Leonid Lavrovskii

(real surname, Ivanov). Born June 5 (18), 1905, in St. Petersburg; died Nov. 26, 1967, in Paris. Soviet choreographer and ballet teacher. People’s Artist of the USSR (1965). Member of the CPSU from 1944.

In 1922, upon graduating from the Leningrad Choreographic Technicum, Lavrovskii joined the Leningrad Theater of Opera and Ballet (now the S. M. Kirov Theater of Opera and Ballet). From 1938 to 1944 he was the artistic director of its ballet company. He choreographed his first piece in 1928. From 1936 to 1938 he was artistic director of the ballet troupe of Leningrad’s Malyi Opera Theater. From 1944 to 1962 (with short interruptions) he was principal choreographer of the Moscow Bol’shoi Theater. Lavrovskii’s creative work promoted the development of the realistic trend in Soviet ballet. His productions were distinguished by high idea content. Much attention was given to the dramaturgy of the ballet.

Among Lavrovskii’s best works were Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet (1940), Glière’s The Red Flower (1949), Prokofiev’s The Stone Flower (1954), and new stagings of the classics, including Adam’s Giselle (1944) and Glazunov’s Raymonda (1945). From 1958 to 1962, Lavrovskii was also artistic director of the Moscow Ballet on Ice. Beginning in 1964 he was artistic director of the Moscow Choreographic School, where he taught from 1948 (a professor from 1952). Lavrovskii also staged some of his productions abroad: Giselle, in Budapest (1957) and Helsinki and Belgrade (1958), The Stone Flower in Helsinki (1960), and Romeo and Juliet in Budapest (1963). A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR (1946, 1947, 1950), he was awarded two Orders of Lenin and various medals.

M. S. KLEIMENOVA