English film and television star Victoria Tennant tells us about the rise of modern ballet in the United States. In her new book, Irina Baronova and the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, Tennant recounts the life story of her mother, Irina Baronova, one of ballet’s most glamorous stars. Baronova fled Russia with her family during the Revolution, and at the age of thirteen, became a star in Paris, joining the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo —a group that toured the United States and the world, introducing many to ballet as an art form.