Violetta Elvin
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3 November 1923
Siegbert Weinberger
Fernando Savarese
Violetta Elvin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Violetta Vassilievna Prokhorova 3 November 1923 Moscow, Russia |
| Died | 27 May 2021 (aged 97) |
| Occupations | Prima ballerina, actress |
| Spouse(s) | Harold Elvin Siegbert Weinberger Fernando Savarese |
| Children | 1 son |
Violetta Elvin (née Prokhorova; 3 November 1923 – 27 May 2021) was a Russian prima ballerina and actress. In 1986, The Times described Elvin as "the only rival ever to give Dame Margot Fonteyn a run for her money".[1]
Elvin was born on 3 November 1923[2] in Moscow, and graduated from the Moscow State Dance School in 1942. She was the daughter of Irena Grimouzinskaya, an actor and artist, and Vassilie Prokhorov, an aviation pioneer.[2]
Career
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.[3]
From 1951 to 1956 she was a prima ballerina of Sadler's Wells Ballet, now The Royal Ballet, before retiring and moving to Italy.[1][4]
Personal life
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.[3] They divorced in 1952.[2] In 1953, she married the American impresario Siegbert Weinberger, but this also ended in divorce.[2]
In 1959, she married Fernando Savarese, an Italian lawyer who also managed the family hotel on the Sorrento peninsula.[2] They had a son, Antonio "Toti" in 1960.[2]
A biographical novel about Elvin, written by Raffaele Lauro, titled Dance The Love - A Star in Vico Equense,[5][6][7] was presented in Vico Equense, in a national première, on 27 July 2016, within the Social World Film Festival - International Exhibition of Social Cinema.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]
Raffaele Lauro also co-authored the volume, Dance the Love - A Star in Vico Equense. Images - Testimonies, GoldenGate Edizioni, 2016 with Riccardo Piroddi, .[17]
Elvin died in May 2021 at the age of 97.[18]
