Whakaotihia te rerenga e whai ake nei: Ko te tamahine a te kaieke pahikara a Thorvald Ellegaard me Karen Kirstine Nicolaysen, i whanau ia i Paris. I ako a Ellegaard i te Conservatoire o Paris, a, i whakaatu i tana whakaaturanga tuatahi i Denmark i Copenhagen i te 1927. I puta ia puta noa i Scandinavia me nga taone puoro o Europi. Whai muri i te
Ko te whakaekenga a Tiamana ki Denmark i te 1940, i noho ia ki Denmark, katahi, i te 1943, ka haere ki Sweden hei rerenga torangapu. I marenatia ia ki te kaitoi Finnish a Birger Carlstedt i te 1949 ka noho hei taangata Finnish. Mai i te 1961 ki te 1965, i mahi ia i roto i te tokotoru me Anja Ignatius me.