Nina Popova

Nina Popova (October 20, 1922 – August 7, 2020)[1] was a Russian-American ballet dancer. She was born in Novorossiysk, Russia, but her family left for Paris shortly after her birth. She studied ballet with other Russian émigrés and, as a teenager, performed with Lyubov Yegorova's Ballet de la Jeunesse.[1] In the late 1930s she performed with the Original Ballet Russe in Australia and Cuba. In 1939, she joined the Ballet Theatre, now called the American Ballet Theatre, in New York.[1] Popova danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo from 1943 to 1945.[2] She performed on the television program Your Show of Shows and on Broadway.

From 1954 to 1967 Popova taught at New York's High School of Performing Arts.[1] From 1967 to 1975 she was the Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet, where she established a professional dance company.[3][4] Popova died of COVID-19 complications in St. Augustine, Florida.[1]