Noted Ballet Stars As Partners

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23145, 17 September 1938, Page 20 (Supplement)

Noted Ballet Stars As Partners

NEW ZEALAND TOUR WITH LONDON COMPANY [from our own correspondent] LONDON, August 29 rpHE two greatest figures in the classical dancing world to-day are accompanying the Covent Garden Russian Ballet Company to Australia and New Zealand Anton Dolin and Irina Baronova. Dolin, who is 34, is English, and Baronova is a 19-year-old Russian girl. Not until next season are they to appear on the English stage together, so that Dominion audiences will see the two famous stars together before Covent Garden. Polin's engagements are so many that he is not travelling with the ballet to Australia, where it will appear before going on to New Zealand. He does not leave England until the middle of September, when he will fly by tlie KL.M. Line to Sydney, and then go on to Melbourne for the opening of the season, about September 29. Baronova's Romance Baronova is accompanied by her 29-year-old husband, M. G. Sevastianov, who will be managing-director of the tour. A tall, dark, handsome man, with merry brown eyes, he joined the Russian Army as a cadet at the age of 13 Later he served with the White Army, and in 1920 he left Russia never to return. He has assisted with the business direction of the ballet for several years. At a farewell party to the ballet after its last performance this week, ' M. Sevastianov said that he first met Baronova when sbo joined the ballet at tho age of 12. "She was born in Petrograd," he said, "and left with her parents to go abroad when she was one. At seven she had her first dancing lesson, and her first public appearance was at Bucharest the same year. When she came to us first we did not know what to do with her, she was such a slight, thin, little thing. Now, of course," and he shrugged, "Yes, they say she is tho most famous dancer in the world. Many Dancers Married "She is good, yes, but she does not always do as she should! She likes horse-riding, cycling, and swimming, but they are not good for dancing, and sometimes I have to be very firm, yes? And, appetite! All ballet dancers have big appetites, you know. They eat like heavy-weight boxers in training!" Of tho 70 dancers in the ballet, fully 80 per cent of them are said to be of Russian extraction. There are three Canadian girls, an American, and one or two English girls who have taken appropriate Russian names. Nearly half tho company aro married, and are being accompanied by their wives and husbands. The ballet will leave Australia for New Zealand in January. It is expected that the orchestra to be formed in Australia will also bo engaged for the New Zealand tour.