She became known internationally as one of the Baby Ballerinas of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo after being discovered by her fellow émigré, balletmaster and choreographer George Balanchine.

[4] After moving to Paris, Toumanova was given piano lessons and studied ballet with Olga Preobrajenska, whom she described as her "first and only permanent teacher" and an "immortal friend".

Tamara was 10 years old when she made her debut at the Paris Opera as a child étoile in the ballet L'Éventail de Jeanne (for which 10 French composers wrote the music).

[9] Balanchine created the role of the "Young Girl" for Toumanova in his ballet Cotillon and had her star in his Concurrence and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.

Burr Tillstrom went on to create a very early (1947) television show for children, titled Kukla, Fran and Ollie.

[12] In 1953, she played Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova in Tonight We Sing, and in 1954, she appeared in the biographical musical Deep in My Heart as the French dancer Gaby Deslys.

In 1970, she played Russian ballerina Madame Petrova in Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

Singer Lyudmila Lopato, who personally knew Toumanova, wrote that "Tamara was of Armenian-Polish descent, not a Georgian Princess, as many people think".

This is further confirmed by her family's official documents in Georgia and the Russian Empire,[45] including that of her uncle (mother's brother) Prince Zachary Dmitrievich Tumanov, whose ethnicity is stated as "Georgian".

Her funeral was a high mass at the Russian Orthodox Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral, Los Angeles.

British choreographer John Gregory described Toumanova as a "remarkable artist – a great personality who never stopped acting.