Nina Popova

Popova was born in Novorossiysk, Russia. Her family left for Paris shortly after her birth. She studied ballet with other White Russian émigrés and, as a teenager, performed with Lyubov Yegorova's Ballet de la Jeunesse.^[1] In the late 1930s she performed with the Original Ballet Russe in Australia and Cuba. In 1939, she joined the Ballet Theatre, now called the American Ballet Theatre, in New York.^[1] Popova danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo from 1943 to 1945.^[2] She performed on the television program Your Show of Shows and on Broadway.

From 1954 to 1967, Popova taught at New York's High School of Performing Arts.^[1] From 1967 to 1975 she was the Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet, where she established a professional dance company.^[3][4]

Popova died from COVID-19 complications in St. Augustine, Florida, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida.^[1]