She became a member of Anna Pavlova's dance troupe, and, two years later, she became a part of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, and toured across Europe.

The October Revolution forced Milovanova to flee from Russia to Monte Carlo, where she planned to continue her work in the Ballets Russes.

She then starred in The Legend of Sister Beatrix (1923), Nène (1924), which she received praise for her performance in, The Phantom of the Moulin Rouge (1925), directed by René Clair, Les Misérables (1925), and The Prey of the Wind (1926), which asserted her as a tragedienne.

In Germany, she played a supporting role in Make Up (1927) with Marcella Albani and Werner Krauss, in Sweden she acted in Gustaf Molander's Sealed Lips (1927), and La Condesa María (1928) in Spain.

She returned to film in the 1940s, appearing in Après Mein Kampf, mes crimes (1940), The Last Judgment (1945), and The Private Life of an Actor (1948).