Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Serge Lifar: Selected Criticism

2002; Edinburgh University Press; Volume: 20; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3366/1290813

1750-0095

André Levinson, Clement Crisp,

French Historical and Cultural Studies

The influential critic Andre [Andrey Yakovlevich] Levinson (1887-1933) was born in St. Petersburg, where he began his career as a writer and critic and, significantly, became Professor of French Literature in the Imperial University. He was steeped in the history of the Imperial Ballet, and was no admirer of certain of Diaghilev's innovations (he wrote coolly about the early Paris seasons of the Ballets Russes). In 1919 he and hisfamilyfled Russia, and twoyears later he was installed in Paris. Here he continued to work, as a lecturer at the Sorbonne and as a critic, writing both in Russian and French. On his deathbed he corrected the proofs ofLes Visages de la Danse, afinal book of criticism which providesfascinating aperfus about many types of dancing as the 1920s gave way to the 1930s. A study of Lfar appearedposthumously. These extractsfrom his criticism providefascinating testimony to the impact Lifar had at the very beginning of his career at the Opera and to the early development of his choreographic style.