She was the daughter of art patron and collector Levkiy Gevergeyev [ru] and she was the first wife of the well-known ballet dancer and choreographer George Balanchine.

[2] Geva's mother Tamara Urtahl was an actress, while her father Levkiy Gevergeyev [ru] was a passionate collector and art enthusiast.

Her father had agents all over who found art, writings, and artifacts from a variety of well-known artists to add to his massive collection.

After his death, his extensive theatre memorabilia collection was put into an exhibit at Saint Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Music [ru].

[4] Geva fell in love with ballet when she was taken by her father in Mariinsky Theatre and saw La Esmeralda danced by Mathilde Kschessinska.

[7] According to the family legend, the parents agreed on this marriage when Balanchine played Wagner to Levkiy, who adored this composer.

Geva wrote later, that in that time they had to dance ‘in small dark places, in summer theaters and private ballrooms, in beer gardens and before mental patients‘.

With the Ballets Russes, Geva performed in The Triumph of Neptune in 1926 where she wore a costume made of tiny mirrors that weighed 75 pounds.

By 1926, her marriage to Balanchine became shaky: while he enjoyed life in Monte Carlo under the wing of Diaghilev, she felt trapped and longed for more.

[10][6][11] Later Geva transitioned towards Broadway where she appeared in a number of notable musicals between 1925 and 1953 including Three's A Crowd (1930),[12] Flying Colors (1932)[13] and Whoopee!

In On Your Toes, she danced in the dramatic "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" sequence and a balletic parody choreographed by Balanchine and composed by Dick Rodgers.

New York Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson described her performance as "magnificent", adding "she can burlesque it with the authority of an artist on holiday".

She acted in Euripides' The Trojan Women where she played Helen of Troy in New York in 1941, and in the Los Angeles production of Sartre's No Exit in 1947.

[17] In 1953 Geva played the character of Lina Szczepanowska a sarcastic acrobat in a New York revival of George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance.

[1][6] In 1959, Geva and Haila Stoddard created Come Play With Me, a musical comedy with a score penned by Dana Suesse, which had had a short off-Broadway run.