{{Short description|Soviet-American actress and dancer (1906–1997)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Tamara Geva | image = Tamara Geva Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937).jpg | caption = Geva in ''Manhattan Merry-Go-Round'' (1937) | birth_name = Tamara Zheverzheeva | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1906|03|17}} | birth_place = St. Petersburg, Russian Empire | citizenship = Russian <br> American | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1997|12|09|1906|03|17}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | resting_place = | occupation = {{hlist|Actress|ballet dancer|choreographer}} | years_active = 1924–1983 | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|George Balanchine|1921|1926|end=divorced}} * {{marriage|Kapa Davidoff|<!--unknown?-->|<!--unknown?-->|end=divorced}} * {{marriage|John Emery|1942|1963|end=divorced}} }} | website = | signature = }}
'''Tamara Geva''' ({{langx|ru|Тамара Жева}}, born '''Tamara Levkievna Zheverzheeva''', {{langx|ru|Тамара Левкиевна Жевержеева}}; 17 March 1906 – 9 December 1997) was a Soviet and later an American actress, ballet dancer, and choreographer. She was the daughter of art patron and collector {{Interlanguage link|Levkiy Gevergeyev|ru|3=Жевержеев, Левкий Иванович|WD=|lt=Levkiy Gevergeyev|vertical-align=sup}} and she was the first wife of the well-known ballet dancer and choreographer George Balanchine.
Throughout her life she danced with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, danced with husband George Balanchine, and performed in and choreographed many notable Broadway shows as well as Hollywood movies.
==Family and early life==
Tamara Geverzheeva was born in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire<ref name=nyt/> on March 17, 1906.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tamara Geva {{!}} American ballerina and actress|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tamara-Geva|access-date=2020-09-24|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> Geva's mother Tamara Urtahl was an actress, while her father {{Interlanguage link|Levkiy Gevergeyev|ru|3=Жевержеев, Левкий Иванович|WD=|lt=Levkiy Gevergeyev|vertical-align=sup}} was a passionate collector and art enthusiast.<ref name=nyt/>
Levkiy Gevergeyev was known as a freethinker. He sponsored Russian avant-garde artists and their projects through his enthusiasm for artistry. Geva described her mother, Tamara Urthal, as a beautiful but selfish woman. Her parents were unable to marry until their daughter was six years old. As a child, she lived in a huge 19th-century house (Ivan Zheverzheev's house at Rubinstein Street, 18) which had an extensive art, book and theater collection as well as a miniature theater all organized by her father and his years of collecting such artifacts. Her father had agents all over who found art, writings, and artifacts from a variety of well-known artists to add to his massive collection. Geva has said that this collection was her father's most prized possession. After his death, his extensive theatre memorabilia collection was put into an exhibit at {{Interlanguage link|Saint Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Music|ru|3=Санкт-Петербургский музей театрального и музыкального искусства|lt=|vertical-align=sup}}.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Interview with Tamara Geva, 1976|url=http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/0d5ec560-3b72-0134-dd7f-60f81dd2b63c|access-date=2020-09-24|website=NYPL Digital Collections|language=en}}</ref><ref name=museum/>
Geva grew up in the midst of the Bolshevik Revolution where she experienced true hardships in her youth. Her father's fortune was taken away by the Bolsheviks, sometimes they struggled to find food and lived on a verge of starvation.<ref name=museum>{{cite web |author=Veinberg, N. |language = ru |url =https://theatremuseum.ru/naukpubl/JEVERJEEV |title =Известный и неизвестный Л. Жевержеев: судьба Жевержеева в аспекте истории |trans-title=Levkiy Gevergeyev fate in history |publisher = St Petersburg State Museum of Art and Music |accessdate = 2022-12-26}}</ref>
== Training and early career ==
Geva fell in love with ballet when she was taken by her father in Mariinsky Theatre and saw La Esmeralda danced by Mathilde Kschessinska. However open-minded, her parents forbade Geva to go to ballet school. Still, she was allowed to take private lessons.<ref name=gorina>{{cite web |author=Горина Т. Н. |language = ru |url = https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/adresa-georgiya-balanchivadze-v-peterburge-petrograde |title =Адреса Георгия Баланчивадзе в Петербурге - Петрограде |publisher = Вестник Академии русского балета им. А. Я. Вагановой |date = 2015 |accessdate = 2022-12-26}}</ref><ref name=it>{{cite web |language = it |url = https://magazine.dlf.it/rubriche/l-amico-del-popolo/l-amico-del-popolo-17-marzo-2021.html |title ="L'amico del popolo", 17 marzo 2021 |date = 2021-03-23 |accessdate = 2022-12-26}}</ref>
At age 13 Geva began to attend evening dance classes at the St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre School, when it began to accept older students shortly after the revolution.<ref name="sp">{{cite book|last1=Webb|first1=Clifton|title=Sitting Pretty: The Life and Times of Clifton Webb|date=2011|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=9781604739978|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JrzjNFnS6oAC&q=%22Tamara+Geva%22&pg=PA96|access-date=29 May 2018|language=en}}</ref> Her teachers were Evgenia Sokolova and {{Interlanguage link|Alexander Chekrygin|ru|3=Чекрыгин, Александр Иванович|lt=Alexander|vertical-align=sup}} & {{Interlanguage link|Ivan Chekrygin|ru|3=Чекрыгин, Иван Иванович|lt=|vertical-align=sup}}. 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 very soon, 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''.<ref name=gorina/>
Geva and Balanchine began appearing together professionally in ballet concerts. From 1921, Balanchine managed his own company ''The Young Ballet''. Though stuffed with promising and talented dancers, the company struggled in Soviet Russia. Tamara married Balanchine in 1924, when she was 17 years old.<ref name="sp" /> According to the family legend, the parents agreed on this marriage when Balanchine played Wagner to Levkiy, who adored this composer.<ref name=it/><ref name=gorina/>
== Emigration ==
Their tour turned out to be a disaster. All performances in Berlin were met coldly, ''The Young Ballet'' had to perform in small cities of the Rhine Province such as Wiesbaden, Bad Ems, and Moselle. Geva wrote later, that in that time they had to dance ‘in small dark places, in summer theaters and private ballrooms, in beer gardens and before mental patients‘. They could barely afford paying for hotels and often had only tea for meal.<ref>{{cite web |language = ru |url =https://www.timeout.ru/msk/artwork/85113 |title =Воспоминания |publisher = Time Out |accessdate = 2022-12-26}}</ref> In London, they had two weeks of very unsuccessful performances, when the audience met them with dead silence. With expiring visas, they weren't welcome in any other European country, as the last resort remained in France.{{sfn|Polisadova|2013|p=35-36}}
In 1924, the couple met Anton Dolin, one of Sergei Diaghilev's star dancers. Dolin suggested that they audition for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. According to other sources, Diaghilev met them in Misia Sert's salon. The impresario hired all dancers of ''The Young Ballet'' and they joined the ''Ballets Russes''. With the ''Ballets Russes'', Geva performed in ''The Triumph of Neptune'' 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, only sometimes she received little solos. By 1926, her marriage to Balanchine became shaky: while he enjoyed life in Monte Carlo under the wing of Diaghilev, she felt trapped and longed for more. She wanted to rise above ballet and try herself in cinema and theater. Finally, in 1926 she left Balanchine and accepted Nikita Balieff's offer to join his La Chauve-Souris. Despite the split, Geva and Balanchine remained friends and collaborated later in life.<ref name=it/>{{sfn|Polisadova|2013|p=35-36}}
=== USA ===
In 1927, Geva left Europe and made her way to America while touring with ''Chauve-Souris''. 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.{{sfn|Taper|1996}}<ref name=it/>{{sfn|Polisadova|2013|p=45-46}}
Later Geva transitioned towards Broadway where she appeared in a number of notable musicals between 1925 and 1953 including ''Three's A Crowd'' (1930),<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Tamara Geva – Broadway Cast & Staff {{!}} IBDB|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/tamara-geva-42034|access-date=2020-09-27|website=www.ibdb.com}}</ref> ''Flying Colors'' (1932)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/flying-colors-11624|title=Flying Colors – Broadway Musical – Original | IBDB}}</ref> and ''Whoopee!'' (1934).<ref name="mn">{{cite news|last1=Muir|first1=Helen|date=April 8, 1962|title=Grove To Glitter At World Premiere|page=88|work=The Miami News|location=Florida, Miami|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20471418/tamara_geva/|access-date=May 28, 2018|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref> 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".<ref name=nyt/>{{sfn|Genné|2018}}
In 1938, she played the main part in Sherwood's ''Idiot's Delight'' staged in London.{{sfn|Morgan|1938}}
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. She was the lead choreographer for Ben Hecht's film ''Specter of the Rose'' (1946), based on the Nijinsky legend.<ref name=apnews/> 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.<ref name=nyt/><ref name=it/>
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.<ref name=nyt /><ref name=apnews/>
In 1972, she released an autobiographical book entitled ''Split Seconds''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mko.ru/rus/thverth.shtml |title=Книга Тамары Жевержеевой "Воспоминания" |language=ru |trans-title= Tamara Geva releases memoirs |access-date=2014-01-12 }}</ref>
Her last ever performance was onscreen in ''{{Ill|Frevel|de|Frevel (Film)}}'' (1983).<ref name=apnews>{{cite web |language = en |url =https://apnews.com/article/962d3ffbdafc71f1aa113ac04e231e27 |title =Tamara Geva, a Russian-born dancer |publisher = The Associated Press |date = 1997-12-11 |accessdate = 2022-12-26}}</ref>
==Personal life==
Geva was the first of Balanchine's four wives, all of whom were dancers.<ref>{{cite web |author=Sanjoy Roy |language = ru |url = https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jul/30/dance-george-balanchine|title =Step-by-step guide to dance: George Balanchine |work = The Guardian |date = 2009-07-30 |accessdate = 2022-12-26}}</ref> After their split in 1926, she couldn't officially divorce because all documents remained in the USSR. Later in the USA, Geva married Kapa Davidoff (né Garabed Tavitian; 1897-1982) in August 1931, although they had a religious ceremony two years prior; the couple divorced in June 1936.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tamara Geva – Broadway Cast & Staff {{!}} IBDB |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/tamara-geva-42034 |access-date=2025-11-02 |website=www.ibdb.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Feb 23, 1941, page 133 - The Philadelphia Inquirer at Newspapers.com™ |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171117234/ |access-date=2025-11-02 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-US}}</ref> Davidoff was an actor and fashion executive.<ref name=it/> In 1942 Geva married again, this time to American actor John Emery,<ref>{{cite web |language = en |url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1942/06/29/87716611.html?pageNumber=11 |title =John Emery Weds Tamara Geva |work = The New York Times |date = 1942-06-29 |accessdate = 2022-12-26}}</ref> that union ended in divorce in 1963. Geva never had children.{{sfn|Farber|2014}}
Tamara Geva died on 9 December 1997, at the age of 91, at her home in Manhattan from natural causes.<ref name=nyt>{{cite news |last1=Anderson |first1=Jack|title=Tamara Geva Is Dead at 91; Ballet Dancer and Actress |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/11/arts/tamara-geva-is-dead-at-91-ballet-dancer-and-actress.html |access-date=29 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=December 11, 1997|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180529040047/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/11/arts/tamara-geva-is-dead-at-91-ballet-dancer-and-actress.html|archive-date=29 May 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Filmography== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |- |1925|| ''Wood Love'' || Oberon || |- |1925|| ''Cock of the Roost'' || Jutta, Rombergs Tochter || |- |1925|| ''Die unberührte Frau'' || Jane, ihre Mutter || |- |1926|| ''Gräfin Plättmamsell'' || || |- |1929|| ''Zwischen vierzehn und siebzehn - Sexualnot der Jugend'' || Parent || |- |1931|| ''The Girl Habit'' || Sonja Maloney || |- |1934|| ''Their Big Moment'' || Madame Lottie Marvo || |- |1937|| ''Manhattan Merry-Go-Round'' || Madame 'Charlie' Charlizzini || |- |1942|| ''Orchestra Wives'' || Mrs. Beck || |- |1943|| ''Night Plane from Chungking'' || Countess Olga Karagin || |- |1946|| ''Specter of the Rose'' || || Choreographer |- |1948|| ''The Gay Intruders'' || Maria Ivar || |- |1951|| ''The Adventures of Ellery Queen'' || || Episode: "The Ballet Murder" |- |1951|| ''The Web'' || || Episode: "Golden Secret" |- |1978|| ''Cartas de amor de una monja'' || Monja || |- |1979 |''Diaghilev: A Portrait'' |Narrator | |- |1984|| ''Frevel'' || Bardame || (Final film role) |}
== Broadway credits == {| class="wikitable" |+ <ref name=":3" /> !Year !Title !Role |- |1927 |''Chauve-Souris'' |Performer |- |1928 |''Whoopee!'' |Yolandi |- |1930 |''Three's a Crowd'' |Performer |- |1932 |''Flying Colors'' |Performer |- |1933 |''A Divine Drudge'' |Lania |- |1934 |''The Red Cat'' |Mimi |- |1935 |''Alma Mater'' |Performer |- |1936 |''On Your Toes'' |Princess Zenobia, Strip Tease Girl |- |1941 |''The Trojan Woman'' |Helen |- |1944 |''Peepshow'' |Leonie Cobbe |- |1950 |''Pride's Crossing'' |Zilla |- |1953 |''Misalliance'' |Lina Szczepanowska |}
==Memoir== *Geva, Tamara. ''Split Seconds: A Remembrance''. Limelight Editions, 1972. {{ISBN|0060115122}}
==References== {{reflist}}
== Sources == *{{cite book |last=Taper |first=Bernard |year=1996 |title=Balanchine: A Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b6asPmWr9YMC&dq=%22Tamara+Geva%22&pg=PA95 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520206397 }} *{{cite book |last=Genné |first=B. |year=2018 |title=Dance Me a Song: Astaire, Balanchine, Kelly, and the American Film Musical |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WP5cDwAAQBAJ&dq=tamara+geva+balanchine&pg=PT110 |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-062417-0 }} *{{cite book | last1 = Polisadova | first1 = O. N. | date = 2013 | title = Балетмейстеры ХХ века : индивидуальный взгляд на развитие хореографического искусства | trans-title =Ballet-master of XXth century: An Individual approach to choreography | url = http://library.lgaki.info:404/2017/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%20%D0%9E_%D0%91%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%8B.pdf | publisher = Vladimir State University |language=ru | isbn =978-5-9984-0395-8 }} *{{cite journal | last1 = Morgan | first1 = Charles | date = 1938-04-10 | title = London on 'Idiot's Delights' | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/04/10/99540043.html?pageNumber=150 | journal = The New York Times }} *{{cite book |last=Farber |first=Donald C. |year=2014 |title=I Hated To Do It: Stories of a Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MckmDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Tamara+Geva%22&pg=PT38 |publisher=RosettaBooks |isbn=9780795344794 }}
==External links== {{Commons category}} *{{IMDb name|0315337}} *{{IBDB name}} *{{iobdb name|27963}} *[http://tvkultura.ru/video/show/brand_id/32041/episode_id/994842/video_id/1014711/ Video about Geva's father] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170501080641/https://tvkultura.ru/video/show/brand_id/32041/episode_id/994842/video_id/1014711/ |date=1 May 2017 }} *https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/0d5ec560-3b72-0134-dd7f-60f81dd2b63c
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Geva, Tamara}} Category:1906 births Category:1997 deaths Category:Actresses from Saint Petersburg Category:20th-century American artists Category:American ballerinas Category:American musical theatre actresses Category:American film actresses Category:Soviet emigrants to the United States Category:Soviet film actresses Category:Soviet silent film actresses Category:People from the Russian Empire of Swedish descent Category:Ziegfeld girls Category:20th-century American actresses Category:20th-century Russian actresses Category:20th-century American singers Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:20th-century American women singers Category:20th-century American ballet dancers