Serge Lifar

Serge Lifar Ukrainian Сергій Михайлович Лифар Serhіy Mуkhailovуch Lуfar 15 April OS 2 April 1905 15 December 1986 was a Ukrainian ballet dancer and choreographer famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century Not only a dancer Lifar was also a choreographer director writer theoretician about dance and collector As ballet master of the Paris Opera from 1930 to 1944 and from 1947 to 1958 he devoted himself to the restoration of the technical level of the Paris Opera Ballet returning it to its place as one of the best companies in the world Lifar was born in Kyiv Russian Empire His year of birth is officially shown as 1904 as on a 2004 Ukrainian stamp commemorating his centenary He became the pupil of Bronislava Nijinska in her ballet studio School of Movement in Kyiv 1920 In 1921 he left Soviet Russia and was noticed by Sergei Diaghilev who sent him to Turin in order to improve his technique with Enrico Cecchetti He made his debut at the Ballets Russes in 1923 where he became the principal dancer in 1925 Lifar was considered the successor to Nijinsky in the Ballets Russes He was cast at the age of 21 opposite Tamara Karsavina in Nijinskas Roméo et Juliette 1926 score by Constant Lambert Karsavina was twice his age He originated leading roles in three Balanchine ballets for the Ballet Russes including La Chatte 1927 with a score by French composer Henri Sauguet and based on an Aesop fable which featured Lifars famous entrance in a chariot formed by his male companions Ode by Léonide Massine and Apollon Musagète 1928 with a score by Stravinsky depicting the birth of the Greek God Apollo and his encounter with the three muses Calliope Polyhymnia and Terpsichore and Le Fils prodigue The Prodigal Son 1929 with a score by Sergei Prokofiev the last great ballet of the Diaghilev era At the death of Diaghilev in 1929 Lifar at the age of 24 was invited by Jacques Rouché to take over the directorship of the Paris Opéra Ballet which had fallen into decline in the late 19th century Lifar gave the company a new strength and purpose initiating the rebirth of ballet in France and began to create the first of many ballets for that company These were immediately successful such as Les Créatures de Prométhée 1929 a personal version of Le Spectre de la rose 1931 and LAprèsmidi dun faune 1935 Icare 1935 with costumes and decor by Picasso Istar 1941 and Suite en Blanc 1943 which he qualified as Neoclassical ballet As part of his effort to revitalize dance Lifar thought the basic principles of balletspecifically the five positions of the feetdenied mobility for the dancer He codified two additional positions known as the sixth and seventh positions with the feet turned in not out like the first five positions The sixth and seventh positions were not Lifars inventions but revivals of positions that already existed in the eighteenth century when there were ten positions of the feet in classical ballet and their use is limited to Lifars choreographies Source Article Serge Lifar from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30