Serge Lifar
Encyclopedia
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
dancer and choreographer of Ukrainian origin, famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century.
Biography
Lifar was born in KievKiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, then part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. His year of birth is officially shown as 1904 (as on a 2004 Ukrainian stamp commemorating his centenary), but there is good reason to believe it occurred in 1905.
He was the pupil of Bronislava Nijinska
Bronislava Nijinska
Bronislava Nijinska - February 22, 1972)) was a Russian dancer, choreographer, and teacher of Polish descent.Nijinska was born in Minsk, the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz and Eleonora Nijinska . Her brother was Vaslav Nijinsky...
in Kiev. In 1921 he left Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and was noticed by Serge Diaghilev who sent him to Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
in order to improve his technique with Enrico Cecchetti
Enrico Cecchetti
Enrico Cecchetti was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers from Civitanova Marche, he was born in the costuming room of the Teatro Tordinona in Rome. After an illustrious career as a dancer in Europe, he went to dance for the Imperial Ballet in...
. He made his debut at the Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
in 1923 where he quickly became a principal dancer. He played the lead roles in the ballets 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...
and at the death of Diaghilev in 1929 he entered the Paris Opera Ballet
Paris Opera Ballet
The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company in the world, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it...
and created his first ballet.
From 1930 on, Serge Lifar was immensely successful, essentially in his own ballet creations, notably with Les Créatures de Prométhée (1929), a personal version of Le Spectre de la rose (1931) and L'Après-midi d'un faune (1935), Icare (1935) with costumes and decor by Picasso, Istar (1941) or Suite en Blanc (1943), which he qualified as neoclassical
Neoclassical ballet
Neoclassical balletis the style of 20th century classical ballet exemplified by the works of George Balanchine. It draws on the advanced technique of 19th century Russian Imperial dance, but strips it of its detailed narrative and heavy theatrical setting...
, all created for the Paris Opera
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
.
As ballet master
Ballet Master
Ballet Master is the term used for an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company...
of the Paris Opera
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
from 1930 to 1944 then 1947 to 1958, he devoted himself to the restoration of the technical level of the Paris Opera Ballet
Paris Opera Ballet
The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company in the world, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it...
in order since the 1930ies and until now to return it to its place as one of the best company in the world. He undoubtedly influenced Yvette Chauviré
Yvette Chauviré
Yvette Chauviré is a French prima ballerina who was born in Paris. Her dancing career was from 1937 to 1972. She celebrated her 90th birthday in 2007. She was the étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet, and later its director. She is also the holder of the Légion d'Honneur...
, Janine Charrat and Roland Petit
Roland Petit
Roland Petit was a French choreographer and dancer born in Villemomble, near Paris, France. He trained at the Paris Opéra Ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets.-Biography:...
.
He died in Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in 1986, aged 81.
International Ballet Contest
In the summer of 1994 on the stage of the National Ukraine OperaKiev Opera
The Kiev Opera group was formally established in the summer of 1867, and is the third oldest in Ukraine, after Odessa Opera and Lviv Opera. Today, the Kiev Opera Company performs at the National Opera House of Ukraine named after Taras Shevchenko in Kiev....
the First International Ballet Contest was held named after Serge Lifar. The new contest happened to be unique. For the first time in Europe young ballet artists and balletmasters contended simultaneously.
The Sixth Lifar International Ballet Competition was held in April, 2006 and the seventh in Donetsk
Donetsk
Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
in March-April 2011.
Literature
- Jean LAURENT & Julie SAZANOVA, Serge Lifar, rénovateur du ballet français, Paris, Buchet-Chastel, 1960.
- The Diaghilev-Lifar Library, catalogue, Sotheby's, Monte-Carlo, 1975.
- Ballet material and manuscripts from the Serge Lifar Collection, catalogue, Sotheby's, London, 1984
- Alexander SCHOUVALOFF, The Art of Ballets Russes: The Serge Lifar Collection of Theater Designs, Costumes, and Paintings at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Yale University, 1998.
- Roger LEONG (ed.), From Russia With Love: Costumes for the Ballets Russes 1909-1933, Australian Publishers, 2000, ISBN 0-642-54116-7, ISBN 978-0642541161.
- Laurence BENAÏM, Marie Laure de Noailles, la vicomtesse du bizarre, Paris, Grasset, 2001, ISBN 2-253-15430-X.
- Robert ALDRICH & Garry WOTHERSPOON, Who’s Who in Gay and Lesbian History from Antiquity to World War II, Routledge, London, 2002, ISBN 0-415-15983-0.
- Stéphanie CORCY, La vie culturelle sous l'Occupation, Paris, Perrin, 2005.
- Lynn GARAFOLA, Legacies of Twentieth-century Dance, Weslyan University Press, Middletown, 2005
- Cyril EDER, Les comtesse de la Gestapo, Paris, Grasset, 2006
- Florence POUDRU, Serge Lifar : La danse pour patrie, Hermann, 2007, ISBN 9782705666378.
- Serge Lifar, musagète, DVD, 2008.
- Frederic SPOTTS, The Shameful Peace: How French Artists and Intellectuals Survived the Nazi Occupation, Yale University Press, New York, 2008.
- Jean-Pierre PASTORI, Serge Lifar, la beauté du diable, ed. Fame Sa, 2009, ISBN 2828911276. .
- Sjeng SCHEIJEN Sergej Diaghilev, een leven voor de kunst. Amsterdam, Bert Bakker, 2009, ISBN 9035136241.
- Alan RIDING, And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-occupied Paris, 2010.