Mia Slavenska - Retired From Stage July 17, 1961

Mia Slavenska was a famous Croatian-born Prima Ballerina. A dancer since the age of four, she became the Prima Ballerina with the Zagreb Opera. Mia Slavenska was born in what was Austria-Hungary, later to become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Born as Mia Čorak, she changed her name soon after permanently leaving the country in 1937.

She studied in Zagreb under Josephine Weiss and made her debut in the Croatian National Theatre. Mia became Prima Ballerina in Zagreb by the age of 17. At the 1936 Berlin Dance Olympics, she won both the Choreography and Dance Award. She left Zagreb to study in Paris with former Ballets Russes principal dancer Olga Preobrazenska. Mia completed her ballet training in the Cecchetti Method under his protégé Maestro Vincenzo Celli.

For many years, Mia danced with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She moved to U.S. in the outset of the World War II, gaining her American citizenship in 1947. Also in 1947, she gave birth to her daughter Maria. In 1950, she co-founded the Slavenska-Franklin Ballet Company, with Freddie Franklin. In 1954, she became the Prima Ballerina of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

Mia opened a ballet studio in New York in 1960. In 1961, Mia danced at Brooklyn College, New York, partnered by Igor Youskevitch. She retired from the stage on July 17th, 1961 at the American Dance Festival held at the Metropolitan Arts Center.



Later, Mia moved to California where she taught at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1969 to 1983 and concurrently at California Institute for the Arts (CalArts) from 1970 to 1983. Mia died in a California retirement home on October 5, 2002. On April 18, 2005, Mia's ashes were interred in the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb, Croatia. A biography on Mia's life was published in Croatia in 2004.



See more photos of Mia, and read a March 1973 Dance Magazine article about Mia, in our Photo Album of her.

Serge Lifar - April 2nd Birthday Celebration!

Serge Lifar was born on April 2, 1903 in Kiev, Ukraine and trained there by Bronislava Nijinska. Lifar was dynamic and controversial in his personal life. He was accepted into the Ballets Russes in 1923. Serge Lifar's career was delayed a year because he did not accept Serge Diaghilev's invitation to breakfast. Diaghilev insisted that Lifar's training continue with Enrico Cecchetti, Nicolai Legat and Pierre Vladimirov. Lifar was known for his notorious and unscrupulous displays of ego. While partnering Alicia Markova at London's Drury Lane Theatre, his extremely unprofessional jealousy of her triumph caused a scandal. In 1938, they danced again when Markova was making her debut in America. The ballet was almost ruined by Lifar's attempts to steal scenes, causing a critic to write that his performance in Giselle would justify changing the name of the ballet to Albrecht.

Lifar eventually replaced Anton Dolin as Diaghilev's favorite, when Dolin left to dance in Cochran's Revues with Vera Nemtchinova. Diaghilev made sure Lifar continued his daily classes with Enrico Cecchetti. Wherever Lifar went, Cecchetti was there to give him lessons. Lifar was the last of the Ballets Russes' Premier Danseurs, although Dolin did return to the company as one of the stars. Two of Lifar's greatest achievements as a dancer in the Ballets Russes were in Balanchine's Apollo and The Prodigal Son.


After Serge Diaghilev's death in 1929, Lifar became Premier Danseur of the Paris Opera Ballet, whose reputation had declined since the Victorian era. By 1933, he had become its Director and Professor of Dance. In 1939, Lifar joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo where he again danced with Alicia Markova, this time at London's Covent Garden.

Lifar held the position of Director at the Paris Opera Ballet for 20 years, creating 90 percent of the choreography and dancing many leading roles. Although he himself was trained by Cecchetti, he replaced the Italian technique at the Paris Opera with the modern Russian Vaganova School, named for the great Kirov teacher Aggripina Vaganova. He remained as director of the Paris Opera Ballet until 1945, when charges of collaboration with the Germans caused him to leave and become director of the Nouveau Ballet de Monte Carlo. Lifar, cleared of the charges and given a year's suspension, returned as director of the Paris Opera Ballet in 1947. In 1949, he danced again, and his last performance at the Opera was as Albrecht in ''Giselle'' in 1956. He resigned as director in 1958, although he was briefly re-engaged as choreographer in 1968.


In the summer of 1994 on the stage of the National Ukraine Opera the First International Ballet Contest was held named after Serge Lifar. The new contest happened to be unique. For the first time in Europe young ballet artists and balletmasters contended simultaneously. The Sixth Lifar International Ballet Competition was held in April, 2006.

100th Anniversary of Carnaval: Ballet by Fokine

Carnaval is a ballet based on the music of Robert Schumann's, Carnaval, for piano. It was orchestrated by Aleksandr Glazunov, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Anatole Liadov, Alexander Tcherepnin. Carnaval was choreographed by Ballets Russes’ Mikhail Fokine, with the costumes designed by Léon Bakst. Fokine created Carnaval for a benefit given in St. Petersburg, Russia and it premiered on February 20, 1910.

Some of the leading dancers of the Imperial Ballet were cast in Carnaval: Tamara Karsavina (Columbine), Leonid Leontiev (Harlequin), Vera Fokina (Charina), Ludmila Schollar (Estrella), Bronislava Nijinska (Papillon), Vsevolod Meyerhold (Pierrot), Vasily Kiselev (Florestan), Aleksandr Shiryaev (Eusebius).

Carnaval did not become world-famous until after it was performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at the Teater des Westens, in Berlin on May 20, 1910. Lydia Lopokova performed as Columbine and Vaslav Nijinsky as Harlequin.

The image above (top of page)is the cover of The Impressions of the Russian Ballet, Carnaval, written in 1918 by C.W.Beaumont, with illustrations by A.P. Allinson. The remainder of the images in this Blog are also from the booklet.

Diaghilev told a story that occurred during a performance of Carnaval. Enrico Cecchetti was miming the role of Pantalon, an elderly dandy of the Romantic period, when he mixed up the order of the program one evening and entered the stage in Carnaval dressed in his costume for the Chief Eunuch in Scheherazade!

On 14 September 1933, the ballet was revived in London by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, staged by Leon Woizikowski, with Alexandra Danilova performing as Columbine.