Founding Artistic Director
Tulsa Ballet was founded in 1956 by Miss Larkin and Mr. Jasinski, internationally recognized dancers in the grand Ballet Russe tradition. Their lifelong contributions to dance were recognized with the prestigious Dance Magazine Award in 1988.
Miss Larkin, born of Russian and Shawnee-Peoria descent in Miami, Oklahoma, first studied ballet with her mother, Eva Matlogova. She went on to study with Celli, Vilsak-Schollar and Mordkin in New York before joining the Original Ballet Russe at age 15. As a protégé of Alexandra Danilova in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, she toured worldwide with Danilova’s “Great Moments of Ballet.”
Mr. Jasinski was born in Warsaw, Poland, where he held the distinction of “first student” in his class at the Grand Opera Ballet School. Hired by Bronislava Nijinksa for the Ida Rubenstein Ballet in Paris, Jasinski became premier danseur of the George Balanchine Ballet in 1933. He then joined the Original Ballet Russe as a premier danseur.