Tatiana Leskova
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6 December 1922
Tatiana Hélène Leskova | |
|---|---|
| Татьяна Юрьевна | |
 Leskova in 1938 | |
| Born | Tatiana Yourievna Medem Leskov 6 December 1922 Paris, France |
| Occupation | Ballerina |
| Years active | 1939–1990 |
| Relatives | Nikolai Leskov (great-grandfather) |
Tatiana Yourievna Medem Leskov (Russian: Татьяна Юрьевна Лескова, romanized: Tatyana Yurievna Leskova; born 6 December 1922) is a French-born Brazilian ballerina and choreographer of Russian origin.[1]
Leskova was born in Paris, France on 6 December 1922.[2] She was the great-granddaughter of Russian writer Nikolai Leskov. Her parents Yuri and Elena were descendant of the Russian imperial aristocracy. They fled Russia after the 1917 revolution. In 1922 the couple moved from Venice to Paris where they soon had a daughter. Her father worked as a translator and her mother got a job as a model in Elsa Schiaparelli's fashion house. Later, her parents got divorced.[3]
Tatiana studied at Princess Paley's School for girls in Quincy-sous-Sénart. At the age of nine she lost her mother who died from tuberculosis. Her father decided that the young girl would begin to study ballet. In 1932 she was introduced to Lyubov Yegorova who did not work with young children, and advised Nicolas Kremnev. Having mastered the basics of classical dance thanks to him,[4] Tatiana returned to Yegorova, with whom she studied until the age of fourteen. In 1937–1938, Tatiana trained with the Opéra comique ballet troupe, directed by Constantin Cherkas. In 1938, she was a member of Ygorova's brand new troupe, Les Ballets de la Jeunesse.[5][6][7]
At the invitation of Jean-Louis Vaudoyer, she danced on the stage of the Comédie-Française in the prologue to a play by Molière. In 1939, she participated in an evening commemorating the 10th anniversary of the death of Sergei Diaghilev[8] at the Pavillon de Marsan.[9][10][11][12][13]
