Sonia Arova

Bulgarian ballerina

Sonia Arova
Соня Арова
Born	(1927-06-20)20 June 1927 Sofia, Kingdom of Bulgaria
Died	4 February 2001(2001-02-04) (aged 73)
Occupation	Ballerina

Sonia Arova (born Sophie Errio; Bulgarian: Соня Арова; 20 June 1927 – 4 February 2001), was a Bulgarian ballerina.

Biography

Early life

Sonia Arova was born as Sophie Errio on 20 June 1927 in Sofia, Kingdom of Bulgaria. She went to a ballet school, where she showed potential that the teachers she had advised her mother to take her to further her training.^[1] She began her training in Paris with Olga Preobrajenska. On holiday in Brittany in June 1940 with her best friend, June Ratcliffe, the young girls, Sophie, June and her sister Cecilia, were taken by train to Dax to escape the approaching Germans, by June's mother Andrée Ratcliffe. They eventually caught a ship to Plymouth from Bayonne; reputedly the last ship to leave, after Andrée Ratcliffe, with three children on her passport (her son was at school in England) refused to leave Sophie, as she was then called, alone on the dockside. She never saw her father again. She was reunited with her mother and sister eight years later. In England, the Ratcliffe family paid for her education at the Arts Educational Trust and she eventually joined the International Ballet in 1942.

Career

She worked as a principal ballerina in the Original Ballets Russes, the London Festival Ballet, the Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of Washington, D.C.,^[2] and the American Ballet Theatre. She danced with Rudolph Nureyev in their American debut with Ruth Page's Chicago Opera Ballet troupe in New York City (1962).^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] She was a great success, with kings and queens presenting her presents in appreciation of her work. She became Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Norway in 1966 and remained in the position until 1970.^[2]^[7]

In 1971, she co-directed the San Diego Ballet with her husband Thor Sutowski. The couple accepted teaching posts at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in 1976. During their stay, she was artistic director of the Alabama Ballet. In 1996, the pair returned to San Diego, California, where her daughter, Ariane, lived. In a ceremony at the United Nations, she was made a Dame by King Olaf V of Norway, becoming the second woman so distinguished.^[7]

Death

She died from pancreatic cancer on 4 February 2001, aged seventy-three.

References

^ Sonia Arova; Obituary, by Mary Clarke; The Guardian, 28 March 2001
^ ^a ^b Sonia Arova, 74, A Ballerina Who Danced with Nureyev, New York Times, February 15, 2001
^ Ruth Page Dancer is Dead at 92, Proudly American Choreographer by Jack Anderson in The New York Times- Obituaries 9 April 1991 on www.nytimes.com
^ Ruth Page - Early Architect of the American Ballet a biographical essay by Joellen A. Meglin on www.danceheritage.org
^ Rudolf Nureyev 1938 - 1993 by Michelle Potter - on Dance Heritage Coalition at www.danceheritage.org
^ Rudolf Nureyev, Charismatic Dance Who Gave Fire to Ballet's Image, Dies at 54 by Jack Anderson, The New York Times - Arts Section, 7 January 1993 -on www.nytimes.com
^ ^a ^b Sonia Arova - Biography on www.soniaarova.com