George Skibine
George Boris Skibine (; Yuri Borisovich Skibin; January 30, 1920 – January 14, 1981), also known as Youra Skibine, was a Russian-American ballet dancer and choreographer. Biography Skibine was born in Kharkov (now Ukraine) the son of Boris Skibine, a member of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, and Vera Skibina. In 1937, Boris Skibine was arrested by the NKVD and executed, as part of the Great Purge. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1989. George began to perform with the Ballets Russes company at the age of five, as an extra in Petrouchka. He studied with various Russian teachers including Olga Preobrajenska, Julia Sedova, Alexandre Volinine and Lyubov Egorova before making his debut on ballet stage in 1937 in Egorova's Ballets de la Jeunesse. In 1938, at age 18, he became to dance with the René Blum's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. He danced with the company in 1938–1939, then performed with the Ballet Russe of W. de Basil (1939–1941), and the Ballet Theatre (1941–1942). Skibine immigrated to the United States in 1942 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen the next year. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the United States military during World War II. His enrollment as a student at