This 99-year-old ballet teacher once taught Parisian royalty. Now she teaches in Pasadena

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Set us as preferred In 1953, French journalist J.C.Vérots reviewed the Marquis de Cuevas ballet company’s performance of “Les Sylphides.” The show starred some of the most iconic post-war ballet dancers — Serge Golovine, Rosella Hightower, Jacqueline Moreau — but Vérots didn’t focus on them.

He was enthralled by Helga Monson de Kansky.“We were surprised to find ourselves preferring Helga Monson.

Remember her name.It will soon be a famous one,” Vérots wrote in French.

Vérots was wrong.Monson de Kansky never became a world-famous ballerina.

Just a few years later, she started a family and had to balance her responsibilities as a performer and ballet instructor with those of motherhood, ultimately returning to the U.S.But more than 70 years later, Monson de Kansky hasn’t lost her love of dance.

The 99-year-old Sierra Madre resident still teaches ballet at Pasadena Dance Theatre.She’s more frail than she once was, and recently battled a bout of pneumonia that hospitalized her.

But the moment she’s asked about ballet, a smile spreads across her face, and she lights up talking about her journey.Monson de Kansky began dancing as a child in Independence, Kan.

During the Great Depression, her family moved from city to city, and in each new place, her parents found her a dance school.Dance always spoke to her, and she explained that the “highlight” of her “young years” was when her father drove them to Topeka to watch a German modern dance company perform “The Green Table.”“That was the first professional performance I ever saw of ballet or anything,” Monson de Kansky said during a recent interview at her home, where she has lived for 60 years.

“And I was just mesmerized.Between the music, the lighting and the dancing, jumping up and down from the table, it was a wonderful perfor...