Up for auction a VERY RARE! "French Prima Ballerina" Ludmilla Tchérina Hand Signed 3X5 Card.  

ES-6582E

Ludmilla

Tchérina (10 October 1924 – 21

March 2004) was a French prima ballerina, sculptor, actress, painter, choreographer and

author of two novels. Tchérina was born Monique Tchemerzine,

into Circassian aristocracy as the

daughter of Kabardian Prince Avenir

Tchemerzine (Shamyrze), a former Russian general, who had escaped from

St. Petersburg, and Stéphane Finette, a French woman. She studied with Blanche

d'Alessandri, Olga Preobrajenska and

Clustine. She started dancing at 16 and danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo,

where she was spotted by Serge Lifar. She made her Paris debut creating the rôle of

Juliet in his Romeo and Juliet in

1942, becoming the youngest prima ballerina in the history of dance. In 1945

she was a principal dancer with the Ballet des Champs-Élysées and performed in

Paris concerts with her husband Edmond Audran. She created various rôles in

Lifar's ballets including: 'Mephisto Waltz' in 1945, A la memoire d'un heros in 1946 and in Le Martyre de

Saint-Sebastian in

1957. She appeared often with the Paris Opera, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Kirov Ballet as a guest performer. Ludmilla Tchérina

acted in several films including The Red Shoes, Les Rendezvous, The Tales of Hoffmann, Oh... Rosalinda!! and Luna de Miel. She also

appeared in television. In the 1980s she turned to writing and published two

novels under her own name, L'Amour au Miroir (1973) and La Femme a L'Envers (1986). Ludmilla Tchérina had a

lifelong passion for painting and exhibited in many major galleries. She also

conceived and executed several monumental sculptures, including Europe

à Coeur, chosen in 1991 by the EU to symbolise the union of Europe and now

located at the European Parliament. In 1994 she created Europa Operanda,

now installed at the French terminal of Eurotunnel.