Lucia Hosmer Chase (March 24, 1897 – January 9, 1986) was an American dancer, actress, ballet director and also the co-founder of the

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. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) in the spr ...

Life and career

Chase was born in

Waterbury, Connecticut Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Waterbury had a population of 114,403 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census. The city is southwest of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury i ...

, the daughter of Elizabeth Hosmer (Kellogg) and Irving Hall Chase. She attended St. Margaret's School and later Bryn Mawr College. After deciding to focus on theater, she studied

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

at New York's Theater Guild School where she also took

ballet 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 ...

lessons. Though her first love was the

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

, after she decided that dance was to be her life, she studied seriously with, among others, Mikhail Mordkin,

Michel Fokine Michael Fokine ( – 22 August 1942) was a Russian choreographer and dancer. Career Early years Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant and at the age of 9 was accepted into the Saint Petersburg Imperial Ballet Sch ...

Antony Tudor Antony Tudor (born William Cook; 4 April 1908 – 19 April 1987) was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer. He founded the London Ballet, and later the Philadelphia Ballet Guild in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., in the mid-195 ...

, and

Bronislava Nijinska Bronislava Nijinska (; ; ; ; – February 21, 1972) was a Russian ballet dancer of Polish origin, and an innovative choreographer. She came of age in a family of traveling, professional dancers. Her own career began in Saint Petersburg. Soon ...

. She performed with the Mordkin Ballet from 1937 to 1939, where she danced the title roles in '' The Sleeping Beauty'' and ''

Giselle ''Giselle'' ( , ), originally titled ''Giselle, ou les Wilis'' (; ''Giselle, or The Wilis''), is a romantic ballet () in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, it was first perfor ...

''. In 1940, she and Richard Pleasant founded Ballet Theatre (later

), with Lucia Chase as principal dancer (and prime financial backer), although she concentrated on the more dramatic and comedic roles. She created the Eldest Sister in Tudor's '' Pillar of Fire'' (1942) and the Greedy One in

Agnes de Mille Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an American dancer and choreographer. Early years Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMill ...

's ''Three Virgins and a Devil'' (1941). In 1945 she and Oliver Smith jointly took over direction of

. She retired from the stage in 1960, and retired as company director in 1980, when she was succeeded by

Mikhail Baryshnikov Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; ; born January 27, 1948) is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male ...

. She devoted her energy and a large part of her personal fortune over four decades to ensure the company's survival. She brought Tudor and Baryshnikov to

and encouraged US choreographers such as

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

Glen Tetley Glen Tetley (February 3, 1926 – January 26, 2007) was an American ballet and modern dancer as well as a choreographer who mixed ballet and modern dance to create a new way of looking at dance, and is best known for his piece ''Pierrot Lunair ...

and

Twyla Tharp Twyla Tharp (; born July 1, 1941) is an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1965 she formed the company Twyla Tharp Dance, which merged with American Ballet Theatre in 1988. She regrouped the compa ...

. She was awarded the US

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...

in 1980. Chase was married to Thomas Ewing, with whom she had two sons. She died in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Chase was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in 1988. In 2009, the book, ''Bravura!: Lucia Chase and the American Ballet Theatre'', written by her son Alex C. Ewing, was released.

Filmography

References

External links

*
News
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071011093648/http://jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/jec/medal.phtml Medal of Freedom Awards by President Carter 1977-1981br>American Ballet TheatreItalian short biographyGoogle Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Lucia 1897 births 1986 deaths American ballerinas American Ballet Theatre dancers American theatre directors American women theatre directors American musical theatre directors Actresses from Waterbury, Connecticut American film actresses 20th-century American actresses Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients 20th-century American ballet dancers