Ballet & Ballerinas Dance Posters & Prints “S...-Z...-”
for performance, language & visual arts, music, social studies classrooms, home schoolers.

Moira Shearer
b. 1-17-1926; Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
d. 1-31-2006; Oxford, England

Actress and ballet dancer Moira Shearer is best remembered for her role in the ballet themed movie The Red Shoes.

Olga Spesivtseva
b. 7-18-1895; Rostov-on-Don, Russia
d. 9-16-1991; Tolstoy Farm, Rockland Co, NY

Ballet dancer Olga Spesivtseva was a classical ballerina whose stage career lasted from 1913-1939. She danced in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes 1916 tour of the United States, partnered with Nijinski.

Spesivtseva suffered from depression - she was institutionalized from 1943 to 1963, living out her life in a Russian community with the help of friends.

Maria Taglioni
b. 4-23-1804; Stockholm, Sweden
d. 4-24-1884; Marseilles

Maria Taglioni's father (and teacher) Filippo Taglioni created the ballet La Sylphide to showcase her talent. It was the first ballet where the ballerina danced en pointe for the entirety of the work.

Maria Tallchief
b. 1-24-1925; Fairfax, OK
d. 4-11-2013; Chicago, IL

Maria Tallchief, whose father was a chief of the Osage tribe, studied ballet with Bronislava Nijinska, the sister of Vaslav Nijinsky. She danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and the New York City Ballet. Tallchief was briefly married to George Balanchine and originated the Sugarplum Fairy in his version of The Nutcracker.

• Native American posters
• The Art of Maria Tallchief, DVD

Tamara Toumanova
née Tumanishvili
b. 3-2-1919; Tyumen, Siberia
d. 5-29-1996; Santa Monica, CA

Tamara Toumanova was born as her mother searched for her imprisoned father after the Russian Revolution. When the family was reunited they escaped to Shanghai, then were in a Cairo, Egypt refugee camp, finally settling in Paris where Tamara had piano and ballet lessons with Olga Preobrajenska. She was known as one of the “Baby Ballerinas” (along with Baronova and Riabouchinska) and appeared in Hollywood movies.

Galina Ulanova
b. 1-7-1910; St Petersburg, Russia
d. 3-21-1998

Ulanova was prima ballerina assoluta of the Soviet Union for 16 years.

Agrippina Vaganova
b. 7-6-1879; St Petersburg, Russia
d. 11-5-1951; Leningrad

Ballerina Agrippina Vaganova became an outstanding ballet teacher developing the Vaganova techniques from the teaching methods of the Imperial Ballet School into a syllabus on the art of classical ballet.

• Basic Principles of Classical Ballet - Agrippina Vaganova

Dame Ninette de Valois
née Edris Stannus
b. 6-6-1898; Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland
d. 3-8-2001; London

Ninette de Valois, regarded as one of the most influential persons in ballet history, was a dancer, teacher, choreographer and founder of England's Royal Ballet.

• Checkmate, VHS

Vera Zorina, née Eva Brigitta Hartwig
b. 1-2-1917; Berlin, Germany
d. 4-9-2003; Santa Fe, NM (cerebral hemorrhage)

Vera Zorina, who popularized ballet on Broadway and in the movies such as On Your Toes, was also the second wife of George Balanchine.