After moving to Paris, Toumanova was given piano lessons and studied ballet with Olga Preobrajenska. Toumanova said she was her "first and only permanent teacher" and an "immortal friend". She made her debut at the Paris Opera at the age of ten in the children's ballet "L'Éventail de Jeanne". George Balanchine saw her in ballet class and hired her for de Basil's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as one of the three "baby ballerinas".