Fyodor Lopukhov

Lopukhov, Fyodor (also Fedor Lopokov;b St Petersburg, 20 Oct. 1886, d Leningrad, 28 Jan. 1973). Russian-Soviet dancer, choreographer, and teacher; brother of Andrei and Lydia Lopokova. He studied at the Imperial Theatre School, graduating in 1905 into the Maryinsky Theatre, where he became one of its greatest character dancers. He transferred to the Bolshoi (1909-10) and also danced abroad, with Sedova and Legat (various tours in 1907 and 1909) and with his sister Lopokova and Volonine (1910-11), but then remained largely in Leningrad where he maintained a more-or-less close association with the Maryinsky (later GATOB, and Kirov) until 1970. He created his first ballet in 1916 and was one of the first Soviet choreographers to experiment with contemporary themes in, for example, The Red Whirlwind (mus. V. Deshevov, GATOB, 1924), in which he mixed classical ballet with acrobatics. In 1921 he initiated Evenings of Young Ballet with Slonimsky and was director of the Kirov (1922-30, 1944-7, and 1955-8). He was director of the Bolshoi Ballet (1926 and 1935-6) and in 1930 he founded the ballet company of Leningrad's Maly Opera House, which he directed until 1935. His other ballets include the controversial Dance Symphony (mus. Beethoven, 1923, performed only once), versions of Stravinsky's Firebird (1921), Pulcinella (1926), and Renard (1927), The Ice Maiden (mus. Grieg, 1927), The Bolt (mus. Shostakovich, 1931), and Taras Bulba (mus. Soloviev-Sedoy, 1940), as well as Pictures from an Exhibition (mus. Mussorgsky, 1963, for Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Ballet). During his career he was also renowned for his productions of the classics for which he created several new variations in the style of Petipa, including the Lilac Fairy variation, but in his 1935 ballet The Bright Stream (mus. Shostakovich, Maly Theatre) he was accused by Pravda of formalism and fell into an official disgrace from which his career took several years to recover. He later exerted an important influence on Grigorovich's choreographic career, and was director of the choreographic faculty at Leningrad Conservatory (1962-73). He wrote several books, including Paths of Ballet (Berlin, 1925), Sixty Years in Ballet (Leningrad, 1966), and Choreographic Confessions (Moscow, 1972). Father of dancer Vladimir Lopukhov. His brother Andrei Lopukhov (1898-1947) was also a noted character dancer with the Maryinsky from 1916 to 1945.