Australia Dancing - Lifar, Serge (1905

Lifar, Serge (1905 - 1986)

Dupain, Max: Serge Lifar in 'The Firebird', Original Ballet Russe, 1940

Born in Kiev, Serge Lifar joined Diaghilev's Ballet Russes in 1923. He went on to become Principal Artist of the company, dancing the title roles in works by Balanchine, Nijinska and Fokine. In 1929 Lifar became director of the Paris Opera Ballet and is credited with revitalising the company through the choreography of new works and highly praised restagings of classical ballets.

In 1939, the Paris Opera House was closed after the outbreak of war in Europe and Lifar joined Colonel de Basil's Original Ballet Russe on their tour of Australia. He arranged for Oleg Tupine, Nicolas Orloff, Georges Skibine and other dancers to join him on the tour, helping them to avoid conscription.

Lifar was the last of the company to arrive in Australia, travelling separately by plane. He danced Les Sylphides at the opening performance of the season in Sydney. He also featured in The Firebird and with Tamara Toumanova in Le spectre de la rose. His early performances were not well received by the public or critics, who remarked that they found him heavy and ill at ease. It was not until his appearance as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake (Act II) that he received widespread acclaim for his performance.

During the tour, Lifar's Pavane received its international premiere. Lifar was also involved in a controversial restaging of Massine's Le Beau Danube at this time. The work was renamed Le Danube Bleu and arrangement of the scenes and dances was attributed to Lifar with no choreographic acknowledgment to Massine. The tour also included a restaging of Lifar's experimental ballet Icare. Lifar danced the title role and both the production and his performance were received with great enthusiasm. He returned to Paris shortly after the premiere of Icare in Sydney. Reasons given for his sudden return vary, but a shocked J. C. Williamson Ltd, the organisation that entrepreneured the Ballets Russes tours to Australia, recorded that unbeknown to the organisation Lifar had been on just three months leave from the Opera in Paris.

On his return to Paris, Lifar dedicated himself to promoting the French arts in the wake of the German occupation. After the war he was accused of being a Nazi sympathiser and was forced to leave the Paris Opera Ballet. The charges were later deemed to be unfounded and Lifar was able to present works at the Paris Opera House once again.

Lifar returned to Australia in 1981 to stage his work Suite en blanc for the Australian Ballet. Initially created in 1943, Suite en blanc has since become a favourite item in the company's repertoire.

Serge Lifar authored many books on ballet including his Manifeste du choregraphe (1935), A History of Russian Ballet (1939) and his autobiography Ma Vie: from Kiev to Kiev (1965).

Bibliography:

Kathrine Sorley Walker, De Basil's Ballets Russes (London: Hutchinson, 1982) ; Edward H. Pask, Enter the colonies dancing: a history of dance in Australia 1835-1940 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1979).

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