Ivan Novikoff (August 26, 1899 – March 20, 2002) was a

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form ...

master. Born in

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering ...

, Russia, Novikoff studied and graduated from the Imperial Ballet School aka Mariinsky. He fled to Harbin, China because of the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

at age 17, where he taught dance for the community of Russians. In 1923, he immigrated to the United States, where he continued teaching ballet until his death. After arriving in San Francisco, Novikoff moved to New York City, where Novikoff and his brother Boris Novikoff together directed Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company. Moving westwards to Seattle, he founded the Novikoff School of Russian-American Ballet in the early 1950s and received the Governor's Heritage Award (of the state of Washington) in 1989. Novikoff followed in the footsteps of his lifetime inspiration Michael Forkin in pure Classic Russian Artistry. Among his students in Seattle were Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino.Ibid. Page 37.
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Leona Wood Leona Wood (May 21, 1921 – February 7, 2008) was a 20th-century American painter, dancer, writer and co-founder of the Aman International Folk Ensemble. Her early paintings were considered a part of the Surrealism school. Biography Leona Wood ...

, the founder of Aman Folk Ensemble, Richard Ingram, one of the choreographers of Royal Ballet and Mark Morris the director of Mark Morris Company, Erricka Shebass, a former principal dancer of Oakland Ballet Company.

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Ivan F. Novikoff
from Seattle, WA Governors Awards, 1989 1899 births 2002 deaths People from Kazan Ballet masters Russian ballet Russian centenarians Men centenarians White Russian emigrants to the United States {{Russia-bio-stub