Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Houston developed its taste for professional ballet beginning in the 1930s with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. For a span of eleven years, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo spent a week during the Christmas season in Houston performing for Houston audiences. From this exposure grew a desire among patrons for a resident dance company. In the spring of 1955, Tatiana Semenova, a former dancer with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, was invited to start a ballet school in Houston. Semenova accepted and a state charter was obtained to establish a Houston Foundation for Ballet on July 26, 1955.