Lucia Chase

Lucia Chase

Infobox actor
name = Lucia Chase


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birthname = Lucia Chase
birthdate = March 24, 1907
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deathdate = January 9, 1986 [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50710FA3C590C738DDDA80894DE484D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fOrganizations%2fA%2fAmerican%20Ballet%20Theater New York Times obituary] ]
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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.

Career

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 Theater and encouraged US choreographers such as Jerome Robbins, Walter Tetley and Twyla Tharp. She was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.

In private life she was Mrs Thomas Ewing, with whom she had two sons.

Filmography

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2109312/bio Lucia Chase on IMDB]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE3DD1E3BF93AA25752C0A960948260&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FOrganizations%2FA%2FAmerican%20Ballet%20Theater News]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE7DB163AF935A15757C0A960948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print Memorial]
* [http://www.medaloffreedom.com/LuciaChase.htm Presidential Medal of Freedom for Lucia Chase]
* [http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/jec/medal.phtml Medal of Freedom Awards by President Carter 1977-1981]
* [http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0803665.html American Ballet Theatre]
* [http://www.delteatro.it/dizionario_dello_spettacolo_del_900/c/chase.php Italian short biography]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=WSaMu4F06AQC&pg=PA115&lpg=PA115&dq=lucia+chase+obituary&source=web&ots=UF91idEhWu&sig=zIE6PzaiZtktgj5qVcRHAnhoBWs Google Books]

References


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