Lucia Chase
| Lucia Chase | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Lucia Chase March 24, 1897 Waterbury, Connecticut, United States |
| Died | January 9, 1986 (aged 88) |
| Awards | Presidential Medal of Freedom |
Lucia Chase (24 March 1897;Waterbury, Connecticut – 9 January 1986; New York City, United States) was an American dancer, actress, ballet director and also the co-founder of the American Ballet Theatre.
She studied drama at New York's Theater Guild School where she also took ballet lessons. Though 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 forty 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 Theatre and encouraged US choreographers such as Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley and Twyla Tharp. She was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.
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