Violetta Elvin

Violetta Elvin (born 3 November 1924) is a retired Russian prima ballerina. In 1986, The Times described Elvin as “the only rival ever to give Dame Margot Fonteyn a run for her money”.

Born Violetta Prokhorova on 3 November 1924 in Moscow, she graduated from the Bolshoi Ballet in 1942. Elvin was only 20 when she had already danced the leads in Swan Lake, Marius Petipa's Don Quixote and The Fountain of Bakhchisarai with the State Ballet of Tashkent.

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 with Dimitri Shostakovich. From 1951-56 she was a prima ballerina of Sadler's Wells Ballet, now The Royal Ballet, before retiring and moving to Italy.

A biographical novel about Elvin, written by Raffaele Lauro, entitled Dance The Love - A Star in Vico Equense, was presented in Vico Equense, in national première, on 27 July 2016, within the Social World Film Festival - International Exhibition of Social Cinema.

Raffaele Lauro, with Riccardo Piroddi, is also the author of the work, "Dance The Love - A Star in Vico Equense. Images - Testimonies", GoldenGate Edizioni, 2016.

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