Serge Lifar

Serge Lifar was born in Kyiv in 1905 and became one of the twentieth century's most influential figures in ballet. He began studying dance with Bronislava Nijinska in 1920 and joined Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, where he refined his technique in Italy with Enrico Cecchetti. With the Ballets Russes he danced in *La Chatte*, *Ode* and *Le Pas d'acier*, and created roles in George Balanchine's *Apollon Musagète* and *Le Fils prodigue*. In 1929 he created his first choreography, *Renard*, set to music by Stravinsky.

Following Diaghilev's death, Lifar completed the choreography for *The Creatures of Prometheus* at the Paris Opera. The next year he became the company's ballet master, a position he held for nearly three decades. During this tenure he introduced an adagio class, developed a neoclassical style fusing classical and modern techniques, and restored nineteenth-century works including *Giselle* to the repertory. He created a substantial body of original work—*Icare*, *Istar*, *Suite en blanc*, *Les Mirages* and *Phèdre* among them—and trained a generation of étoiles while expanding all-ballet programs and leading international tours.

Lifar served as ballet master during the German Occupation. In 1945, the Purification Committee condemned him, and the Opera suspended him for one year. He returned in 1947 with *Les Mirages* and continued his directorship until 1958. He died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1986.