Igor Youskevitch
Encyclopedia
Alicia Alonso
Alicia Alonso Martínez is the Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and choreographer. Her company became the Ballet de Cuba in 1955....
.
Early years
Born in the village of Pyriatin, Poltava OblastPoltava Oblast
Poltava Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Poltava.Other important cities within the oblast include: Komsomolsk, Kremenchuk, Lubny and Myrhorod.-Geography:...
, Ukraine (then part of Imperial Russia), Youskevitch was the son of a judge. The family fled the Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
and in 1920 settled in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. Youskevitch was educated in Belgrade and graduated with a degree in engineering from Belgrade University. He did not begin his ballet training until the age of twenty although prior to that he was active in a Slavic athletic organisation and received early training as a gymnast. In 1932, the Yugoslavian ballerina Zenia Grunt saw him at a tournament and persuaded him to take up dancing as a career. He came to dance relatively late in life, however, his talent led to rapid promotion, and in 1932 he made his first appearance on the Paris stage. He studied first with Belgrade teacher Elena Poliakova. His later teachers included Olga Preobrajenska, Anatole Vilzak and Alexandra Fedorova. He studied ballet for an additional two years in Paris before joining Les Ballets de Paris. In 1937 he joined Le Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo under the direction of Leonid Massine as first dancer, touring with them in the late-1930s.
Australia
Youskevitch came to Australia as a leading dancer with the Monte Carlo Russian Ballet on their 1936–1937 tour. He danced all the leading roles during the tour, scoring particular success with Helene Kirsova in Le Carnaval.USA
In 1944 Youskevitch joined the US Navy and became an American citizen. After the war, he struggled to return to shape for dancing and began a successful career in the United States in 1946 by joining the American Ballet Theater in New York. In the late 40s, he began to partner with Alicia AlonsoAlicia Alonso
Alicia Alonso Martínez is the Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and choreographer. Her company became the Ballet de Cuba in 1955....
, with whom he had his greatest renown. He appeared in films and on television. His unique ability to blend athleticism with artistry is vividly captured in his aerialist sequences for Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
's pioneering 1956 ballet film Invitation to the Dance
Invitation to the Dance (film)
Invitation to the Dance is a 1956 anthology film consisting of three distinct stories, all starring and directed by Gene Kelly.The film is unusual in that it has no spoken dialogue, with the characters performing their roles entirely through dance and mime...
. Thereafter he returned to Le Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as artistic director and dancer
He retired from dance in the 1960s, and operated a ballet school in New York with his wife, dancer Anna Scarpova, which he ran from 1962 to 1980. In 1971, he accepted an appointment to the dance program at the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, and remained there until 1982.
He was the Artistic Director of New York International Ballet Competition (NYIBC) from 1983 to 1994. In that capacity he enriched the dance world by teaching and inspiring the NYIBC dancers from all over the world, passing on the secrets of his art, acquired over many years.
His daughter, Maria Youskevitch, was also a dancer. She was a soloist with American Ballet Theatre and danced with Maryland Ballet. She currently teaches at American Repertory Ballet's Princeton Ballet School.
Obituaries
- http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/14/obituaries/igor-youskevitch-master-of-classical-ballet-style-dies-at-82.htmlNY Times, Jack AndersonJack Anderson (dance critic)Jack Anderson is an American dance critic and author. Since 1978, he has been a contributor of dance reviews and other articles in The New York Times...
, 14 June 1994]
Reviews
- http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C10FE3A5E10728DDDA10994D9415B898FF1D3NY Times, 18 November 1939, the Ballet Russe de Monte CarloBallet Russe de Monte CarloBallet Russe de Monte Carlo was a ballet company created by members of the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo in 1938 after Léonide Massine and René Blum had a falling-out with the co-founder Wassily de Basil...
in GiselleGiselleGiselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
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External links
- http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an12114787photo by Max DupainMax DupainMaxwell Spencer Dupain AC was a renowned Australian modernist photographer.-Early life:Dupain received his first camera as a gift in 1924, spurring his interest in photography He later joined the Photographic Society of NSW, and when he left school, he worked for Cecil Bostock in Sydney.-Early...
, 1936 or 1937, National Library of AustraliaNational Library of AustraliaThe National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...
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