Tamara Geva

Tamara Geva (Russian: Тамара Гева, Жева, or Джева; 17 March 1907 – 9 December 1997) was a Russian-American actress, ballet dancer and choreographer. She was the first wife of dancer/choreographer George Balanchine.

Geva was born with the surname Zheverzheieva, sometimes spelled Gevergeyeva (Russian: Тамара Жевержеева), the daughter of Tamara Urtahl (who was Swedish) and Levko Zheverzheiev (or Gevergeyev). Geva's paternal grandparents, although Tatar Muslims, founded a business, which their son inherited, which manufactured objects for the Russian Orthodox Church, including precious icons and ornaments, as well as gold lame and lace for church vestments. Geva's parents were patrons of avante-garde artists. Geva shortened her surname when she came to St. Petersburg, Russia.

Her father, although raised Muslim, became a freethinker. Geva described her mother, also Tamara, as a beautiful but selfish woman, frequently unfaithful to her husband. Her parents were unable to marry until their daughter was six years old. 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 privately, but after the revolution she entered the Theatre School of the Soviet Ballet when it began to accept older ballet students for night classes. Here she met dancer and later choreographer George Balanchine, who was teaching ballroom dance classes. She married Balanchine in 1923, aged 16. The marriage was dissolved in 1926.

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