today about her The memories swirl and So what? The mind extraordinary life and sprinkle her days with gold cartwheels with the thought 86-year-old dust. “All of them [Picasso, of those with whom Irina can scarcely believe it herself Matisse, Chagall, Dali] came once kept company. A first – that as one of the three so- to all of the fittings,” she says, marriage to Jerry Sevastianov called “” with “choosing the fabric. It was a (nephew of the famous Russian the legendary Ballet Russe de collaboration … The most actor and producer, Konstantin Monte Carlo, she danced in temperamental of them and the Stanislavsky); a wild affair London for King George V one that made us giggle was with the young Yul Brynner; and Queen Mary (and then their Picasso [whereas] Joan Miró an 18-year marriage to the successors, King George VI and and Matisse – they were the great love of her life, Cecil Queen Elizabeth); that Adolf peaceful ones. Dali was Tennant, London’s leading tHitler and Josef Goebbels always amusing. You would theatrical agent of the ’50s  dancethe

Kings and queens, dictators, film stars and giants of the art world have allof worshipped at the feetlife of legendary Russian ballerina Irina Baronova. Here, she tells David Leser about her extraordinary and colourful life.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM BAUER STYLED BY JANE DE TELIGA

90 | WW OCTOBER 2005 and ’60s; an abiding friendship cross the river,” she told Irina’s with Laurence Oliver and Vivien mother. “It will keep her quiet.” Leigh; mother-in-law at one time And it did … Irina Baronova to actor [husband has been sucking on sugar cubes of her daughter, Victoria Tennant] since. “I prefer it to chocolate,” plus a society of friends and she says now merrily. acquaintances that now reads For the next eight years, like the Who’s Who of a dazzling Irina Baronova and her parents bygone era – actors such as lived in near destitution in Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Romania – her father, a Dietrich, Shirley Temple, Clark designer of enormous talent, Gable, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, forced into factory work; her Noel Coward and Marilyn mother, a once aristocratic Monroe; and, of course, the beauty, compelled to accept pre-eminent dancers of their the squalor of a refugee’s life. time, , Mikhail Lydia Baronova took her Baryshnikov, Tamara Karsavina bitterness and sense of loss out and . on her daughter. She also planted We could drop names in Irina the seed of her own forever here, but it would magnificent and unrealised hardly penetrate the surface obsession – to become a ballerina. of a remarkable life story. Far “Ballerina?” her daughter better – and more pertinent – asked her one day, nonplussed. to recall that, were it not for “What is that?” a few cubes of sugar, there She was to learn soon would have been no life, no enough. At the age of seven- glittering career, at all. and-a-half, she was sent to That’s what it came down study ballet after school in a to one perilous night 85 years dishevelled one-room flat in ago, on the border of Soviet Bucharest. Her rich potential and Romania. It was the end of November 1920 and Irina’s father, Michael Baronov, Were it not for a few cubes a former lieutenant in the Tsar’s navy, together with his of sugar, there would have been wife, Lydia, were fleeing the bloody carnage of the Bolshevik Revolution with their one-year- no life, no glittering career, at all. old daughter. was soon obvious. She had the soloists at the Palais. Then one Already their home had balance, the discipline, the day in 1931, two visitors – been requisitioned and Irina’s ability to get up on her toes, Colonel Wassily Grigorievich maternal grandfather shot in stretch her knees and make her de Basil and Georgi Balanchine the head at point blank range. upper body sing to the music. – arrived at the dance studio to On her father’s side, the entire “Irischka, you must have a meet the students. De Basil extended family was soon chance in life,” her father was was an entrepreneur and former to disappear. to eventually tell her. “We director of the Russian Opera So here the three of them shall go to Paris.” in Paris. He was to become were on the frigid banks of the And they did, in 1928, just known in as the man Dniester River, trying to get when the French capital was who toured – on three occasions into Romania with the help of drawing into its sensual embrace – the world-famous Ballets a man who had just managed the best writers, painters, Russes. Georgi Balanchine was to spirit his own family across. photographers, designers and the famous choreographer  “I have to warn you,” he told dancers of their generation. Irina’s parents. “If your child Irina began ballet cries or makes any noise, I’ll classes under the eagle have to throw her overboard. eye of the Russian dancer My life comes first.” and Irina’s father was prepared within a year had become to kill himself and his family to the star pupil, along with avoid such a fate, but an old another child prodigy, peasant woman came to their . Top: Irina, 21, as Lise in rescue first. Among her meagre Soon the two girls were Nijinska’s ballet, La Fille possessions was a box of sugar dancing at tea parties for Mal Gardee, in 1940. Above: cubes, the remains of which high society baronesses, Irina Baronova, aged four, and her mother, Lydia, she decided to offer them. appearing in children’s in 1923. Left: Her father, “Stuff them piece by piece into plays on the Champs Michael, in his imperial navy uniform in 1919. MAURICE SEYMORE, CHICAGO. COURTESY OF IRINA BARANOVA. PREVIOUS PAGE: HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY LIZ. JONES. AND MAKE-UP BY HAIR PAGE: PREVIOUS OF IRINA BARANOVA. COURTESY SEYMORE, CHICAGO. MAURICE [the baby’s] mouth as you Elysees and performing as

92 | WW OCTOBER 2005 WW OCTOBER 2005 | 93 who had worked for Sergei the lips start, where are the Diaghilev’s , the eyelashes, if there are any left. major ballet company in the Maybe it’s good. I can’t see any Western world, until Diaghilev’s wrinkles, hooray [laughter].” death in Paris in 1929. And then, fixing me in her What these men were beguiling but near-blind gaze, she proposing was to form a new says, “I see you have something ballet company in the image of light on top, but you have no Diaghilev, the Russian nobleman head, no face [laughing more], who had revolutionised 20th so if I want to see what you look century music, theatre and dance. like, I have to come nose to nose It had been Diaghilev who had really to inspect your face.” brought together the genius Would you like to do that? talents of composers, artists and “Yes, please,” and with that choreographers – men such as she pulls my face towards her, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, grabs both cheeks and gives them Jean Cocteau and George a squeeze. “Yes, nice,” she coos. Balanchine – for the stage. “Good. Now I can see you.” And now Balanchine and Well, that’s one way to de Basil, plus a third man, disarm your guest. Another is René Blum – who was to to offer him fine food and eventually perish at Auschwitz wine – and then to speak from – were to revive Diaghilev’s the heart about the joys and company by introducing to the sorrows of her life, joys which world young dancers fresh she now spreads out in photo out of ballet school. The three form on the table before us. dancers they chose were “That’s me in ,” Tamara Tourmanova, Tatiana she says. “I played Odile … Riabouchinska and Irina and that’s me in Bluebeard. I Baronova, and they were to was the last of the six wives … who got the better of the “Goebbels kept sending me and Tania cards husband. And that’s Aurora’s Wedding, part of Sleeping Beauty, and I was Princess and bouquets of beautiful lilacs ... at least Aurora … and here I am as the Queen of Shemakhan …” two or three times a week.” So many roles over a 17-year period as the Ballet Russe eventually be dubbed The de Monte Carlo – and all its Three Baby Ballerinas, by a subsequent namesakes – played London dance critic. to captivated audiences around the world, including one IRINA BARONOVA IS ONE memorable performance in of life’s delicious characters. Berlin in 1936, when she A diminutive figure with feet danced for the Chancellor of turned out like Charlie Chaplin’s, the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, she greets me at the front door and his Minister for Propaganda, with a kiss on either cheek and Josef Goebbels. They both came then leads me into a living room backstage after the performance washed bright by sunlight and to meet the dancers. birdsong. She appears as “Goebbels kept sending perishable as porcelain, except me and Tania [Tatiana that her voice is gutsy and Riabouchinska] cards and her manner full of dramatic bouquets of beautiful lilacs … Top: Irina, 30, on her wedding flourishes, as one might expect at least two or three times a day with her from a former White Russian week,” Irina muses. “But, after adored husband, prima ballerina. all, we had the King of England theatrical agent We take a seat opposite each [George VI] and the Queen Cecil Tennant, in 1949. Above: other and I comment on the [Elizabeth] coming on stage Irina (right) at the beauty and blueness of her eyes. and watching us perform at theatre with (from “I don’t know what my eyes Covent Garden, so to have left) Laurence look like,” she replies with a Herr Hitler and Goebbels and Olivier, his wife, still thick Russian accent, his wife, well … no big deal.” Vivien Leigh and Cecil. Left: With “because I can’t see myself in Irina bubbles with throaty daughters Irina the mirror. That’s why I don’t laughter and then continues. (left) and Victoria put make-up on, because I can’t “You know at least with in 1978.

see where the skin finishes and Continued on page 294. IRINA BARONOVA. COURTESY JENNIE SLATON.

WW OCTOBER 2005 | 95 Irina Baronova continued “But it was so spontaneous, so full of ballet director Jerry Sevastianov, as much affection. ‘Hello, Queen. Good to see you. out of youthful infatuation as out of a Queen Elizabeth [the late Queen Mother], Well done. You’re on the throne now. desperate need to escape the tyranny and we were friends and that meant something [Laughing] We’re all for you. We love cloying demands of her mother. to us. But Herr Hitler and the others … you …’ That feeling about them, whereas The marriage stumbled its way to a well, jolly nice of them to send the lilacs, we had no feeling about Hitler or his gang Mexican divorce seven years later and but so what? At that time we were not … Until we realised, ‘Oh my God, what then, after a vain attempt at reconciliation, really impressed. horrible people they were.’ ” died a natural death in 1947. “Goebbels as a man, physically, was On the eve of World War II, Irina The following year, Irina fell in an ugly little shrimp to look at … whereas toured Australia with Colonel de Basil’s love with Cecil Tennant, the London Hitler had personality … and a beautiful, Ballet Russe, known at the time as the theatrical agent, who had served with the old-fashioned manner – kissing the hand Covent Garden Russian Ballet. Australian Coldstream Guards during World War II. and so cavalier – and there was charm audiences were mesmerised. “They went Tennant was a tall, dashing figure … in those eyes … but that’s about all. for it,” Irina recalls now. “They were disinclined to mince words. One didn’t talk. They were just presented hungry for something like that. It was “How would you like to be married to the members of the company, clicked something new, something so spectacular to me,” he asked not long after the two the heels, kissed the hand ... and they and beautiful. You imagine all the had met. “Oh, I’d like it very much,” were gone.” sceneries and costumes by those great Irina replied breezily, thinking Cecil I suggest to Irina that it must seem painters. They’d never seen anything might be joking. slightly surreal sitting here now, perched like that before.” The couple were married in May 1949, above the most easterly point of Australia, There was now not only an appreciable but only after Irina agreed to stop dancing. discussing her association with the monarchs market for ballet in Australia, but also the “I want you to know what I’m expecting of Europe. (She also danced for King opportunity for its development. By the of you,” he told his fiancée. “I expect Carol II of Romania and former King end of the 1938 tour, a number of dancers you to give up your ballet career for Alphonse XIII of Spain.) “Yes that was decided to remain in Australia instead good and any other form of work. I also really me,” she says dreamily. “Amazing.” of returning to Europe. At least four don’t want you for five years to see And it prompts another recollection, this new ballet companies emerged as a anyone from, or have anything to do time of dancing for King George VI and result, including the West Australian with, the ballet world.” Queen Elizabeth at London’s Royal Opera Ballet under the guidance of Irina’s good Irina protested. These were her best House Covent Garden. friend, Kyra Abrikosova. friends. How could she turn her back on “When Edward VIII abdicated and Irina loved Australia – the big blue them? “I will not discuss this any further,” went off with his Mrs Simpson, King skies, the people, the koalas – but her he replied. “I’ll give you 48 hours to think George [VI] and Queen Elizabeth’s first future for the moment belonged in the about it and give me an answer.” outing was to Covent Garden … so we northern hemisphere and her continuing Cecil Tennant was a traditional had to be presented to them all over again collaboration with the choreographers Englishman, but Irina was besotted. because that was the protocol. and artists who had helped define 20th She chose love over art and, within a “So there we all stood thinking, ‘Isn’t century culture. few years, the couple had produced three this ridiculous? We know them so well, When she departed, however, she left children, Victoria, Irina and Robert. but now we have to be introduced again’, behind a coterie of new friends … and a (Victoria Tennant was to become an actor, and as they came down the line Tania new line of lipsticks, which an Australian marrying Steve Martin in 1986 and [] grabbed the cosmetics company had named in her divorcing him nearly a decade later.) Queen’s hand and said, ‘Hello, Queen’ honour. It was called Irina Baronova. Cecil and Irina were blissfully happy and it was great … Queen Elizabeth had and enjoyed the company of many of a big smile on her face and even King IN 1936, AT THE TENDER AGE Cecil’s actor clients, among them Grace George had a suppressed giggle. of 16, Irina had married Russian-born Kelly, Clark Gable and, perhaps the 

WW OCTOBER 2005 | 295 Irina Baronova continued of certainty that something terrible had – that mentally, in your head, in your soul, happened.” She ran out of the house over in your heart, you don’t get old. But your most glamorous duo of the day, Laurence the hill and saw the carnage below. body doesn’t want to function that way. Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Olivier was Cecil died in his 15-year-old daughter’s It’s a bloody curse [laughing]. I want to to become elder daughter Victoria’s arms. dive into that beautiful sea. I want to run, I adoring godfather, while Leigh was to want to dance, I want to fool around with assume the role of godmother to younger ALMOST 62 YEARS AFTER HER my little grandchildren, but my daughter daughter Irina. first visit to Australia, Irina Baronova says, ‘Mum, don’t do it. You’ll break your Vivien Leigh’s life was a tragedy moved into the sap-green hills of northern hip’. And she’s right.” of Greek proportions and it was to leave NSW. It was just after the 2000 Olympics Nonetheless, Irina feels blessed. To its mark on Irina’s family forever. As and she had decided to live near her have had the career she has had – and the world would later discover, Vivien daughter, Irina, and first grandchild, there was more to come in the 1990s, suffered from tuberculosis and mental Natasha. (She also has a great-grand- when the legendary Dame Margot illness, and was often prone to hysterical daughter by Natasha, Zoe, as well as Fonteyn lured her into the Royal Academy fits. One day, at the Oliviers’ country five other grandchildren.) of Dance in London, to give mime and estate in England, Vivien turned her wrath For 45 years, ever since the death of master classes around the world … And on Cecil, her agent and friend. “When I Irina’s beloved father, Michael Baronov, her then to find herself living at her “final die,” she hissed in a low, scraping voice, mother, Lydia, had lived with her. If truth be destination”, among the Bangalow “I’ll take you with me.” known, Irina had been scared of her mother palms and mango trees, back under the Today, nearly 40 years later, this until the day she died in 1992, after falling big blue skies of the Australia she fell in comment still chills Irina to the core. down the stairs of their London cottage. love with more than six decades ago … “Oh my God,” she says. “It will never Now she was free to do what she pleased. This is a blessing and Irina knows it. leave me. I think it shook us all. She was No more reproof, no more jealousy, no more “It’s the best decision I’ve ever made, very sick and it was like something else being accountable. So little tenderness. It to come over here,” she says. “Because was inhabiting her body, her mind. I seemed it had to wait till the end. I’ve found peace here. And beauty around shouldn’t use this word, but it felt like evil “I was leaning over her at the hospital and me. I sit on my deck and any time of was present … she would be the kindest, she grabbed my hair, and started twiddling morning or evening, it’s peace and beauty. sweetest person and then she’d be suddenly and said, ‘When you were little you were What more do you want in your old age?” possessed by something horrible.” blonde, blonde, blonde, and now you’re Does the idea of death confront her I Two years after this event, Vivien white’, and I felt how much she loved me ask? “No, I’m not afraid of death. It’s a Leigh died, in July 1967. Her funeral … which I sometimes questioned.” natural thing. Everybody dies. Make was held at St Mary’s in London. Cecil Irina allows the tears to collect. friends with the idea.” informed Irina she was not to come to the There’ve been enough of them over the So what do you think happens when church, claiming funerals “were no place past four years, as she’s reminisced about you die, I ask her finally. “I don’t know,” for a woman”. Her protests fell on deaf the first 48 years of her life, calling forth she says, her fading, brilliant eyes shining ears and Irina couldn’t understand his voices from the past to help her write her with laughter. “Maybe beyond the pearly opposition. That evening, Cecil was autobiography, Irina: Ballet, Life and gates they’re all rehearsing and waiting returning home with their daughter Irina Love. The process has been both joyful for me. Or maybe there is nothing.” and son Robert, when he crashed and and painful, costing her what little sight Your preference would be another rolled his E-type jaguar on a sharp bend. she had left and causing her to rail at her performance? “Well, it would be fun, Irina senior was waiting nervously at home withering frame. wouldn’t it?” ■ and immediately intuited that something “Oh, bastard,” she says, gesturing was wrong. “It was as if a dagger had been towards her body. “I’m angry with it. Irina: Ballet, Life and Love, by Irina struck into my chest,” she recalls now Whoever said that old age is golden Baronova is published by Viking. Available quietly … “I had a moment of knowledge, should be shot. That’s the frustrating thing October 5, 2005, rrp $35.

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