Background
Mia Slavenska was born in what was Brod na Savi in Austria-Hungary (presently Croatia).
Mia Slavenska was born in what was Brod na Savi in Austria-Hungary (presently Croatia).
A dancer since the age of four, she studied in Zagreb under Josephine Weiss and made her debut in Baranović"s ballet Licitarsko srce in 1924, at what is today the Croatian National Theatre.
She formed the Slavenska Ballette Variante and, later, the Theatre Ballette. In 1954, she became the prima ballerina of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. She became the prima ballerina of the Zagreb Opera at the age of 17.
She left Zagreb for Vienna, where she danced under L. Dubois, G. Krauss and L. von Weiden.
And Paris under Lubov Egorova, Mathilde Kschessinska and Olga Preobrajenska. Foreign many years she was the leading ballerina of the famous Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and with whom she moved to United States. in the outset of the World World War World War II In France she started working on film.
After appearing in Jean Benoit-Levy"s film Ballerina (1937) and promoting it in the United States., she remained there as a teacher and dancer. She gained American citizenship in 1947.
Her own company, Ballet Variante, was formed in 1944 in Hollywood.
One of her most highly regarded roles was as a strongly dramatic Blanche DuBois in Valerie Bettis" modern choreography of A Streetcar Named Desire, premiered in Her Majesty"s Theatre in Montreal in 1952. She became the prima ballerina of the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1954 – 55. She opened a ballet studio in New York in 1960, then taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (University of California, Los Angeles) from 1969 to 1983 and concurrently at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) from 1970 to 1983.
New York Times review, November 18, 1939, of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Giselle.