She settled in Paris after fleeing the Russian Revolution together with her sister, Tamara, an actress and wife of the Russian musicologist of French origin Théodore d'Erlanger, and Tamara's daughter, the future ballet dancer Nora Kiss.

Sarkissian joined as a teacher in 1928 and rapidly became a very popular instructor, known for her emphasis on the precision and speed of movements and the importance she attached to the quality of the musical accompaniment.

[2][3][4] Among those Sarkissian trained were Roland Petit,[5] Maurice Béjart,[6] Leslie Caron, Yvette Chauviré,[7] Violette Verdy,[8] Jean Babilée, Pierre Lacotte, Oleg Briansky,[9] Brigitte Bardot, and Janet Sassoon.

[10] She was well paid by the Parisian elite to train their children and used this money to support her favourite students, particularly during the German occupation of Paris.

In 1978, Béjart created the autobiographical ballet Gaîté parisienne, using the music of Jacques Offenbach, in which the central character was Madame Rousanne, "ruthless, authoritarian, but capable of forgiving a talent for everything".