18 Facts About Francisco Moncion

Francisco Moncion was a charter member of the New York City Ballet.

Francisco Moncion was a choreographer himself and a talented amateur painter.

Francisco Moncion was born in Concepcion de la Vega, a large city in La Vega province in the center of the Dominican Republic.

Francisco Moncion's family immigrated to the United States in 1922 or 1923, when he was four years old.

Francisco Moncion did not begin dance training until he was twenty, and then it was almost by accident.

Francisco Moncion accepted the offer and soon found himself in technique classes with Balanchine, Pierre Vladimiroff, and Anatole Oboukoff, undergoing the strict discipline of the Russian school of classical ballet.

Francisco Moncion carried off the most acrobatically strenuous part without a flaw, and more than that he projected the character and the story convincingly.

Francisco Moncion is a very fine dancer indeed, and a quite exceptionally imaginative one.

Francisco Moncion then became an original member of Ballet Society, formed by Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein in 1947, and later of its successor, the New York City Ballet.

Francisco Moncion lacked the elegance of bearing and refinement required for princely roles.

Francisco Moncion was a dashing figure in the Balanchine dances for the Broadway production of The Chocolate Soldier, swirling and twirling with Mary Ellen Moylan.

Francisco Moncion was a delicately tender partner to Tanaquil Le Clercq in Jerome Robbins's meditative Afternoon of a Faun, bringing a sensual, feline languor to the part.

Francisco Moncion was dramatically powerful in the title role of Balanchine's Prodigal Son, entranced by the Siren of Yvonne Mounsey and then heartbreakingly contrite as he painfully made his way home to his father.

Francisco Moncion made four for the New York City Ballet and two for other companies.

Francisco Moncion's surname is well known in the Dominican Republic, as his family is connected to General Benito Francisco Moncion, an army officer of French descent who fought in the Dominican Restoration War.

In 1947, Francisco Moncion became a citizen of the United States, where he was considered a Caribbean Latino for the rest of his life.

Francisco Moncion's works were shown in several New York exhibitions.

Francisco Moncion died of cancer at his home at the age of 76.