Narrator: Pau Hana   Years.

A new day for older Americans.

A  time for living.

Your host, Bob Barker.

Bob Barker: Hi and welcome to the program   for and by the senior citizens of Hawaiʻi today on  Paul honey years, our guest is Nina Tinova, former   European ballerina, a member of the Diaghilev  Ballet Company and soloist of the world's   greatest stages.

Nina, you're living here now,  but you're not originally from Hawaiʻi, are you?

Nina Tinova: No, I'm from Russia, St Petersburg,   St Petersburg.

And I was brought up by my parents,  mostly by my governess, because my parents always   traveled.

They never were in St Petersburg.

They  always were in some other parts of Europe.

And so,   when they came, they entertained a lot.

So,  I never had much chance to even see them.

Oh,   is that so?

And they entertained especially, I  want to mention Bob in a very beautiful room.

They had the my father loved roses, and  he had about 200 different roses from   all different parts of the country.

And some  roses were six feet tall.

And some were white,   and they were called vierge, which means virgin,  and some were black, and they were called nocturn,   and some were red, and they were called  Sagan, and there was Empress Joseph,   oh, so many Fandango, you know,  and that was his biggest pride.

Bob Barker: Did you share your father's love for those roses?

Nina Tinova: No, I was very jealous, because I was never   allowed to go into that room with unless courted.

And I saw him almost making love to these roses.

Bob Barker: Oh,   you were jealous of the rose.

You  were jealous of the roses then?

Nina Tinova: Yes, I don't know.

My father,   I was jealous that my father gives all the  attention to the roses, and I hardly ever   speak to him, and so one day when nobody  was looking, I just had to do something,   and I took the roses together with the  buds and threw them out the window.

Bob Barker: Oh, oh.

How old were   you?

How old were you then?

Nina Tinova:  I was about eight years old, and all of a sudden,  then I was told, when my father heard about it,   to go to my room and stay there, and  I had all the meals served in my room,   and I was never allowed to go out for three  weeks.

And after three weeks, I was called into   the dining room where they were finishing dining  and I kissed their hands.

It's a custom in Russia,   and I was told that the next morning, I'm  leaving for Switzerland and boarding school.

Bob Barker: Oh, boarding school in Switzerland?

Nina Tinova: Yes.

And in Lausanne.

And for about many years.

Nina Tinova: So, when I was saying   goodbye in the morning, my father refused to kiss  me goodbye, and so I left with a very heavy heart.

Bob Barker: Did then you   went to school in Switzerland for many  years, and what was that school like?

Nina Tinova: Oh, it was beautiful.

It was like a big white castle and surrounded by  about 1,000 acres of forest, and it housed so many   beautiful works of art of the Renaissance era, you  know, and the directors of this school was a lady,   former lady in waiting of the German Empress.

So, everything was very formal.

Three different   languages were spoken at different places,  like at tables and dormitories and so forth,   and changing every week, and they  were English, German and French.

Bob Barker: And you had to know all those languages there.

Nina Tinova: Well, French I knew,   because when I was born, then,  you know, I learned French and   Russian.

So, I knew French, but  the others I had to learn.

Yes, so.

Bob Barker: Were your days in   a boarding school like that any different  than they were in other boarding schools?

Nina Tinova: Very different.

For   instance, usually, instead of morning  prayers, you know, we had to salute,   learn how to salute royalty when they would  come to visit us in three different languages.

Now I'll tell you.

I will tell you  in German.

No, first in English.

We have the honor to greet Your Royal  Highness.

German.

(speaking in German) French.

(speaking in French)  And after that, whoever comes, whether  it's from Germany or from France or   England, you know.

We have to go into a  royal bow, which we had to rehearse with   our ballet mistress, and that was  instead of the prayers, Oh, I see.

Bob Barker: When did, did   you go back to Russia?

Then when  you graduated from that school?

Nina Tinova: No, I didn't go back to Russia.

I didn't want,   first of all, my parents were all killed off.

Everybody was killed, you know, by the communists.

Bob Barker: While you were in school?

Nina Tinova: While I was in school, yes.

So,   then Madam Director, right?

She had somebody else  there from Alsace- Lorraine who had to leave.

Her   mother came to get her.

Well, the girl's name was  Lolo, I remember, and Lolo and I were big friends,   and she just begged her mother, you know, to  allow me to go with them to Alsace-Lorraine.

Bob Barker: Because you had no place to go.

Nina Tinova: No.

So I went.

Bob Barker: You went with them to Alsace?

Nina Tinova: I went, didn't get there,   because we went to Alsace-Lorraine.

Then at one station, that's my my,   my fantasies were all in Paris, because I heard  so much from my parents about France and Paris,   when they come back and so forth, that that was  my goal.

And so as soon there was a station where,   I think there was about 15 minutes wait, you know,  Lolo and her mother went out.

They asked me to go   out.

I said, no, thank you.

I'll wait here.

And  as soon as they left, I ran to the ticket office   and got myself a ticket to Paris.

I went into the  train, and I said to myself, as soon as the wheels   started to turn, you know, I said to myself,  at least no more chaperones.

I was very happy.

Bob Barker: How old were you then?

Nina Tinova: I was 14.

Bob Barker: Did you have any money?

Nina Tinova: Very little.

But   it didn't matter, you know, because I wasn't  concerned about money.

As a matter of fact,   I never saw money until when I left, never  saw what money looked like.

Didn't handle   any so I wasn't very much concerned,  because I didn't know the value of it.

Bob Barker: Well, then,   when you got to Paris, what  did you do about living?

Nina Tinova: Well, I registered in a hotel,   and I had very little money, but anyway,  I didn't think about it.

I went out on the   street and take a little stroll and to see all  the beautiful things that Paris has to offer,   you know?

Like the Triomphe, and the  different things that I always hear,   and certain beautiful houses.

Well, so when I  was just standing admiring one of the buildings,   somebody said, Madamoiselle?

Excusezmoi modele?

Are you a model?

Bob Barker: Are you a model?

H asked you?

Nina Tinova: And I said, no.

Would you like to be one?

I said,   yes.

So, he said, follow me.

Oh.

Well, I followed  him.

And, you know, we came into great big,   I don't know it was, it's not like a house.

It's something a huge room, like, like a studio,   a huge studio, and a lot of groupings of finished  and unfinished sculptures.

You know?

Well,   he told me, you know, he said, I won't be  able to use you because you're too skinny.

But I thought that all my friends, artists,  painters, will love to have you.

And so,   I'll give you a whole list of names  and addresses, and you sit down here,   and you go to them, and they will use you because  you are trete pay, cheap pay means you are a type.

Bob Barker: Oh, I see.

Nina Tinova: You know, and so I did well   anyway.

Then I got a lot of modeling engagements,  and this helped me to pay for my ballet studies.

Bob Barker: Oh, you were   studying ballet then.

You wanted  to study ballet then.

I see.

Nina Tinova: The first day I arrived, I got   the opportunity to do so.

So, my first teacher, of  course, I went, I say of course, because, I mean,   she is was very famous Madame Nijinska.

She was a  sister of the very famous ballet dancer Nijinsky.

Oh, Nijinsky sister, yeah, and also, but she was  in her own right, she also was a choreographer,   and she was a teacher and a ballerina.

So, I  enjoyed her lessons very much.

Of course, I had   lessons before, you know, I had two years at home  and four years in school, and so I continued.

But   then all of a sudden, I heard that Uncle Fodine is  in Paris, and Uncle Fodine was the choreographer   to Anna Pavlova and her constant traveling  companion, and he he choreographed all her   beautiful dancers, and he opened a studio in Paris  with a little French Bulldog, because that was he,   and belonged to Anna Pavlova, and she gave to  him, well, that Bulldog only loved one room, the   dressing room, because he chewed up all the toe  shoes.

But no one was allowed to even mention it.

Bob Barker:  How long did you study ballet before you  had your first professional engagement?

Nina Tinova: Well, after Uncle Fodine,   I studied about almost four years  between Madame Nijinsky, you know,   and then my first professional  engagement was with Diaghilev.

Bob Barker: Oh, oh, the famous Diaghilev.

Nina Tinova: He formed the first   ballet company in in the world.

And he also is  was known to create great people, because the   ballet you know, involved music, painting, dance,  you see?

So, he created Picasso, for instance,   and Stravinsky, Otrilo, Ravel, all these  Nijinsky, Pavlova, all these people, you know?

Bob Barker: What was he like in the company?

Nina Tinova: People,   he was the king of the ballet world, you  know, because I don't know, everybody was   in awe of him.

If we would be rehearsing,  for instance, in a studio, and he'd walk in,   everybody, including the prima ballerinas,  would think into a very low bow a royal bow.

Bob Barker: Oh, the royal   bow.

Yes.

Now you have some.

Yes.

You have  some of your students here.

They're going   to show us how to do the royal bow.

Yes,  if you'd like to see them, yes, let's,   let's watch the girls.

Will you tell us who  they are?

Yes, as we see them with the bow?

Nina Tinova: Well, the first girl would be Holly McLean.

Second girl Erica Helm.

Bob Barker: Oh, yes.

Nina Tinova: Third girl, Betsy Kawamura.

Now you know what the royal bow is?

Yes, that's the royal bow.

Yeah,   they had you see, when you are all dressed in  evening gown, for instance, so your head is,   looks like it's the forehead is  on the floor.

It's very beautiful.

Bob Barker: Well now your students that are   here are going to perform a number for us.

What  is this first number they're going to do for us?

Nina Tinova: Ah the first number   they're going to do a etude by Chopin, also called  papillion.

And, well, I must tell you that Chopin   is very much beloved by ballet dancers because  it has an ethereal quality.

And so has ballet,   you know.

So that's why I chose, you know,  Chopin, because it's the young girls, you know?

Bob Barker 20:52 Yes, oh fine.

Betsy   Kawamura and Holly McLean, yes.

Are going to dance  to an Etude by Chopin, also called Papillon.

Yeah.

(instrumental music) Bob   Barker:  Nina, do you have any advice for  young dancers starting their careers?

Nina Tinova: Yes, you know,   when I started my career, you  know, I started in the studios,   in ballet studios, and then I was on the stage,  then I went back to the classroom as a teacher.

And this is what I feel is most important,  that when girls learn a movement, technically,   they have to learn to project it or to project a  mood so they can communicate with the audience.

And without this magic quality, I don't think  there will be any Nureyev or Pavlova or no one.

Bob Barker: Oh, yes.

Well,   now three of your students are going  to dance another number for us.

Betsy   and Holly are joined by Erica Helm.

Is that  correct to dance To Chopin's Nocturne?

Yes.

(instrumental music) Bob Barker:  That was lovely.

Nina, how  long have you lived in Hawaiʻi?

Nina Tinova: Oh, a little over two and a half years.

Bob Barker: Two and a half years,   and you are teaching ballet here now?

Nina Tinova: Well, I was teaching first, in the beginning   I was at the University of Hawaiʻi, and then I  started to teach at the Academy of Theatre Arts.

Bob Barker: Oh, yes.

And   you have just what advanced students is that it?

Nina Tinova: Advanced students only.

Yes.

Bob Barker: Well, now many of   the ballet movements are so flowing and so  graceful, like swimming.

So, the girls are   going to dance that last number again, huh, joined  by others with that graceful, flowing movement.

(instrumental music) Bob Barker:  Nina, thank you so much for visiting with us.

Our  guest, Nina Tinova, former European ballerina,   a member of the Diaghilev Ballet Company and  soloist to the world's greatest stages.

And that's   Pau Hana Years for today.

Until our next program.

This is Bob Barker leaving you with this thought.

Music and dance express that which cannot be  said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

(instrumental music)