Serge Lifar
Serge Lifar (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Лифарь; Sergey Mikhaylovich Lifar, Ukrainian: Сергій Михайлович Лифар; Serhіy Mуkhailovуch Lуfar); 15 April [O.S. 2 April] 1905 – 15 December 1986) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer of Ukrainian origin, famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century.
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[edit] Biography
Lifar was born in Kiev, Russian Empire. 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 in Kiev. In 1921 he left Soviet Union and was noticed by Serge Diaghilev who sent him to Turin in order to improve his technique with Enrico Cecchetti. He made his debut at the Ballets Russes in 1923 where he quickly became a principal dancer. He played the lead roles in the ballets of George Balanchine and at the death of Diaghilev in 1929 he entered the Paris Opera Ballet 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, all created for the Paris Opera.
As ballet master of the Paris Opera from 1930 to 1944 then 1947 to 1958, he devoted himself to the restoration of the technical level of the Paris Opera Ballet in order since the 1930s and until now to return it to its place as one of the best company in the world. He undoubtedly influenced Yvette Chauviré, Janine Charrat and Roland Petit.
He died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1986, aged 81.
[edit] International Ballet Contest
In the summer of 1994 on the stage of the National Ukraine Opera 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 in March-April 2011.
[edit] 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.
