Tamara Geva facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tamara Geva
Geva in Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937)
Born	Tamara Zheverzheeva (1906-03-17)17 March 1906 St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	9 December 1997(1997-12-09) (aged 91) New York City, U.S.
Citizenship	Russian American
Occupation	Actress ballet dancer choreographer
Years active	1924–1983
Spouse(s)	George Balanchine ​ ​ (m. 1921; div. 1926)​ Kapa Davidoff (m. 19??; div. 19??) John Emery ​ ​ (m. 1942; div. 1963)​

Tamara Geva (Russian: Тамара Жева, born Tamara Levkievna Zheverzheeva, Russian: Тамара Левкиевна Жевержеева; 17 March 1906 – 9 December 1997) was a talented Soviet and later American actress, ballet dancer, and choreographer. She was the daughter of a famous art collector. Tamara Geva was also the first wife of the well-known ballet dancer and choreographer George Balanchine.

Throughout her life, she danced with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. She also danced with her husband George Balanchine. Tamara Geva performed in and created dances for many famous Broadway shows. She also worked on Hollywood movies.

Early Life and Family Background

Tamara Geva was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on March 17, 1906. Her mother, Tamara Urtahl, was an actress. Her father, Levkiy Gevergeyev ^[ru], loved art and collected many unique pieces.

Levkiy Gevergeyev was known for his open-minded thinking. He supported many new and experimental Russian artists. Tamara Geva described her mother as beautiful but focused on herself. Her parents could not marry until Tamara was six years old. As a child, she lived in a huge house from the 1800s. This house had a large collection of art, books, and theater items. Her father had collected these things over many years. He had people all over the world find art and writings for his collection. Geva said this collection was her father's most important possession. After he passed away, his theater collection was shown in an exhibit at the Saint Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Music ^[ru].

Tamara Geva grew up during the Bolshevik Revolution. She faced many difficulties when she was young. The Bolsheviks took away her father's wealth. Sometimes, her family struggled to find food and were very hungry.

Ballet Training and First Steps

Tamara Geva fell in love with ballet after her father took her to the Mariinsky Theatre. She saw "La Esmeralda" danced by Mathilde Kschessinska. Even though her parents were open-minded, they did not want her to go to ballet school. However, they allowed her to take private lessons.

At 13, Geva started evening dance classes at the Mariinsky Theatre School in St. Petersburg. The school began to accept older students after the revolution. Her teachers were Evgenia Sokolova and Alexander ^[ru] & Ivan Chekrygin ^[ru]. Here, she met dancer and choreographer George Balanchine. At that time, he was teaching ballroom dance classes. She and Balanchine quickly became close. He started creating dances for both of them to perform. One of their first dances was "La Nuit," set to music by Anton Rubinstein.

Geva and Balanchine began performing together in ballet shows. From 1921, Balanchine led his own dance group called The Young Ballet. This company had many promising dancers. However, it faced challenges in Soviet Russia. Tamara married Balanchine in 1924 when she was 17 years old. Family stories say her parents agreed to the marriage after Balanchine played music by Wagner, a composer her father loved.

Moving to a New Life

Tamara and George's dance tour was very difficult. All their shows in Berlin were not well-received. The Young Ballet had to perform in small cities like Wiesbaden and Bad Ems. Geva later wrote that they had to dance in "small dark places" and "beer gardens." They could barely pay for hotels and often only had tea to eat. In London, their performances were also unsuccessful. The audience was very quiet. Their visas were expiring, and no other European country wanted them. Their last option was France.

In 1924, the couple met Anton Dolin. He was a star dancer for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Dolin suggested they try out for Diaghilev's company. Other stories say Diaghilev met them at a social gathering. Diaghilev hired all the dancers from The Young Ballet. They then joined the Ballets Russes. With the Ballets Russes, Geva performed in The Triumph of Neptune in 1926. For this role, she wore a costume made of tiny mirrors that weighed 75 pounds. Geva remembered Diaghilev as always acting superior. She said he would often look down on others. However, he could also be very charming when he needed to be. Diaghilev often put Geva in the background group of dancers (the corps de ballet). She only sometimes received small solo parts. By 1926, her marriage to Balanchine became difficult. He enjoyed life in Monte Carlo with Diaghilev. But she felt stuck and wanted more. She wanted to try acting in movies and theater. In 1926, she left Balanchine. She accepted an offer from Nikita Balieff to join his La Chauve-Souris show. Even after their split, Geva and Balanchine remained friends. They even worked together again later in their lives.

Life in the USA

In 1927, Geva left Europe and traveled to America. She was touring with Chauve-Souris. She brought Balanchine's dance style to New York City. There, she danced three solo pieces that he had created for her. She performed these three dances, called Romanesque, Grotesque Espagnol, and Sarcasms, at the Cosmopolitan Theatre. She was called "a Russian star." After this, Geva began performing with the Ziegfeld Follies.

Later, Geva moved into Broadway shows. She appeared in many famous musicals between 1925 and 1953. These included Three's A Crowd (1930), Flying Colors (1932), and Whoopee! (1934). She loved her time performing on Broadway. She also had the chance to create many dances for these shows. She choreographed the "Talkative Toes" dance for Three's a Crowd. She also choreographed "Two Faced Woman" in Flying Colors.

In 1935, Geva performed with the American Ballet. This was Balanchine's ballet company in New York. She danced in their first performance. She was in Errante, with music by Schubert. She later focused on working in films and theater while staying in America. In 1936, she performed 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" part. She also performed in a ballet parody. Balanchine choreographed these dances, and Dick Rodgers composed the music. A reviewer from New York Times, Brooks Atkinson, said her performance was "magnificent." He added that "she can burlesque it with the authority of an artist on holiday."

In 1938, she played the main role in Sherwood's Idiot's Delight. This play was performed in London.

She continued to act in plays by famous writers like Euripides, George Bernard Shaw, and Jean-Paul Sartre. She acted in Euripides' The Trojan Women, playing Helen of Troy in New York in 1941. In 1947, she was in the Los Angeles production of Sartre's No Exit. She was the main choreographer for Ben Hecht's film Specter of the Rose (1946). This film was based on the story of Nijinsky. In 1953, Geva played Lina Szczepanowska. This was a sarcastic acrobat in a New York show 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. This was a musical comedy with music by Dana Suesse. It had a short run off-Broadway.

In 1972, she published a book about her life called Split Seconds.

Her very last performance was in the film Frevel [de] (1983).

Personal Life

Tamara Geva was the first of Balanchine's four wives. All of them were dancers. After they separated in 1926, she could not officially divorce him. This was because all their legal papers were still in the USSR. Later, in the USA, Geva married Kapa Davidoff. He was an actor and worked in fashion. In 1942, Geva married again. This time, she married American actor John Emery. That marriage ended in divorce in 1963. Tamara Geva never had children.

Tamara Geva passed away on December 9, 1997. She was 91 years old. She died at her home in Manhattan from natural causes.

Film Roles

Broadway Shows

Her Book

• Geva, Tamara. Split Seconds: A Remembrance. Limelight Editions, 1972. ISBN: 0060115122