Signed photograph of dancer Tamara Tchinarova, of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet. (Melbourne?), circa 1939.

Gelatin silver print photograph, 110 x 155 mm, inscribed in ink by the sitter at lower right ‘To Miss Scarlett. Best wishes, Tamara Tchinarova’; mild corner wear, unmounted (verso blank).

‘Tamara Tchinarova was born to Russian parents in Romanian territory and began her dance training in Paris with emigre ballerinas from the Imperial Russian Ballet. She danced professionally in Europe with the touring Ballet Russes companies that emerged in the 1930s after the death of the entrepreneur Serge Diaghilev, and she came to Australia in 1936 on tour with the Monte Carlo Russian Ballet. Tchinarova returned in 1938 with the Covent Garden Russian Ballet. In Australia during those first two tours by the Russian Ballet she made a strong impression as Action in Leonide Massine’s first symphonic ballet Les Presages. She was also admired for her portrayal of Thamar the Georgian Queen in Michel Fokine’s dramatic ballet Thamar, and was also praised for her dancing in demi-character roles in ballets such as Le Beau Danube.

In 1939 at the conclusion of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet tour, along with a number of her colleagues, Tchinarova elected to stay in Australia. She made an especially important contribution in the 1940s to newly developing Australian companies, which included the Kirsova Ballet, the Polish-Australian Ballet and the Borovansky Ballet. During her time with the Kirsova Ballet she created a number of roles, including that of Satana in Kirsova’s three act ballet Faust, which premiered in November 1941. She was a principal dancer with the Borovansky Ballet in the mid 1940s and worked with Borovansky to restage ballets from the Ballets Russes repertoire. In Australia she met and married actor Peter Finch and worked with him on a number of films before leaving Australia to make her home in London.’ (NLA)

After retirement, Tchinarova Finch worked in Australia as a dance critic and as an interpreter for touring ballet companies, including the Australian Ballet. She died in 2017.