Even world-famous ballerinas have to sew their own shoes!

Prima ballerina Tatiana Mikhaylovna Riabouchinska was born in 1917 in Moscow and died in 2000 in Los Angeles, CA. Tatiana was one of the leading ballerinas of the 1930's and the third of de Basil's "baby ballerinas."  She moved to the United States to train actresses and dancers including Rita Moreno, Ann Margret and Joanne Woodward. She was also the model for Hyacinth Hippo, the hippopotamus who dances in Disney’s Fantasia. Here, she darns a ballet slipper on a warm day in Rushcutters Bay Park, Sydney, Australia.

Image from the collection of the State Library of New South Wales