Australia Dancing - Borovansky, Xenia (1903

Borovansky, Xenia (1903 - 1985)

Borovansky, Edouard: Portrait of Xenia Borovansky, 1940s

Born in Moscow, Xenia Borovansky (nee Xenia Nicoleva Smirnova) trained privately as a dancer in her home city. The family escaped to Berlin during the October Revolution where Xenia joined the Pavlova company. She met Edouard Borovansky in the Pavlova company when he joined it in 1928. She married him in London in 1933.

Xenia came to Australia with Edouard on the Covent Garden Russian Ballet tour of 1938-1939. She was not employed as a dancer but did work with the wardrobe mistress and gave dancing lessons to local girls. Xenia and Edouard remained in Australia at the conclusion of the Russian Ballet tour and established a ballet school, Borovansky's Ballet Academy, in Melbourne in 1939. Xenia did the major part of the teaching at the school and, once the Borovansky Ballet became established, ran the school while Edouard led the company on its various tours of Australia and New Zealand. When Edouard died in 1959 the J. C. Williamson organisation reputedly offered the directorship of the Borovansky Ballet to Xenia but she declined.

Bibliography:

Frank Salter, Borovansky: the man who made Australian ballet (Sydney: Wildcat Press, 1980).

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