A native of Washington, DC, Tatiana Blackington James began dancing at age six at The Washington School of Ballet. She performed numerous children’s roles, sharing the stage with some of the greats, including Rudolph Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Amanda McKerrow. She went on to study at the Joffrey Ballet and at Ballet West before a knee injury ended her dancing days forever.

After college at New York University and a stint as a newspaper features writer, Tatiana left the East Coast for graduate school at USC and began writing fiction and screenplays. Fascinated by the intersection of the personal and the political, and with a particular fondness for spy stories, she has written screenplays about Mata Hari for Universal Pictures, Albert Einstein for HBO, and the award-winning films, THE NARROWS and HOMOLOGIES. She recently adapted the novel, An Unexpected Guest, for British director John Strickland and is developing a limited series on the writer, Anaïs Nin, with French director François Velle.

Dance has remained close to her heart, however. For many years, she served on the Board of Directors for everybodydance!, two of them as Board President. During a period of explosive growth, she grew the fundraising significantly and mentored the more advanced young dancers.

At the opening of the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, she had a joyful reunion with Professor Patrick Corbin, her Nutcracker Prince from long ago, and is delighted to join the school’s Board of Councilors.