\n
Even at 99, Helga Monson de Kansky has no plans to retire. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
\u201cSvetlana bounced back and forth from my mother-in-law and from my cousin,\u201d Monson de Kansky said. \u201cI had to leave about 10 months later. I left to go back to Paris because I just couldn\u2019t be away from my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in Paris, Monson de Kansky gave birth to a second daughter and focused on teaching. Her students were primarily Parisian royalty (Igor\u2019s half-sister, French actor Odile Versois, married Count Fran\u00e7ois Reynier Ambroise Henri Pozzo di Borgo), with their lessons inside the duchess\u2019 palace. <\/p>\n
After more than a decade abroad, it was time for the ballerina to return to America. The de Kansky family settled in California, first in Los Angeles, then in Newport Beach, followed by three years in Altadena before buying a home in Sierra Madre. <\/p>\n
It was a major change in pace from her 20s, which were almost entirely focused on ballet. When we talked about dancing in post-war Europe, Monson de Kansky simply shrugged. She was there to dance, and while she was training, she didn\u2019t have time to see the cities where she performed. It was a common thread throughout our conversation. She didn\u2019t have a preferred brand of pointe shoes or a favorite costume: \u201cNever gave it a thought. You wear this, period.\u201d She was a ballerina, and that was what mattered most. <\/p>\n
Nowadays, Monson de Kansky still keeps busy, whether by managing the Sierra Madre property; spending time with her four children, six grandchildren and cat, Lizzie; keeping up with current affairs and old friends; or, naturally, teaching dance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a kind of joy in seeing students make progress, and I have somehow made friends with a lot of the students, two of which have just turned 80. They\u2019ve studied with me for a long time,\u201d Monson de Kansky said. \u201cIn and out of the studio, I think the students have been wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Monson de Kansky, the dance studio is her second home. It\u2019s all she grew up knowing, and these days, it\u2019s where some of her deepest friendships and greatest joys are. And even at 99, she has no plans to retire, at least, she says, \u201cNot as long as I can walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eloise Rollins-Fife contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1953, French journalist J.C. V\u00e9rots reviewed the Marquis de Cuevas ballet company\u2019s performance of \u201cLes Sylphides.\u201d The show starred some of the most iconic post-war ballet dancers \u2014 Serge Golovine, Rosella Hightower, Jacqueline Moreau \u2014 but V\u00e9rots didn\u2019t focus on them. He was enthralled by Helga Monson de Kansky. \u201cWe were surprised to find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2480168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2480166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/At-99-this-Pasadena-ballet-teacher-has-no-plans-to.com2F1d2F7b2F1377fa6744259bc91683f306.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2480166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2480170,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480166\/revisions\/2480170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2480168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2480166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2480166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2480166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}