This is a rare 6.5 by 9 inch vintage original press photo from 1953 of famous South African ballerina Nadia Nerina and Russian prima ballerina Violetta Elvin posing by a Raphael Soyer painting, "Ballet Girl", while on tour in New York with Sadler's Wells ballet company (later The Royal Ballet).

Nadia Nerina (1927 – 2008) was a South African dancer who was "one of the most gifted, versatile, and inspiring ballerinas of The Royal Ballet" during the 1950s and 1960s. She was known "for her technical virtuosity, lightness afoot, effortless-seeming jumps, and joyful charm onstage, especially in comedic roles."

In 1952, at age 25, she was promoted to principal dancer with Sadler's Wells, having become "a distinctly bright light within the company's remarkably luminous roster of ballerinas, which included Moira Shearer, Margot Fonteyn, Svetlana Beriosova, and Antoinette Sibley."

She was a favorite of Frederick Ashton, chief choreographer of the company, who cast her in new works, such as Homage to the Queen and Birthday Offering, as well as in existing productions of Cinderella, Sylvia, and Ondine.

Violetta Elvin (née Prokhorova;1923 – 2021) was a Russian prima ballerina and actress. In 1986, The Times described Elvin as "the only rival ever to give Dame Margot Fonteyn a run for her money".

Elvin was only 20 when she had already danced the leads in Swan Lake, Marius Petipa's Don Quixote, and The Fountain of Bakhchisarai with the State Ballet of Tashkent. From 1951 to 1956 she was a prima ballerina of Sadler's Wells Ballet, now The Royal Ballet, before retiring and moving to Italy.

(excerpts from Wikipedia)

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