Ivan Nagy (28 April 194322 February 2014) was a Hungarian ballet dancer. He became one of

American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual ei ...

's most popular stars in the 1970s as an acclaimed partner to great ballerinas. Nagy was born in

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

, Hungary on 28 April 1943. He was trained in Budapest by Soviet-influenced teachers before he defected to the United States in 1965. He was sent to the International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria, where he won a silver medal. Nagy met his wife, the Australian ballerina

Marilyn Burr Marilyn may refer to: * Marilyn (given name) * Marilyn (singer) (born 1962), English singer * Marilyn (hill), a type of mountain or hill in the British Isles with a prominence above 150 m * 1486 Marilyn, a Main-belt asteroid * Marilyn (1953 film), ...

, at the National Ballet. After three years with the National Ballet, Nagy danced for one season, in 1968, with the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...

. By July 1968, he had moved to Ballet Theater, where he established partnerships with Natalia Makarova, Gelsey Kirkland and Cynthia Gregory, and on tour with Dame Margot Fonteyn. Nagy retired from Ballet Theater at the age of 35 in 1978. Makarova was especially disappointed as he was a favorite partner of hers. She remarked, "It is a great loss. Ivan is in top form. He is quitting far too soon." In 1980, he embarked on a second career as an artistic director of the

Ballet de Santiago Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

in Chile from 1982 to 1986 and artistic director of the Cincinnati/New Orleans Ballet from 1986 to 1989. From 1990 to 1993, he was artistic director of the

English National Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish ...

before returning to the Ballet de Santiago for several years. In his final year he worked as artistic adviser to the

Hungarian State Opera House Ballet Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignm ...

. He lived with his wife in Valldemossa, on the island of

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

. He did pay a visit to guest-teach at Gelsey Kirkland's School of Classical Ballet. Nagy died on 22 February 2014 while visiting a cousin in Budapest. He was aged 70. He was survived by his wife, two daughters and a granddaughter.

References

1943 births 2014 deaths Hungarian male ballet dancers American male ballet dancers 20th-century American ballet dancers {{dance-bio-stub