Lorca Massine(I)

Lorca Massine is an American choreographer and dancer whose career has been closely connected with the European and American ballet worlds. The son of choreographer and dancer Léonide Massine, he studied dance with his father as well as with teachers including Victor Gsovsky, Asaf Messerer and Anatole Wilzac. As both a dancer and choreographer, he worked with major figures of 20th-century dance, including George Balanchine and Maurice Béjart, while developing a choreographic style that combined classical ballet technique with contemporary themes. He created more than 50 ballets and musical works, with his best-known creation, Zorba, first performed at the Arena di Verona in 1988 and subsequently staged in about 40 countries. His choreography has been presented by leading companies including the American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, as well as at major opera houses in Europe and the United States. Massine also held artistic leadership positions, serving as director of the Ballet of the Opera of Rome from 1981 to 1983 and director of the ballet of the Polish National Opera in Warsaw from 1992 to 1994. A significant part of his career has been devoted to preserving and restaging the choreographic legacy of his father. He has reconstructed and staged Léonide Massine's ballets for major companies around the world, helping to bring works such as Gaieté Parisienne, La Boutique Fantasque, Les Presages, Choreartium and The Rite of Spring to new generations of performers. His own repertoire includes full-length ballets such as Mario and the Magician, Esotérik Satie, Fortepianissimo, La metamorphose, Zorba and Undine, alongside shorter works including Four Last Songs, Sebastian, Mercure and Ode. Through his choreography, directorship and preservation of his father's repertoire, Massine has maintained a connection between the classical ballet tradition associated with his family and contemporary approaches to dance.