Novak was born in
Warsaw,
Poland on 23 March 1923, as Janina Nowak. She began her study of Ballet at the age of eight at the Warsaw Opera Ballet School. From 1937 to 1939, she was a soloist of the Polish Representative Ballet, and after the war in the ballet groups of Feliks Parnell and Mikołaj Kopiński. In the late 1940s, she left for the United States, where she became a
prima ballerina, ballet master and teacher at
Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo. After finishing her career in 1960s, she left for
Venezuela, where she opened her own ballet school, and since 1991 she has been the director of her own ballet school in
Caracas, Ballet Clásico de Caracas. In
Poland, she made guest appearances in 1961 in Warsaw and
Poznań in the ballets
Giselle and
Swan Lake, and in 1978 in the
Coppélia ballet at the
Grand Theater in Warsaw. On 25 February 2020, the book
Taniec na gruzach. Nina Novak w rozmowie z Wiktorem Krajewskim was published, consisting of an interview with Nina Novak by Wiktor Krajewski. She was an honorary citizen of five cities in the United States. ==Awards==