Introducing myself and query about Natasha Kirsta (née Watchinadze)

[Alix]

Hello Ballet Alert,

 

I am Alix (Alexandra) Kirsta, the daughter of George Kirsta who was the second husband (for a very brief period) of Natasha Kirsta (née Watchinadze)

 

I am a journalist and author living in London. My website is www.alixkirsta.com 

 

Is anyone still posting on this website/blog? I have just been contacted by a lady in Moscow who is related to my father's family - she has been studying the family history for 5 years and would like further information about Natasha but my knowledge is very limited. All I have are a few papers and articles given to me by Lee Christofis. If anyone has any more information especially about Natasha's early life before she settled in Australia please let me know. I knew Natasha as a very little girl in London in the 1950s.

 

I am also planning to write a biography of my parents' lives in Russia, Austria and London - where they moved just before the war. Because of this I will be in close contact  with the lady in Moscow who of course is my distant relative...

 

 

[Jayne]

I had not heard of her, and this forum is not very Australia-focused.  But she sounds completely fascinating. 

A quick Google search pulled up the National Library of Australia:  

“Natasha Kirsta was born Princess Natasha Watchinadze in Russia in 1894. Her second husband was the Ballets Russes theatre designer George Kirsta. She left the USSR with George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova in the 1920s and lived in Vienna, later travelling to Berlin to direct Victor Gsovsky's ballet school. She co-founded Ballet Kirsta with Govsky in the early 1950s which performed throughout Europe. The company included Lesley Caron, Brigitte Bardot and Roland Petit. Rex Reid, who would maintain a close friendship with Kirsta, was principal choreographer and dancer. Kirsta moved to Australia in 1957, settling in Melbourne and working as a ballet school administrator. She was a member of the Australian Ballet Theatre Group, which held its inaugural meeting in October 1959 to discuss an approach to the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust regarding the formation of a permanent Australian ballet company. Kirsta forged friendships with European and Australian artists and performers including Jean Cocteau, the Stravinksys, Arthur Rubinstein, Marlene Dietrich, John Gielgud, Kathleen Gorham, Anne Church, Nadia Nerina, Rudolf Nureyev and Marcel Marceau. She died in 1982.”