Lucia Chase

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Lucia Chase

Born Lucia Chase
March 24, 1907
Waterbury, Connecticut
Died January 9, 1986[1]

Lucia Chase (24 March 1907; Waterbury, Connecticut - 9 January 1986; New York, USA) was an American dancer, actress, ballet director and also the co-founder of the American Ballet Theatre.[1]

Contents

[edit] Career

She studied drama at New York's Theater Guild School where she also took ballet lessons. Also her first love was the theatre. After she decided that dance was to be her life, she studied seriously with Mikhail Mordkin, Michel Fokine, Antony Tudor, Anatole Vilzak, and Bronislava Nijinska. She performed with the Mordkin Ballet from 1937 to 1939, where she danced the title roles in The Sleeping Beauty and Giselle. In 1940 she and Richard Pleasant founded Ballet Theatre (later American Ballet Theatre) with Lucia Chase as principal dancer (and prime financial backer), although she concentrated on the more dramatic and comedic roles.

She created the Eldest Sister in Tudor's Pillar of Fire (1942) and the Greedy One in Agnes de Mille's Three Virgins and a Devil (1941). In 1945 she and Oliver Smith jointly took over direction of American Ballet Theatre.

She retired from the stage in 1960, and retired as company director in 1980, when she was succeeded by Mikhail Baryshnikov.

During the course of 40 years she devoted her energy and a large part of her personal fortune to ensure the company's survival. She brought Tudor and Baryshnikov to American Ballet Theater and encouraged US choreographers such as Jerome Robbins, Walter Tetley and Twyla Tharp. She was awarded with the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.

[edit] Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1976 Live from Lincoln Center Queen Mother 1 episode
1957 Omnibus Stepmother 1 episode
1973 American Ballet Theatre: A Close-Up in Time Herself

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b New York Times obituary