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Tamara Geva (17 March 1907 - 9 December 1997) was a Russian actress, ballet dancer and choreographer. She was the first wife of dancer/choreographer George Balanchine. She was born as Tamara Gevergeyeva (some sources cite her birth name as Sheversheieva Gevergeyeva), the daughter of Levko Gevergeyev, a wealthy manufacturer of church vestments and a patron of avante-garde artists. She shortened her surname to Geva when she came to St. Petersburg, Russia. Her father was a freethinker and had been raised in the Muslim faith. Her mother was Swedish. Her parents were not officially married... MORE

Tamara Geva (17 March 1907 - 9 December 1997) was a Russian actress, ballet dancer and choreographer. She was the first wife of dancer/choreographer George Balanchine. She was born as Tamara Gevergeyeva (some sources cite her birth name as Sheversheieva Gevergeyeva), the daughter of Levko Gevergeyev, a wealthy manufacturer of church vestments and a patron of avante-garde artists. She shortened her surname to Geva when she came to St. Petersburg, Russia. Her father was a freethinker and had been raised in the Muslim faith. Her mother was Swedish. Her parents were not officially married until their daughter was 6. As a child she lived in a huge 18th century house which had a miniature theater and a theater museum. The museum is preserved and is currently known as The State Museum of Theater and Music. Geva studied ballet with a private teacher, but after the Russian Revolution of 1917 she entered the Imperial Theatre School in Maryinsky, when it began to accept older ballet students for night classes. Here she met dancer and impresario George Balanchine, who was teaching ballroom dance classes. She married Balanchine in 1921 (not 1923 as has been misreported) aged 14; the marriage LESS