At age 13, Toumanova became one of the celebrated 'baby ballerinas' discovered by George Balanchine for the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo.
In 1932, the choreographer George Balanchine selected the thirteen-year-old Tamara Toumanova, along with Irina Baronova and Tamara Riabouchinska, to be featured dancers in the newly formed Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo, the successor company to Diaghilev's legendary Ballets Russes. The trio became internationally famous as the "baby ballerinas", a sensation across Europe and America due to their extraordinary technical maturity at such young ages.
Toumanova's debut catapulted her to instant celebrity. Balanchine had trained her privately in Paris after being impressed by her precocious talent, and he created roles for her that showcased both her dramatic intensity and technical brilliance. Her rise represented a pivotal moment in the transition of Russian ballet tradition from the Diaghilev era into a new generation of émigré-trained dancers who would carry classical ballet into the mid-twentieth century.
The "baby ballerina" phenomenon captured public imagination worldwide, with Toumanova in particular becoming known for her fiery, exotic stage presence—she was often billed as the "Black Pearl of the Russian Ballet." This early fame set the stage for a career that spanned continents, connecting the golden age of Ballets Russes with the emerging ballet institutions of the United States and Western Europe.