Australia Dancing - Bounina, Kira (1924

Bounina, Kira (1924 - )

Hall, Hugh P.: Tatiana Riabouchinska, Alexandra Denisova, Tatiana Leskova, Genevieve Moulin, Marina Svetlova, Anna Leontieva, Tatiana Bechenova and Kira Bounina as the Junior Girls in 'Graduation Ball', The Original Ballet Russe, 1940

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Kira Bounina was the stage name given by Colonel de Basil to the Canadian dancer Jean Haet (nee Hunt) born in Nanaimo, British Columbia. From the age of ten she trained with the legendary dance teacher Jean Roper at her B.C. School of Dancing in Vancouver. Roper ensured that Haet extended her dance studies into ballroom dancing with Louis Hightower and tap with Bill Corey. She also studied with Ernest Belcher in Los Angeles, William and Harold Christensen in San Francisco and appeared in several of Jean Roper's spectacular revues, 'Stars of tomorrow', in the late 1930’s.

In 1940 during a Ballets Russes tour to Vancouver David Lichine auditioned Jean Hunt and offered her a place in the company. The young sixteen year old dancer joined two other Canadian teenage pupils of Jean Roper. Rosemary Deveson (stage name Natasha Sobinova) and Patricia Meyers (Alexandra Denisova) were recruited by de Basil and Lichine in February 1938. They toured to Australia and New Zealand with the second de Basil company in 1938/1939.

Jean Hunt, with her mother as chaperone, sailed for Australia in late 1939, soon after the outbreak of World War II. As Kira Bounina she danced in de Basil's corps de ballet, appearing in the Perpetual Motion section of Lichine's Graduation Ball at the world premiere (Sydney, March 1940) and various roles in Lichine's Protee and many other ballets.

Bounina remained with the de Basil company for its return to America and a New York season adding roles in Balanchine's Balustrade and Cotillon. In 1941 she joined Ballet Theatre under her own name and assumed important feature roles in works by Fokine, Massine, Lichine, Dolin, Tudor, and De Mille. In 1942, whilst on tour to Mexico City, she met and married American Donald Haet. She retired from dancing, ultimately living and raising a family in San Francisco, where she still resides. In the 1960s Jean Haet returned to the dance world as teacher, mentor and balletomane.

Bibliography:

Leland, Windreich, 'Jean Roper: ballet starmaker' (Toronto, Dance Collection Danse, 1999) ISBN 0-929003-34-9

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