Tatiana Semenova, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetTatiana Semenova
Russian ballerina
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Saint Petersburg
About Tatiana Semenova
- Tatiana Semenova (July 17, 1920–September 24, 1996) was a Russian-born ballet dancer and dance teacher.
- She was the founding director of the Houston Ballet Academy.Semenova was born in St.
- Petersburg, Russia, but moved with her family to Paris, France when she was five.
- At the age of seven, Semenova began studying with Mathilde Kschessinska.After several years of practice, Semenova made her dancing debut at the age of 11 with a Russian opera company formed in London.
- The next year she began her formal ballet career as a member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, touring the United States and South America. In 1937 Semenova joined the Paris Opera Ballet as its premiere danseuse.
- During World War II, she formed a group called the Foxhole Ballet to tour military installations in Europe and Africa with the USO.
- While performing in Rome, Italy on a bomb-damaged stage, she severed the cartilage in her knee and fractured her arm.
- Unable to dance any longer, in 1946 Semenova moved to the U.S.
- to begin her teaching career at Carnegie Hall's School of Dance. In 1950, she formed the American Youth Ballet in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- In 1954, Semenova moved the American Youth Ballet to Houston, Texas.
- The following year, the newly formed Houston Foundation for Ballet asked her to help found the Houston Ballet Academy, which still exists today.
- She was director of the academy for 11 years. In 1968, Semenova formed her own company, Ballet of Houston, which thrived until the mid-1980s.
- After the company disbanded, Semenova continued to teach privately until her death in 1996. Semenova is buried next to her mother in the cemetery of St.
- Michael Island in Venice, Italy.
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