Nina Vyroubova

Nina Vladimirovna Vyroubova (Russian: Нина Владимировна Вырубова; 4 June 1921 – 25 June 2007) was a Russian-born French ballerina, considered one of the finest of her generation.

She was born in Gurzuf, Crimea, but moved to Paris as a child with her grandmother and widowed mother, fleeing the Russian Revolution. Her first ballet teacher was her mother, followed by renowned Russian ballerinas Olga Preobrajenska, Vera Trefilova and Lyubov Yegorova.

In 1937, the 16-year-old Vyroubova made her debut in Caen as Swanilda in the comic ballet Coppélia. She performed with the Ballets Polonais (1939) and the Ballet Russe de Paris (1940). During her work in recitals staged by the French critic Irène Lidova from 1941 to 1944, she met the French choreographer, dancer and ballet company director Roland Petit. When Petit formed Les Ballets des Champs-Elysées in 1945, his breakthrough work, Les Forains, featured her. It was, however, a revival of the romantic ballet La Sylphide, with new choreography by Victor Gsovsky, that catapulted Vyroubova to stardom.