Miguel Terekhov, a dancer with the two leading Ballets Russes troupes of the 1940s and ’50s and a co-founder, with his wife, of the School of Dance at the University of Oklahoma, died January 3 at the home of a daughter in Richardson, Texas, reported the New York Times. He was 83 and lived in Oklahoma City.

He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on August 22, 1928, to Mikhail Terekhov, an immigrant from Ukraine, and Antonia Rodriguez, a Charraúa Indian. Terekhov became enamored of ballet at 7 when an aunt took him to a performance. But when he told his parents that he wished to become a professional dancer, his father objected, arguing that a dancer’s life was one of constant hardship. His father then pulled out old scrapbooks and, for the first time, Terekhov learned that his father had been a dancer in Ukraine.

Terekhov danced with Col. W. de Basil’s Ballets Russes from 1942 to 1947 and with the rival Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo from 1954 to 1958. Although he performed classical roles, he was best known as a character dancer, winning praise as the imperious Shah in Schéhérazade, the crusty old General in Graduation Ball, and Dr. Coppélius, the eccentric inventor, in Coppélia.

While with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, he met and married Yvonne Chouteau, one of the five American Indian ballerinas of Oklahoma, the others being Rosella Hightower, Moscelyne Larkin, and Maria and Marjorie Tallchief.

When the couple visited Chouteau’s parents in Oklahoma City in 1961, her father, C. E. Chouteau, a prominent Indian figure in the state, declared that the university should offer ballet at the time, the university offered only a single modern dance class through the physical education department. He persuaded university officials to allow Chouteau and Terekhov to teach ballet there, and the University of Oklahoma School of Dance was born.

In addition to his wife, Terekhov is survived by two daughters, Elizabeth A. Impallomeni and Christina Conway, and two grandsons.

To see the obituary, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/arts/dance/miguel-terekhov-dancer-with-ballets-russes-dies-at-83.html.