Léonide Massine

Two years later he produced Seventh Symphony, to Beethoven's great score. It premiered on 5 May 1938 in Monte Carlo, with Alicia Markova, Nini Theilade, Frederic Franklin, and Igor Youskevitch as the principal dancers.

Besides his "symphonic ballets," Massine choreographed many other popular works during his long career, some of which were serious and dramatic and others lighthearted and romantic. He created some of his most famous roles in his own comic works, among them the Can-Can Dancer in La Boutique Fantasque, the Hussar in Le Beau Danube, and, perhaps best known of all, the Peruvian in Gaîté Parisienne.

Massine appeared in two films by the British directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger: The Red Shoes (1948) and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951); and in a cameo in Powell's later Honeymoon (1959). He also starred in several ballet short subjects. For Warner Brothers, he starred with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in short Technicolor films of his ballets Gaîté Parisienne and Capriccio Espagnol titled, respectively, The Gay Parisian (1941) and Spanish Fiesta (1942). Read Less