Francesca Ludova (1907-1979) was a dancer with the San Francisco Opera Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, as well as in Hollywood in movies and at the Hollywood Bowl. She also danced with the Albertina Rasch Dancers and studied at the Legat School and with Olga Preobrajenska in Paris. This collection contains a scrapbook of postcards received from her close friend Eugenie Mason, her future husband Dimitri Romanoff, and others, as well as correspondence, photographs from their travels and from her time in Hollywood, a wreath pin gifted to Ludova, and Ludova’s obituary.

Francesca Ludova, former dancer with the San Francisco Opera Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, was born Frances Guigni in San Francisco, California in 1907; she died at the age of 72 at General Hospital, San Jose, California on June 28, 1979. Ludova danced with the San Francisco Opera during the late 1920’s under the direction of one of her former teachers, Theodore Kosloff. In the 1930’s, she moved to Hollywood, California where she appeared both in movies and danced at the Hollywood Bowl. Francesca danced with the Albertina Rasch Dancers and studied at the Legat School and with Olga Preobrajenska in Paris. She then returned to San Francisco and later joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company. In 1940, she married Dimitri Romanoff: dancer, ballet master and regisseur with whom she operated the San Jose Ballet School in San Jose, California. Ludova also danced under the name Francesca Romanoff after her marriage to Dimitri.

1 Box. 0.5 linear feet.

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