Goleizovskii, Kasian Iaroslavich

Born Feb. 22 (Mar. 5), 1892, in Moscow; died there May 2. 1970. Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer. Honored Artist of the Byelorussian SSR (1940) and Honored Art Worker of the Lithuanian SSR (1954).

Upon graduating from the St. Petersburg Theatrical School, Goleizovskii joined the Bolshoi Theater, where he danced from 1909 to 1918. During this period he also staged dances at theaters of miniatures (Letuchaia Mysh’, lntimnyi, and other such theaters). Between 1918 and 1920 he staged the following ballets for the children’s division of the theater and music section of the Moscow Soviet of Working People’s

Deputies: The Little Old Sandmen with music by several composers and Max and Moritz with music by L. Schytte. From 1920 to 1924 he directed the Moscow Chamber Ballet, staging the ballets The Faun with music by Debussy. Salome with music by R. Strauss, Fleeting Moments with music by Prokofiev and dance miniatures with music by A. N. Skriabin.

Goleizovskii’s work of the 1920’s was characterized by the desire to emotionally impart a sense of contemporary reality, by the quest for new dance forms, in which the classical dance is combined with acrobatics and free flexible movements, and by the use of constructivist décors. His creative efforts were most fully expressed in Vasilenko’s ballet Joseph, the Handsome (1925. Bolshoi Theater). Other productions include Theolinda with music by Shubert (1925), Ber’s The Typhoon, (1927), Asafev’s The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (1939), Lenskii’s Du Gul’ (1941), and Balasa-nian’s Leili and Medzhnun (1964). Goleizovskii produced numerous miniatures, often combined into one program (Choreographic Compositions 1960–61; Skriahiniana, 1962), suites of national dances (Spanish and Slavic), and concert and music hall programs. He was awarded two orders and various medals.