Nina Aleksandrovna Anisimova (born St Petersburg, 27 January 1909, died Leningrad, 23 September 1979) was a Russian dancer and choreographer.

She studied at the Petrograd (later Leningrad) Ballet School with Maria Fedorovna Romanova, Alexander Shiryaev, and Agrippina Vaganova

Agrippina Vaganova

Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova was an outstanding Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method - the technique which derived from the teaching methods of the old Imperial Ballet School under the Premier Maître de Ballet Marius Petipa throughout the mid to late 19th century, though...

. In 1926 she graduated into the Maly Theatre of Opera and Ballet, then from 1927 to 1958 danced with GATOB (later Kirov Ballet). In 1932 she created the role of Thérèse in Vasily Vainonen's Flames of Paris

Flames of Paris

Flames of Paris is a classical ballet with music by musicologist and composer Boris Asafiev based on songs of the French Revolution, and originally choreographed by Vasily Vainonen, with design by Vladimir Dmitriev. The four-act ballet is based on a book by Felix Gras...

, demonstrating her abilities as a character dancer.

In 1936 she choreographed her first major ballet, Andalusian Wedding (music by Chabrier) for the Leningrad Ballet School. Her subsequent works include Gayane (music by Khachaturian, 1942) for the Kirov, Perm in which she danced the lead in the ‘Sabre Dance’. She also choreographed Songs of the Crane (music by Stepanov and Ismagilov, 1944) for Bashkir Opera, The Magic Veil (music by Zaranek, 1947), and her own version of Scheherazade

Scheherazade

Scheherazade , sometimes Scheherazadea, Persian transliteration Shahrazad or Shahrzād is a legendary Persian queen and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights.-Narration :...

(music by Rimsky-Korsakov, 1950), both for the Maly Theatre, Leningrad. In 1964 she staged Swan Lake

Swan Lake

Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...

for the Royal Danish Ballet

Royal Danish Ballet

The Royal Danish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, it originates from 1748, when the Royal Danish Theatre was founded, and was finally organized in 1771 in response to the great popularity of French and Italian styles of dance...

.

Between 1963 and 1974 she taught at the choreographic department of the Leningrad Conservatory.