Ludmilla Tchérina

Ludmilla Tcherina at Frankfurt Airport (1955)

Ludmilla Tchérina (born October 10, 1924 as Monique Tchemerzine in Paris , † March 21, 2004 ibid) was a French prima ballerina , choreographer and film actress in French and British productions as well as a sculptor and painter .

Live and act

As a dancer on stage

The native Monique Tchemerzine comes from the Caucasian people of the Circassians and was born as the daughter of a Kabardine prince who fled to the west after the October Revolution and a French woman. As a teenager she received her artistic training from the ballerinas Blanche d'Alessandri, Olga Preobrajenska and Clustine, and at the age of 16 she appeared on stage for the first time as a professional dancer. Ludmilla Tchérina, as she soon called herself, celebrated her first successes at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo , where she was discovered by Serge Lifar and brought to Paris. There she made her debut with Juliet in the ballet Romeo and Juliet at the time of the German occupation in 1942, making her the youngest prima ballerina in dance history. At the end of the war in 1945 she was principal dancer at the Ballet des Champs-Élysées and appeared in Paris concert halls alongside her husband, Edmond Audran, who died early. The brunette dancer completed Tchérina's most famous appearances in Lifar's ballet productions. a. in Mephisto Waltz (1945), A la memoire d'un héros (1946) and Le Martyre de Saint-Sebastian (1957). She had further successes with Giselle and Le Specter de la Rose . Ludmilla Tchérina has often appeared at the Paris Opera as well as guest appearances at New York's Metropolitan Opera , the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Kirov Ballet in the USSR. In 1959, Tchérina insured her for six million DM , pointing out that her legs were “her life” . In 1960 she appeared for the first time in Germany with her own ballet group, which she founded the previous year, at the Titania Palast in Berlin. The ballet critic Klaus Geitel wrote in Die Welt at the time : “The power of your personality, your inner fire, your allure - that of a celebrated star everywhere - put their stamp on every piece - and at least this stamp is real, if everything else is sometimes not carries the quality mark of the top-class. […] The only option left for the critic is to reject the whole thing as not intellectually demanding enough or to affirm it as a kind of ballet divertissement , which is not without its charm in detail. "

With film and television

In 1946 Ludmilla Tchérina made her film debut in her native Paris under Christian-Jaque . In the same year she followed a stage engagement as part of a tour with the Nouveaux Ballets de Monte Carlo to London, where she appeared at the Cambridge Theater. It obviously left a lasting impression, so that the director and producer duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger cast it in the following year (1947) for one of the two leading female roles in the splendid dance film drama The Red Shoes . The Oscar- winning color film was such a resounding success that Powell / Pressburger La Tchérina was also signed up for their next ambitious dance film production, Hoffmann's Tales . Despite its merits, this film was not a particularly great success, and as a result the artist appeared almost exclusively in conventional entertainment films, mostly of French, but occasionally also of Italian and American provenance. She was often given roles of exotic or noble ladies from history, for example as princess and later Empress Aelia Pulcheria in Douglas Sirk's Attila, the Hun King , or as the daughter of Mata Hari in the film of the same name, Carmine Gallones . She also created the choreography for these two films that have been released. After her appearance as Rosalinda in Powell's / Pressburger's modernized version of Johann Straussen's Die Fledermaus , Fledermaus 1955 , Ludmilla Tchérina rarely appeared in front of the camera. Her late appearances, which she often did for television, were ballet film adaptations of literary originals. There she was seen as Salome, Lady of the Camellias and Anna Karenina, among others. In 1987 she was in front of the camera for the last time. Ludmilla Tchérina also wrote two novels about her life as a dancer: L'Amour au miroir (1983) and La Femme à l'envers (1986).

Other artistic activities

Ludmilla Tchérina's grave in the Montmartre cemetery

Even in her youth, Ludmila Tchérina tried her hand at painting and sculpting. Since 1960 she has exhibited her works in several European capitals. In Paris there was an exhibition sponsored by André Malraux at the Hôtel de Sully and her so-called “Dynamogram”, in which she combined painting and dance, was presented at the Center Georges Pompidou . Ludmilla Tchérina thus spread her theory of “total art”, which was supposed to unite all aspects of artistic activity. In 1973 La Tchérina carried out a charcoal design for a bronze, which she called "L'envol" (= The Start). The dancer summed up her understanding of art with the following words: “I can only create creations that are defined by movements that embody life, death and love, the three dominant themes of dance.” Other Tchérina works were called “Salome”, “Crie Blue ”and“ Dionysus ”(oil on canvas), but the dancer also made numerous drawings and gouache paintings. In 1991 Ludmila Tchérina designed and realized a twelve-meter-high monumental sculpture called “Europe à cœur” (= Europe in the heart). This Tchérina work has been officially selected by the European Community to symbolize the united Europe. The sculpture was unveiled at the Paris Museum of Modern Art in March 1992. The bronze version of "Europa" was installed in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg in spring 1994. In 1994 Ludmila Tchérina conceived and created the “Europa Operanda” under the patronage of the Fondation de l'Europe des sciences et des cultures, Europe of science and culture. This monumental bronze sculpture was set up in front of the French terminal of the Eurotunnel in Calais and was ceremoniously unveiled on May 6, 1994 at the inauguration of the Channel Tunnel by the British Queen Elizabeth II and President Mitterrand . “Europa Operanda” is intended to symbolize the spirit of creation and construction of Europe.

Filmography

• 1946: Shadow of the Past (Un revenant)
• 1948: The Red Shoes (The Red Shoes)
• 1949: The career of Doris Hart (La Belle que voilà)
• 1949: Fandango
• 1949: The night comes to an end (La nuit s'achève)
• 1950: Tales of Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann)
• 1951: Parsifal
• 1951: Clara de Montargis
• 1952: Spartacus, the rebel of Rome (Spartacus)
• 1953: Grand Gala
• 1954: Attila, the Hun King (The Sign of the Pagan)
• 1954: The daughter of Mata Hari (La figlia di Mata Hari)
• 1955: Bat 1955 (Oh ... Rosalinda!)
• 1958: Radiant sky - radiant happiness (Luna de miel)
• 1961: Les Amants de Tercel (also production)
• 1963: Hommage à Debussy (short film)
• 1964: Le Mandarin merveilleux (TV movie)
• 1969: Salomé (TV movie)
• 1971: La possédée (TV movie)
• 1972: L'Atlantide (TV movie)
• 1974: La Dame aux Camélias (TV movie)
• 1975: La passion d'Anna Karénine (TV movie)
• 1975: La Reine de Saba (TV movie)
• 1981: Notre-Dame de la Croisette

literature

• Ephraim Katz : The Film Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. Revised by Fred Klein and Ronald Dean Nolen. New York 2001, p. 1343

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ludmilla Cherina . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14/1959 , April 1, 1959, personal details , p. 62 ( spiegel.de ).
2. ^ Klaus Geitel: Julia from Elysian climes. A star to which you submit . In: The world . January 20, 1960.

Web links

• biography
• Ludmilla Tchérina in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Obituary in The Independent, March 27, 2004