Fokin, Mikhail Mikhailovich, 1880-1942 Papers, (S) *MGZMC-Res.-11, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Papers of the choreographer, dancer and teacher, including letters from Arnold L. Haskell, Cyril W. Beaumont, Sara Yancey Belknap, Alexander Levitoff and others, also essays and articles by Fokin and others, bookplates, calling cards and miscellaneous items.
Mikhail Fokine, Russian dancer, choreographer, teacher, and ballet director, was born in St. Petersburg May 5, 1880. He was trained at the Imperial Theatre School, St. Petersburg where he graduated in 1898. He was a dancer and choreographer at the Maryinsky Theatre and teacher at the Imperial Theatre School. His choreography for the Maryinsky included The Dying Swanfor Anna Pavlova and Le Pavillion d'Armide.From 1909-1912, Fokine was chief choreographer for Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev, producing such works as Polovtsian Dances, Les Sylphides, Cléopâtre, Le Carnaval, Sheherazade, Firebird,and Le Spectre de la Rose.Leaving Diaghilev 1n 1912, and eventually Russia, in 1918, he pursued work, mainly in Scandinavia, before settling in New York in 1923. As a free-lance choreographer and dancer, often with his wife Vera Fokina (née Antonova), he worked for the Metropolitan Opera House, Hippodrome, and the Ziegfeld Follies, and in other cities such as Boston and Philadelphia. He continued to recreate his older works and stage new ones in Europe and South America. Founder of the Fokine School in New York City in 1921, he and Fokina had one son, Vitale who became a ballet teacher. Fokine died in New York, August 22, 1942.
Papers of the choreographer, dancer and teacher, including letters from Arnold L. Haskell, Cyril W. Beaumont, Sara Yancey Belknap, Alexander Levitoff and others, also essays and articles by Fokin and others, bookplates, calling cards and miscellaneous items.|||Material written in English, Russian and French
The Michel Fokine papers are arranged in two series:
Gift of Vitale Fokine. Material received on: June 1963.
Processed by Marion Kahn.