Life and love en pointe... Part 2

Tatiana Leskova is one of the last surviving dancers from the world famous Imperial Russian Ballet. We spoke with her in 2007 at the rehearsal when she was invited to help restore Leonide Massine first symphonic ballet, Les Presages for Australia Ballet production. The legendary ballerina spoke of her upbringing by the Russian emigre parents in Paris and studies with Lubov Egorova . At the age of sixteen, to join Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and remembered touring Australia with de Basil's Original Ballet Russe in 1938. Later Leskova traveled to South America and settled in Brazil in 1945. In 1950 she joined Rio de Janeiro Teatro Municipal, becoming a principal dancer, ballet mistress, and finally artistic director. She ran her own school in Rio de Janeiro for 50 years. Tatiana Leskova has continued to revive signature works by Massine for Ballets Russes. She staged Choreartium for Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1991, and Les Presages for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1989, for the Joffrey Ballet in 1994, and for the Australian Ballet.

Tatiana Leskova Source: Supplied

FRANCE - CIRCA 1938: Tatiana Leskova and Youly Algaroff in 'The Birthday of Infante'. 'Ballets de la Jeunesse', June 1938. Source: Lipnitzki/Roger Viollet/Getty Images

Source: SBS