Vera Zorina

Vera Zorina, born Eva Brigitta Hartwig on January 2, 1917, in Berlin, Germany, was a German-Norwegian ballerina, theatre and film actress, and choreographer whose Broadway career extended from 1938 to 1975. Her father, Fritz Hartwig, was a German lapsed Roman Catholic, and her mother, Abigail Johanne Wimpelmann, known as Billie Hartwig, was Norwegian and Lutheran. Both parents were professional singers. Zorina was raised in Kristiansund, a small coastal town situated between Trondheim and Molde, where she made her debut as a dancer at the local theatre, Festiviteten. She received her formal education at the Lyceum for Girls in Berlin and studied dance under Olga Preobrajenska and Nicholas Legat.

At twelve years old, Zorina was presented to director Max Reinhardt, who cast her in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1929 and Tales of Hoffmann in 1931. A performance at London's Gaiety Theatre led to an invitation to join the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1933, at which point she adopted her stage name. The company required Russian names, and after being given a list of twenty options, she selected the last one because she could pronounce it. Several years later, she took a lead role in the London production of On Your Toes in 1937, where she was seen by American film producer Samuel Goldwyn, who signed her to a seven-year film contract. She appeared in seven Hollywood films between 1938 and 1946, among them The Goldwyn Follies, I Was an Adventuress with Erich Von Stroheim and Peter Lorre, Louisiana Purchase with Bob Hope, and Paramount Pictures' Star Spangled Rhythm, in which she danced to "That Old Black Magic." She also lost the role of Maria in the 1943 film adaptation of For Whom the Bell Tolls to Ingrid Bergman after only two weeks of shooting.

On Broadway, Zorina starred in the 1938 Rodgers and Hart musical On Your Toes, which featured the Slaughter on Tenth Avenue sequence choreographed by her then-husband George Balanchine. That same year she appeared in I Married an Angel, playing the title character, an angel who descends from heaven to marry a Hungarian banker played by Dennis King. In 1945, she took on the role of Ariel in William Shakespeare's The Tempest at the Alvin Theatre, later known as the Neil Simon Theatre. She also starred in the musical Louisiana Purchase and appeared in additional productions including Dream With Music, A Temporary Island, and A Gala Tribute to Joshua Logan.

Beginning in 1948, Zorina performed the title role in Arthur Honegger's Joan of Arc at the Stake in its first American performance, presented with the New York Philharmonic under Charles Münch. She returned to the role on multiple occasions, including a recording made at the Royal Festival Hall in June 1966 with the London Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa. In 1968, she directed Cabaret at the Oslo Nye Teater. During the 1970s, she was appointed director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, though she withdrew from the position due to her husband's illness. Her farewell performance came in 1982 with New York City Ballet in Perséphone. She was also active with Lincoln Center as an adviser and director and directed operas at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico for several seasons. In 1986, she completed her autobiography, titled Zorina.

Zorina married choreographer George Balanchine in 1938; the couple divorced in 1946. Her second husband, from 1946, was Columbia Records president Goddard Lieberson, who died on May 29, 1977. Together they had two sons, composer Peter Lieberson and Jonathan Lieberson. Her third marriage, in 1991, was to harpsichordist Paul Wolfe, and it lasted until her death. Zorina was also the grandmother of Elizabeth, Katherine, and Kristina Lieberson, members of the band TEEN. A devout Catholic and Oblate of the Benedictine Order, Zorina died on April 9, 2003, at the age of 86.