IRINA BARONOVA (born 1919)
Baronova was one of the three famous “Baby Ballerinas” (along with Tatiana Riabouchinska and Tamara Toumanova). She was discovered by George Balanchine in 1931 in the Paris dance studio of Olga Preobrajenska (the great prima ballerina of the Russian Imperial Ballet). Baronova was not quite 13 when she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1932. She danced with various Ballets Russes companies between 1932 and 1941 and also with Ballet Theatre and Leonide Massine’s Ballet Russe Highlights. Baronova starred in four films: Florian (1940), Yolanda (1943), Train of Events (1949) and A Toast to Love (1951). She also appeared in the musical Bullet in the Ballet and the comedy Black Eyes (both in London in 1946). Irina Baronova now lives in Australia where she wrote her memories which will be soon published.