Ruth A. Sobotka was an Austrian-born dancer, costume designer

Costume Designer

A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film or stage production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, scenic and lighting designers as well as the sound designer. The...

, art director

Art director

The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....

, painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, and actress.

The daughter of prominent Austrian architect and interior designer, Walter Sobotka (1888-1972) and Viennese actress, Gisela Schönau, Ruth Sobotka immigrated to the United States from Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 with her parents in 1938. She studied set design at The University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 and graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology

Carnegie Institute of Technology

The Carnegie Institute of Technology , is the name for Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. It was first called the Carnegie Technical Schools, or Carnegie Tech, when it was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie who intended to build a “first class technical school” in Pittsburgh,...

. After studying at the School of American Ballet

School of American Ballet

The School of American Ballet is one of the most famous classical ballet schools in the world and is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a leading international ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the...

, Sobotka became a member of George Balanchine

George Balanchine

George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...

's Ballet Society (1946-1948) and its successor the New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...

 from 1949-1961. She also designed the costumes for and danced in the Jerome Robbins

Jerome Robbins

Jerome Robbins was an American theater producer, director, and choreographer known primarily for Broadway Theater and Ballet/Dance, but who also occasionally directed films and directed/produced for television. His work has included everything from classical ballet to contemporary musical theater...

' controversial ballet The Cage (1951) and played Robbins' wife in Tyl Eulenspiegel (1951). Sobotka appeared in many successful Balanchine ballets including The Four Temperaments

The Four Temperaments (ballet)

The Four Temperaments is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to music he commissioned from Paul Hindemith for the opening program of Ballet Society, immediate forerunner of City Ballet...

(1946); Serenade

Serenade (ballet)

Serenade is a ballet by George Balanchine, subsequently co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet, to Tschaikovsky's 1880 Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48...

, Apollo

Apollo (ballet)

Apollo is a ballet in two tableaux composed between 1927 and 1928 by Igor Stravinsky. It was choreographed by balletmaster George Balanchine in 1928, the composer contributing the libretto...

, Symphony in C

Symphony in C (ballet)

Symphony in C, originally titled Le Palais de Cristal, is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Bizet's Symphony in C , which he wrote at the age of 17 while studying with Charles Gounod at the Paris Conservatory...

(1946); Swan Lake

Swan Lake (Balanchine)

Swan Lake is a one-act ballet made by New York City Ballet's co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine after Lev Ivanov to Tschaikovsky'seponymous music...

(pas de quatre) (1951); Concerto Barocco, The Nutcracker (1954); Ivesiana (1954); Agon

Agon (ballet)

Agon is a ballet for twelve dancers, with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by George Balanchine. Composition began in December 1953 and concluded in April 1957; the music was first performed on June 17, 1957 in Los Angeles conducted by Robert Craft, while the first stage performance was...

(1957); and The Figure in the Carpet (1961). Sobotka also danced in James Waring

James Waring

James Waring was a dancer, choreographer, costume designer and theatrical director based in New York City in the 1940s through the 1970s. He was a prolific choreographer as well as a dedicated teacher who selflessly helped his students and proteges to advance their careers, while maintaining a...

's company and for major American choreographers and designed costumes for works by Paul Taylor, Erick Hawkins

Erick Hawkins

Frederick Hawkins known as Erick Hawkins was a leading American modern-dance choreographer and dancer...

, and John Taras

John Taras

John Taras was a prominent American balletmaster and choreographer. Born on the Lower East Side of New York City to Ukrainian parents, he was sent at age 16 to study ballet with Michel Fokine, Anatole Vilzak and Ludmila Shollar, and later to the School of American Ballet...

. She danced on Broadway in the musicals Sadie Thompson (1944) and the Balanchine revival of On Your Toes

On Your Toes

On Your Toes is a musical with a book by Richard Rodgers, George Abbott, and Lorenz Hart, music by Rodgers, and lyrics by Hart. It was adapted into a film in 1939....

(1954).

A young Sobotka appeared as "The Girl" in Man Ray's segment "Ruth, Roses and Revolvers" in the groundbreaking avant-garde film by Hans Richter

Hans Richter (artist)

Hans Richter was a painter, graphic artist, avant-gardist, film-experimenter and producer. He was born in Berlin into a well-to-do family and died in Minusio, near Locarno, Switzerland.-Germany:...

, Dreams That Money Can Buy

Dreams That Money Can Buy

Dreams That Money Can Buy is a 1947 American experimental feature color film written, produced, and directed by surrealist artist and dada film-theorist Hans Richter.The film was produced by Kenneth Macpherson and Peggy Guggenheim....

(1946). Ruth Sobotka was the second wife of film director Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...

 (1928-1999). She and Kubrick met in 1952; they married in January 1955; separated in 1958, and divorced in 1961. Sobotka appeared in a cameo role of the ballerina "Iris" in Kubrick's Killer's Kiss (1954) and served as art director on the sets of Killer's Kiss

Killer's Kiss

Killer's Kiss is a 1955 film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Howard Sackler. It is the second feature film directed by Kubrick...

and Kubrick's subsequent feature, The Killing (1956).

After her resignation from the New York City Ballet in 1961, Sobotka choreographed for the American Shakespeare Festival in Stamford, Connecticut

Stamford, Connecticut

Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...

 and studied acting under Herbert Berghof

Herbert Berghof

Herbert Berghof was an Austrian American actor, director and acting coach. He co-founded HB Studio in New York City with his wife Uta Hagen in 1945...

, Uta Hagen

Uta Hagen

Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...

 and later Lee Strasberg

Lee Strasberg

Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...

 at The Actor's Studio. She appeared in a number of Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 productions and was a member of the Seattle Repertory Theatre

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Seattle Repertory Theatre is a major regional theatre located in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Center. It is a member of Theatre Puget Sound and Theatre Communications Group. Founded in 1963, it is led by Artistic Director Jerry Manning and Managing Director Benjamin Moore...

 during their first season in 1963, playing Cordelia in King Lear

King Lear

King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...

. Sobotka died after a brief illness in 1967 in New York City.