George Zoritch

George Zoritch, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1942

George Zoritch also spelled Zorrich (June 6, 1917 – November 1, 2009) was a dancer born in Moscow. He joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1935 and toured with them in the United States after World War II. He appeared in a number of films, including Night and Day (1946) and Samson and Delilah (1949).

In 1994 George Zoritch was among the first American dancers, choreographers and writers honored by being awarded the Vaslav Nijinsky Medal, sponsored by the Polish Artists Agency in Warsaw, for work in honor of Nijinsky. Other awardees were Gerald Arpino, Ann Barzel, Oleg Briansky, Vladimir Dokoudovsky, Illaria Ladre, Peter Ostwald, Richard Philp, Jennie Schulman, Mr. Turnbaugh, and Anatole Vilzak.^[1]

Zoritch appears in the documentary Ballets Russes. George Zoritch spent his last years in Tucson, Arizona, where he died at the age of 92.

Sources

• New York Times Obituary

References

Obituaries

• NY Times by Anna Kisselgoff, 5 November 2009
• George Zoritch – Daily Telegraph obituary

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