Nina Alexandrovna Tikhonova

Nina Alexandrovna Tikhonova (; 23 February 1910 – 4 January 1995) was a Russian-French ballet dancer and dance teacher, who danced with the Ballets Russes and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo companies. After retiring from her ballet career, she established her own ballet school in Paris. She was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Early life Nina Alexandrovna Tikhonova was born on 23 February 1910 in Saint Petersburg to writer and publisher Alexander "Serebov" Tikhonov, and Varvara Vassilievna Zubkova, who had previously been married to Anatole Tchaikevitch. Tikhonova's parents' marriage ended after Varvara became the mistress of Maxim Gorky, who was a friend of Tikhonov.

The family was separated during the Russian Revolution, and Varvara's children from both marriages lived with their grandmother in Yekaterinburg, before later returning to Saint Petersburg. At the age of 11, Tikhonova and her elder stepbrother Andre Tchaikevitch fled Soviet Russia, taking refuge first in Berlin, then Paris.

Career Tikhonova was trained in Paris by Russian dancers Olga Preobrajenska and Nikolai Legat. Tikhonova later said "Nijinska was a deity for me. Her talent was like no other. I was at Ida Rubinstein's house when she was choreographing there, I followed her when she founded her troupe. I danced in the Biches, and she created Variations for me, to the music of Beethoven".

Later life and death In 1971, Tikhonova returned to Russia for the first time in 50 years. She visited Leningrad for the first time since she was a child. She reminisced of her childhood during this visit, writing in her memoir "Some remarkable figure illumined my childhood, and followed my fate. It gave me everything that was good in my life, teaching me early to discern what was bad." She was inspired to work on a book of memoirs after watching a class by Natalia Dudinskaya at the Vaganova Choreographic Academy.

Tikhonova died on 4 January 1995 at her apartment in Paris, at the age of 84. She never married and lived all her life with her stepbrother Andre.