August 10
Born Today:
Xenia Borovansky
Ballerina Xenia Borovansky (1903-1985) trained at the Bolshoi Ballet and she and her family relocated to Berlin in the 1920s, where she married fellow dancer Edouard Borovansky (1902-1959) and both toured with Anna Pavlova (1881-1931). The Borovanskys did not feel they could return to Europe during WWII, and they settled in Australia and started the Melbourne Academy of Russian Ballet, and the Borovansky Ballet Company in the 1940s. This company was the roots and foundation for the Australian National Ballet, founded in 1962.
Also Born Today: Ballet dancer Yuri Soloviev (1940-1977) graduated from the Vaganova Academy in the same class as Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993) and performed with the Kirov Ballet in the 1960s and 1970s. Soloviev was nicknamed “Cosmic Yuri” for his incredible leaps.
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Movie: The Wizard of Oz released in 1939.