Tamara Toumanova

Tamara Toumanova was born on 2 March 1919 and died on 29 May 1996. A Russian-born Georgian-American prima ballerina and actress, she was the daughter of Dmitri Toumanov, of the Georgian Toumanishvili family, and Yevgenia Dmitrievna Toumanishvili, who was of mixed Georgian-Armenian descent. At the time of Toumanova's birth, her mother was married to Konstantin Zakharov. Both Toumanova and her mother subsequently used the surname Khassidovitch, derived from Yevgenia's second husband, Vladimir Khassidovitch, and that name appeared on their United States naturalization paperwork. Toumanova became a naturalized American citizen in 1943 in Los Angeles, California.

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the family settled in Paris, where Toumanova studied ballet under Olga Preobrajenska, whom she described as her first and only permanent teacher. She also received piano instruction during this period. At the age of six, she was selected by Anna Pavlova to perform a polka choreographed by Preobrajenska at a gala held at the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris on 6 August 1925. Three years later, in 1929, she made her debut at the Paris Opera as a guest étoile, performing in the one-act ballet L'Éventail de Jeanne, a work composed collectively by ten French composers. She subsequently performed with the Paris Opera Ballet in Monte Carlo, Brussels, and Geneva.

In 1931, choreographer and balletmaster George Balanchine observed Toumanova in class and engaged her, at the age of twelve, for the Blum–de Basil Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. He recruited her alongside Irina Baronova and Tatiana Riabouchinska, and writer Arnold Haskell collectively named the three young dancers the "Baby Ballerinas." Toumanova appeared on Broadway with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, with her Broadway credits spanning 1934 to 1939. Among those credits was Union Pacific, the 1934 Léonide Massine ballet in which she created the role of the Mexican Girl, premiering with the de Basil Monte Carlo Ballet Russe in Philadelphia. She also appeared in the Broadway musical Stars In Your Eyes.

Balanchine created several roles specifically for Toumanova, including the Young Girl in his ballet Cotillon, as well as principal parts in La Concurrence and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, all in 1932. He later created a role for her in Le Palais de Cristal, subsequently retitled Symphony in C, at the Paris Opera in 1947. Massine was also a frequent collaborator, working with Toumanova on numerous productions including Jeux d'Enfants, in which she danced the role of the Top, and Symphonie fantastique in 1936, in which she created the role of the Beloved. Her repertory expanded over the years to include the title role in Giselle in 1938, Swanilda in Coppelia in 1940, and Ariadne in Massine's Labyrinth in 1941, among many others.

Toumanova came to be called "The Black Pearl of the Russian Ballet," a designation connected to her black hair, dark brown eyes, and pale complexion. Throughout her career, her mother served as her companion, dresser, agent, and manager. In 1936, while performing in Chicago, Toumanova met an eighteen-year-old named Burr Tillstrom backstage following a performance. During their conversation, Tillstrom showed her a puppet he had made, and Toumanova exclaimed "Kukla," the Russian word for puppet. Tillstrom later used that name for his early television program Kukla, Fran and Ollie, which debuted in 1947. While ballet remained the center of Toumanova's professional life, she also appeared as a ballet dancer in film, beginning in 1944.