Dancing into the Unknown

<p>Tamara Tchinarova was born in Romania in<br />1919 and began her dance training in Paris<br />with emigré ballerinas from the Imperial<br />Russian Ballet. She danced professionally<br />in Europe with the touring Ballet Russes<br />companies that emerged in the 1930s<br />after the death of the entrepreneur Serge<br />Diaghilev and she went to Australia in<br />1936 with the Ballet Russes de Monte-<br />Carlo returning in 1938 with the Covent<br />Garden Russian Ballet. In Australia during<br />those first two tours by the Russian Ballet<br />she made a strong impression as Action in<br />Leonide Massine’s first symphonic ballet<br />Les Présages. She was also admired for her<br />portrayal of Thamar in Michel Fokine’s<br />dramatic ballet and was praised for her<br />dancing in demi-character roles in ballets<br />such as Le beau Danube.<br />In 1939 at the conclusion of the Covent<br />Garden Russian Ballet tour along with<br />a number of her colleagues Tchinarova<br />elected to stay in Australia where she met<br />and married the actor Peter Finch and<br />worked with him on a number of films<br />before leaving Australia to make her home<br />in London. But Finch had caught the eye of<br />the glamorous actress Vivien Leigh wife of<br />Sir Laurence Olivier and the love triangle<br />that developed was to have devastating<br />consequences.<br />This fascinating autobiography highlights<br />Tamara’s remarkable life in Romania<br />and her worldwide dancing career the<br />tempestuous marriage to Peter Finch and<br />her involvement in his notorious affair with<br />Leigh through to her subsequent career as<br />adviser and interpreter for many Russian ballet companies.</p>