Aura Levitas

Author Aura (Vainio) Levitas was born in Brooklyn and has been involved in dance and the arts for most of her life. She now lives and works in Greenwich Village. Of Finnish background, she was brought up in an atmosphere of creativity and artistic involvement. Her mother Lempi Vainio was a respected translator of Finnish plays into English (at one time she had a radio program). Aura's father Arne Vainio, one of Aaron Copeland's earliest collaborators, hand crafted penny banks which have become highly collectible. Aura began dancing in Broadway shows straight out of high school, appearing in a Cole Porter show. As well as dancing on Broadway, she played a role in the development of television in its formative years. This included working with Dave Garroway on the development of what would become the Today Show. She danced on network TV on the Perry Como and Milton Berle shows. After retiring from the stage and television Aura devoted more time to the creation of original art works, many of them exhibited publicly and some winning prizes. Aura began yet another career in the arts with her first book of poetry, SISU, in 2013.