Léonide Massine

For more information on Léonide Massine, visit Britannica.com.

Massine, Léonide (b Moscow, 8 Aug. 1895, d Weseke bei Borken, Germany, 15 Mar. 1979). Russian-US dancer, choreographer, ballet master, and teacher. One of the biggest stars of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, he became one of the most influential and controversial choreographers of the 20th century. He trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow with Gorsky, graduating in 1912 and joining the Bolshoi Ballet. In 1914 he was recruited by Diaghilev to create the title role in Fokine's The Legend of Joseph. In 1915 he made his debut as a choreographer (with Le Soleil de nuit), encouraged by Diaghilev who was eager to discover a new talent following the departure of Fokine and Nijinsky. He continued his dance studies with Cecchetti and found great success as both a performer and a choreographer; he often danced the leading male roles in the ballets he choreographed. He was a superlative character dancer, one of the best the 20th century produced. For Diaghilev he made Les Femmes de bonne humeur (mus. Scarlatti, 1917), Parade (mus. Satie, 1917), La Boutique fantasque (mus. Rossini, arr. Respighi, 1919), Le Tricorne (mus. de Falla, 1919), Song of the Nightingale (mus. Stravinsky, 1920), Pulcinella (mus. Stravinsky, 1920), Le Sacre du printemps (mus. Stravinsky, 1920). He stayed with Diaghilev for seven years before leaving to tour independently, a period which saw the creation of Salade (mus. Milhaud, 1924), Mercure (mus. Satie, 1924), and Le Beau Danube (mus. J. Strauss, 1924), all staged for Étienne de Beaumont's Soirées de Paris. In 1925 he returned to the Ballets Russes as guest choreographer, where he made Zéphire et Flore (mus. V. Dukelsky, 1925), Les Matelots (mus. Auric, 1925), Le Pas d'acier (mus. Prokofiev, 1927), and Ode (mus. Nabakov, 1928). He was solo dancer and ballet master of the Roxy Theatre in New York (1928-30), and revived Sacre du printemps with Martha Graham in the leading role in 1930 in Philadelphia. He also worked with Ida Rubinstein's company, for which he made David (mus. Sauguet, 1928) and Amphion (mus. Honegger, 1931). In 1932 he joined the Blum and de Basil Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, becoming its ballet master in 1933. For them he choreographed Jeux d'enfants (mus. Bizet, 1932), Choreartium (mus. Brahms's 4th Symphony, 1933), Les Présages (mus. Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, 1933), and Symphonie fantastique (mus. Berlioz, 1936). When de Basil and Blum fell out, Massine went with Blum's breakaway Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where he was artistic director (1938-42). For this company he made Gaîté parisienne (mus. Offenbach-Rosenthal, 1938), Seventh Symphony (mus. Beethoven, 1938), Nobilissima visione (mus. Hindemith, 1938), Capriccio espagnol (with La Argentinita, mus. Rimsky-Korsakov, 1939), Rouge et noir (mus. Shostakovich's 1st Symphony, 1939), Bacchanale (mus. Wagner, 1939), and Labyrinth (mus. Schubert's 7th Symphony, 1941). In 1942 he joined American Ballet Theatre, making Aleko (mus. Tchaikovsky, 1942) and Mademoiselle Angot (mus. Lecocq, 1943). Massine worked with many companies and also toured with his own troupe, Ballet Russe Highlights (1945-6), which premiered Leningrad Symphony (mus. Shostakovich) in New York in 1945. In 1947 he returned to Europe. A list of his ballets between 1947 and 1960 includes Clock Symphony (mus. Haydn, Sadler's Wells Ballet, 1948), Le Peintre et son modèle (mus. Auric, Ballets des Champs-Elysées, 1949), Harold in Italy (mus. Berlioz, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, 1954), Donald of the Burthens (mus. I. Whyte, Sadler's Wells Ballet, 1951), Laudes Evangeli (mus. Bucchi, Perugia, 1952), Mario and the Magician (mus. F. Mannino, La Scala, Milan, 1954), Don Juan (mus. Gluck, La Scala, Milan, 1959), and Fantasmi al Grand Hotel (mus. Chailly, La Scala, Milan, 1960). In 1960 he set up the Ballet Europeo for the Nervi Festival in Genoa and choreographed Le Bal des voleurs (mus. Auric, 1960) and the full-length La commedia umana (mus. ancient, 1960). As a choreographer he is probably most remembered for his comic ballets (starting with Les Femmes de bonne humeur), which encouraged audiences to laugh out loud at the ballet, something they had not previously been encouraged to do. But, more importantly, it was his pioneering symphonic ballets (Choreartium, Présages) that opened up new possibilities for choreographers, showing that music written for the concert hall could be used most effectively for what was in essence abstract dance. He travelled the world reviving his ballets for countless companies. He was interested in a wide variety of dance styles, including that of the Native Americans. He was also involved in films, most famously acting and choreographing his own role in The Red Shoes (1948); he also choreographed Powell and Pressburger's The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). In 1923 he opened his own school in London—one of his students was Ashton. He also taught choreography at the Royal Ballet School in 1969. Author of My Life in Ballet (London, 1968) and Massine on Choreography (London, 1976), a dense textbook that revealed his love of theorizing.