(Leonide Massine provides a glossy view of his start with ...)
Leonide Massine provides a glossy view of his start with Diaghilev and describes his work up to 1968 or so. The focus is dance, not so much the personal and motivational aspects... writing is characteristic of the "not tell all" approach to memoirs.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006BYLRQ/?tag=2022091-20
Leonide Massine was born into a musical family on August 9, 1895 in Moscow, Russia. Рis parents were creative personalities. His mother was a soprano in the Bolshoi Theater Chorus and his father played the French horn in the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra.
Leonide Massine attended the Imperial Ballet School, St. Petersburg, and became principal dancer and choreographer.
Leonide Massine was noted especially as a character dancer.
His Soleil de nuit was produced in 1915, and Femmes de bonne humeur, Parade, and Contes russes in 1917.
His passionate, dour miller in Le Tricorne and boneless cancan dancer in La Boutique fantasque were unique creations.
The works of Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Berlioz, respectively, were paralleled in dance form in Les Présages, Presages, Choreartium, and Symphonie fantastique.
In later years some of his ballets, such as Beau Danube, Les Présages, Presages, Choreartium, and GaîtéGaite parisienne, were revived and new productions staged by such companies as the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Paris OpéraOpera Ballet, and Joffrey Ballet. Few choreographers can equal Massine in scope or in inventiveness.
Some of his best works have a suggestion of impromptu genius.
The outline becomes clear by turn in profound characterizations, in animate detail, and in solo simplicity.
In the 1940 he worked in the United States with the Ballet Theatre.
In 1948 Massine appeared in the film The Red Shoes.
He produced Commedia umana, a ballet version of Boccaccio's Decameron, for the 1960 Nervi festival in Italy.
His autobiography, My Life in Ballet, was published in 1968.
(Leonide Massine provides a glossy view of his start with ...)
(A beautiful book of choreography notation. Section 1: Ana...)
Leonide Massine married Vera Savina in 1921. Then he married Hannelore Holtwick, with whom he had two sons, Peter and Theodor.
