This fall, Tatyana will be training dancers from the Faubourg Theater Ballet Arts Academy, a small but notable school in Hanover Park, Ill., for an international competition. Each dancer will perform two to three ballet variations, requiring a different costume for each. I asked Michele Welsh, whose daughter Elisabeth is one of Tatyana’s students, if she notices a change in Elizabeth’s dancing when she practices with a tutu, “It makes all the difference,” she says, “she becomes the character.”

On the day I visit, Tatyana’s students are giddy with excitement. They gasp as she brings out each piece. “This one is my favorite!” says Julianne Pankau. Only to change her mind once Tatyana brings out another.

Though it had been more than a decade since I had danced with Tatyana, her students’ enthusiasm reminded me of the feeling that the “Raymonda” tutu gave me. I was proud to wear that blue dress — a privilege I had earned only after dedicating years to ballet.

I wondered if Tatyana’s current students also recognized how rare it was to be outfitted in costumes like these. One student, Michelle Zhang, put on a traditional folk dance costume. “I feel like one of those Russian dolls,” she said. “This looks exactly like one.”