Mikhail Fokine ( – 22 August 1942) was a Russian choreographer and dancer. He was born in St Petersburg, the son of a prosperous middle-class merchant. At the age of nine, he was accepted into the St Petersburg Imperial Ballet School. In 1898, on his 18th birthday, he debuted on the stage of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in "Paquita", with the Imperial Russian Ballet. In 1902, he became a teacher with the ballet school.