Violetta Elvin (néeProkhorova; 3 November 1923 – 27 May 2021) was a Russian prima ballerina and actress. In 1986,The Times described Elvin as "the only rival ever to give DameMargot Fonteyn a run for her money".^[1]

Elvin was born on 3 November 1923^[2] in Moscow, and graduated from theMoscow State Dance School in 1942. She was the daughter of Irena Grimouzinskaya, an actor and artist, and Vassilie Prokhorov, an aviation pioneer.^[2]

Elvin was only 20 when she had already danced the leads inSwan Lake,Marius Petipa'sDon Quixote, andThe Fountain of Bakhchisarai with the State Ballet ofTashkent.^[3]

From 1951 to 1956 she was a prima ballerina ofSadler's Wells Ballet, nowThe Royal Ballet, before retiring and moving to Italy.^[1][4]

In 1945, she met and married British architect Harold Elvin in Moscow, and was allowed to leave the USSR. On the journey, she played chess withDimitri Shostakovich.^[3] They divorced in 1952.^[2] In 1953, she married the American impresario Siegbert Weinberger, but this also ended in divorce.^[2]

In 1959, she married Fernando Savarese, an Italian lawyer who also managed the family hotel on the Sorrento peninsula.^[2] They had a son, Antonio "Toti" in 1960.^[2]

Abiographical novel about Elvin, written byRaffaele Lauro, titledDance The Love - A Star in Vico Equense,^[5][6][7] was presented inVico Equense, in a national première, on 27 July 2016, within the Social World Film Festival - International Exhibition of Social Cinema.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Raffaele Lauro, also co-authored the volume, "Dance The Love - A Star in Vico Equense. Images - Testimonies", GoldenGate Edizioni, 2016 with Riccardo Piroddi, .^[17]

Elvin died in May 2021 at the age of 97.^[18]

• Swan Lake
• Don Quixote
• The Fountain of Bakhchisarai
• The Sleeping Beauty
• Ballet Imperial
• The Three-Cornered Hat
• Birthday Offering
• Cinderella
• Daphnis et Chloé

• Violetta Elvin atIMDb
• Portraits of Violetta Elvin at theNational Portrait Gallery, London

• 1923 births
• 2021 deaths
• Dancers from Moscow
• Russian prima ballerinas
• Principal dancers of The Royal Ballet
• Soviet ballerinas

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from May 2021
• Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses
• Articles with hCards
• National Portrait Gallery (London) person ID same as Wikidata