Ludmila Tcherina, 79; French Ballerina, Actress and Author

Ludmila Tcherina, 79, who rose to early stardom as a French ballerina and later became an actress, died Sunday in Paris, the culture minister said. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Born Monique Tchemerzina in Paris to a Russian aristocrat father and a French mother, Tcherina made her name as a teenager. She was trained at the school of the Paris Opera.

At age 15, she became a prima ballerina with the Grands Ballets of Monte Carlo. Under the pseudonym of “Tcherzina,” she was the youngest prima ballerina in the history of dance, French Culture Minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon said in a statement saluting her career.

Among the movies she appeared in were “The Red Shoes” and “The Tales of Hoffmann.”

In 1970, near the end of a decades-long career, she dazzled Paris audiences with her performance in “Jeanne au Bucher” (“Joan of Arc at the Stake”).

A multifaceted artist, Tcherina also was a choreographer, painter, sculptor and author of two novels.

She painted and danced in an exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris to reveal her theory of “total art” in which all aspects are born of breathing and movement.