Nina Stroganova
Born Nina Rigmor Strom, Nina Stroganova (21 October, 1907–5 July, 1994) was a prima ballerina with several ballet companies in the 1930s and 1940s. She was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1907, and died in New York in July 1994 of leukemia. She studied ballet with Jenny Moller and teachers from the Royal Danish Ballet. Her schooling was at the Institute Jeanne d'Arc, Denmark. Personal life and education. Nina moved to Paris as a young woman to study ballet with the famed Russian ballerina and teacher, Olga Preobrajenska. It was in her studio that she met her future  husband and dancing partner, Vladimir Dokoudovsky, son of Count Dokoudovsky of Tula, Russia. Her partner in later years was the danseur, Kenneth MacKenzie, whom she met while on tour together in the Original Ballets Russes. Her daughter with Vladimir Dokoudovsky, Ludmila Dokoudovsky, was directress of the St. Louis Ballet Company, along with her husband, Antoni Zalewski. Career. Nina Rigmor Strom began her career in the season of 1935-36 as Ballerina with Ballet Russe de l'Opera Comique of Paris. She was then hired as Ballerina with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo by Leonid Massine and Rene Blum, who then  dubbed her Nina "Stroganova" while dining in a restaurant together. She came to the United States in 1937, along with her husband, V. Dokoudovsky, to be Ballerina in the Mordkin Ballet company, with whom she danced in Peter and the Wolf, until 1940, when fellow dancer Lucia Chase hired her to be Prima Ballerina with her new company, Ballet Theatre, later known as American Ballet Theatre. With the onset of World War II, Nina and Vladimir joined the Original Ballet Russe company of Colonel de Basil, which toured Latin America throughout the war years, to keep the male dancers from  being drafted. After the war, Nina and Vladimir settled in New York City. She performed as a guest artist at the Royal Danish Ballet, along with her husband, in "Giselle" and "Swan Lake, Act II". She also performed as a guest ballerina with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1950-51. She and her husband headed the Stroganova-Dokoudovsky Ballet Company in performances including at Jacob's Pillow, where the ballet "The Abyss" featuring a commissioned score by Alexander Tcherepnin was premiered. They joined the faculty of the Ballet Arts school in Carnegie Hall, where they led classes with  well-known figures of the dance world for many years. They later founded their own school, the New York Conservatory of Dance, now led by Patricia Heyes Dokoudovsky. Nina Stroganova also taught at School of Classical Ballet in Englewood, New Jersey, and after leaving the NY Conservatory, continued teaching noon classes at the studios of City Center Theater for a number of years until her sudden death at the age of 78. Students in Stroganova's noon classes included Alexandra Danilova, Eugene Collins, Gemze de Lappe, Bambi Linn, Agnes de Mille, Zizi Jeanmaire, Roland Petit, Nora Kovach, Istvan Rabovsky, Inge  Sand, Toni Lander, Bruce Marks, Irina Lebedeva -§http://liballetacademy.com LI Ballet Academy & Dance, Andrea Vodehnal, Michael Maule, Richard Marsden, Carl Corry, Daniel Baudendistel, Nicole Fox, Christine Dakin, Linda Giancaspro, Saul Davis, Charles Perrier, Diana Lasky, Trutti Gasparinetti, Marilyn D'Honau and other professional and amateur dancers.