I am delighted to have renewed just recently my connections with two of the dancers who performed in Australia with the Ballets Russes companies of Colonel de Basil—Tatiana Leskova and Anna Volkova. Both feature in the photograph album that was the subject of a recent post, James Upshaw and Lydia Kuprina in South America, sometimes together, sometimes alone or with others. They were and still are great friends.
Both remembered Upshaw and Kuprina quite clearly and Leskova was able to tell me that Upshaw died in France, although exactly when is still unclear.
Leskova celebrated her 90th birthday in December—’I turned 17 on the boat coming to Australia’, she recalls—and is still very active in the dance world. Her biography, written by Suzana Braga and published in Brazilian Portuguese (Tatiana Leskova: uma bailarina solta no mundo) in Rio de Janeiro in 2005, has recently been translated into English. In addition, the irrepressible Leskova has just published a book of photographs. I hope to write about these publications at a later date.
Michelle Potter, 22 December 2012
Thank you, Michelle, for the pointer to the Leskova publications. I have been able to buy “Ballerina At Large” via Amazon in the United Kingdom. And certainly going by the first 4 chapters it is going to be a very lively read. The book of photographs is a bit harder to track down but seems to be available from a Brazilian website. It is so good that another voice from this period and generation is putting down memories.
Ballerina at large is also available via the Book Depository. And yes, Leskova is a very lively person. She says what she thinks!