Tamara Geva

At 90 years old, Tamara Geva physical status not available right now. We will update Tamara Geva's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Tamara began her ballet training by taking private lessons in dance studios with notable teachers such as Evgenia Sokolova and Alexander & Ivan Chekrygin. At age 13 she began to attend dance classes at the St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre School, when it began to accept older students for evening classes shortly after the revolution. These evening classes were segregated by sex, so the only time the boys and girls interacted was during ballroom dance classes. It was here that she met dancer and choreographer George Balanchine, who at the time was the teacher for the ballroom dance classes. She and Balanchine became close shortly after this and he began choreographing pieces for them both. One of the first things they did was La Nuit to Anton Rubinstein's Romance in E-flat. Geva remembers audiences thinking it was "terribly erotic." During the Revolution Balanchine moved in with Geva's family. To make ends meet the two would perform in small theaters performing dances Balanchine choreographed as well as music sung by Geva accompanied by Balanchine. She married Balanchine in 1924, when she was 17 years old. Soon after, she shortened her surname and the couple left Russia in 1924.

Career

While the couple was still in Russia, Geva and Balanchine began appearing together professionally in ballet concerts. In 1924, the couple met Anton Dolin, one of Sergei Diaghilev's star dancers. Dolin suggested that they audition for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Diaghilev was immediately impressed by the pair and he hired them on the spot to join the Ballets Russes. Balanchine and Geva defected from Soviet Russia and left on a tour to Europe with Diaghilev as a part of the Ballets Russes. Geva was a part of Ballet Russes for 2 and a half years from 1924 until 1927 during which they performed in places such as Paris and Monte Carlo. Geva performed in The Triumph of Neptune with the Ballets Russes in 1926 where she wore a costume made of tiny mirrors that weighed 75 pounds. Geva remembered Diaghilev as having a superior air at all times and that he would often look down upon others, but he could also turn his charm on at any time he needed it. Diaghilev often stuck Geva in the corps de ballet, so she left the company fairly early to find more fulfilling work.

In 1927, Geva left Europe and made her way to America while touring with Nikita Balieff's Chauve-Souris. During this time, she introduced Balanchine's choreography to New York City, where she danced three solos choreographed for her by him. She premiered these three pieces entitled Romanesque, Grotesque Espagnol with music by Albeniz, and Sarcasms with music by Prokofiev at the Cosmopolitan Theatre and was called "a Russian star". After this, Geva began performing with the Ziegfeld Follies. Later Geva transitioned towards Broadway where she appeared in a number of notable musicals between 1925 and 1953 including Three's A Crowd (1930), Flying Colors (1932) and Whoopee! (1934). She cherished her time on Broadway as a performer, but she also got the chance to choreograph many numbers in these productions. She choreographed the "Talkative Toes" dance for Three's a Crowd and "Two Faced Woman" in Flying Colors.

In 1935 Geva performed with the American Ballet, Balanchine's ballet company in New York. She performed in their first performance where she danced in Errante with music by Schubert. She later immersed herself in film and theater work while staying in America. In 1936, she was paired with actor Ray Bolger in On Your Toes by Rodgers and Hart. In On Your Toes, she danced in the dramatic "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" sequence and a balletic parody choreographed by Balanchine and composed by Dick Rodgers. New York Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson described her performance as "magnificent", adding "she can burlesque it with the authority of an artist on holiday". She went on to act in productions of the works of Euripides, George Bernard Shaw, and Jean-Paul Sartre. She acted in Euripides' The Trojan Women where she played Helen of Troy in New York in 1941, and in the Los Angeles production of Sartre's No Exit in 1947. In 1953 Geva played the character of Lina Szczepanowska a sarcastic acrobat in a New York revival of George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance. The cast included Roddy McDowall and Richard Kiley. In 1959, Geva and Haila Stoddard created Come Play With Me a musical comedy with a score penned by Dana Suesse, which had had a short off-Broadway run. She was the lead choreographer for Ben Hecht's film Specter of the Rose (1946), based on the Nijinsky legend. Her last ever performance was onscreen in Frevel (1983).

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