boris kniaseff

Boris Kniaseff is a French dancer, ballet master and teacher of Russian origin born in Saint Petersburg. Trained in dance in his hometown, he emigrated in 1917, first to Bulgaria in Sofia, then to Paris in 1924. He danced in the companies of Colonel de Basil, of Bronislava Nijinska and at the Ballets des Champs-Élysées. He carries out a few projects with Serge Lifar. Ballet master at the Opéra-Comique from 1932 to 1934, he opened a dance school in 1937 which included among his students Yvette Chauviré and Ludmila Tcherina. At the end of the war he left to join the poet and patron Susana Soca in Montevideo. In 1948 he gave lessons in his studio near the Ateneo, on his floor barre method. He will meet other dancers of Russian origin exiled in Uruguay. He will work in particular in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. On his return to Europe he will also teach in Switzerland, in his school in Lausanne, in Italy, in Greece and in Argentina. He directed the International Dance Academy in Geneva. In Russia he had married the prima ballerina Olga Spessivtseva. His most notable work is teaching barre technique or floor barre. He had many students like Zizi Jeanmaire, Roland Petit, Dianna Asprogeraka, Jacqueline Fynnaert, Christine Teyssier, Joseph Ruiz. Brigitte Bardot took his lessons from the age of 13. From his union with the dancer Nina Vyroubova he had a son, Youra Kniaseff, a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.