 She was named after her grandmother Vivian Ayers-Allen.Her aunt is actress Phylicia Rashad and her younger brother is basketball player Norm E. Nixon Jr. Vivian took gymnastics until she was 13, but when a fellow gymnast fell and was seriously injured, her mother took her out of the sport.She went on to study at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D. C. and at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles.