Besides his "symphonic ballets, " Leonide Massine choreographed many other popular works during his long career, some of which were serious and dramatic, and others lighthearted and romantic.
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22 Facts About Léonide Massine
2.
Leonide Massine created some of his most famous roles in his own comic works, among them the Can-Can Dancer in La Boutique fantasque, the Hussar in Le Beau Danube, and, perhaps best known of all, the Peruvian in Gaite Parisienne.
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3.
Leonide Massine was born into a musical family on 9 August 1895 in Moscow, Russia.
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4.
Leonide Massine's mother was a soprano in the Bolshoi Theater Chorus and his father played the French horn in the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra.
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5.
Leonide Massine had three brothers, Mikhail, Gregori, and Konstantin – as well as one sister - Raissa.
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6.
From 1915 to 1921 Leonide Massine was the principal choreographer of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
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7.
Leonide Massine continued to use symphonic music by well-known composers.
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8.
In 1933, Leonide Massine created the world's first symphonic ballet, Les Presages, using Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5.
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9.
Undeterred, Leonide Massine continued work on Choreartium, set to Brahms' Fourth Symphony, which had its premiere on 24 October 1933 at the Alhambra Theatre in London.
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10.
Leonide Massine choreographed a ballet to Hector Berlioz's 1830 Symphonie Fantastique and danced the role of The Young Musician with Tamara Toumanova as The Beloved at its premiere at Covent Garden, London, on 24 July 1936 with Colonel Wassily de Basil's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
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11.
Leonide Massine soon discovered that the ballets he had choreographed while under contract with Col.
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13.
New Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo debuted in 1938; Leonide Massine choreographed Gaite Parisienne, set to music by Jacques Offenbach, which premiered on 5 April at the Theatre de Monte Carlo.
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14.
Leonide Massine revived the piece for American Ballet Theater in 1970.
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15.
In 1977 Leonide Massine moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to begin a series of choreographic workshops, as well as revive his work Le Beau Danube for the Marin Ballet.
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16.
Leonide Massine began work on a new production of The Nutcracker, which was never seen outside the studio.
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17.
Leonide Massine appeared in two feature-length films by the British directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger: The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann.
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18.
Leonide Massine had a cameo appearance in Powell's later film Honeymoon.
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19.
Leonide Massine choreographed and danced in the 1947 20th Century Fox color film Carnival in Costa Rica, and choreographed and appeared as Pulcinella in the film Carosello Napoletano.
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20.
Leonide Massine subsequently married Hannelore Holtwick, with whom he had two sons, Peter and Theodor, and made his home in Borken, West Germany, where he died on 15 March 1979.
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21.
In 1968 Leonide Massine published his autobiography, entitled My Life in Ballet.
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22.
Leonide Massine was inducted into the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame in 2002.
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