Mieczyslaw Pianowski | |
|---|---|
 Mieczyslaw Pianowski with Anna Pavlova 1919 | |
| Born | January 1, 1890 Warsaw, Poland |
| Died | March 30, 1967 (aged 77) |
| Occupation(s) | Dancer, choreographer, ballet director, ballet teacher |
| Spouse | Sabina Sniezko-Blocka |
| Children | Jorge Pianowski |
Mieczyslaw Pianowski was a Polish-American dancer, choreographer, ballet director, and ballet teacher. He was a soloist in Anna Pavlova's company, and he was her ballet master for 13 years. [1] [2]
Pianowski received his early training at the Warsaw Ballet School in Warsaw, Poland. [3] From 1905 to 1915, he danced with the Warsaw Grand Opera Theater Ballet Company, where he was the main dancer. In 1915, Pianowski went under contract with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballet Russe and remained with the troupe for about 3 years. [4] [5] Pianowski's wife, Sabina, accompanied him while he toured with the Ballet Russe. [1] [6]
Pianowski met Ana Pavlova in 1918 while touring with the Italian Opera Company in Santiago Chile. [1] [5] [7] It was said that Pavlova was impressed by him, and he subsequently became a soloist and assistant in her company. He later became chief ballet master until the company fell apart after Pavlova's death in 1931. [5] After Pavlova's death, Pianowski went to Yugoslavia, then in 1931 he became a director of ballet and choreographer of the opera and ballet in Riga, Latvia for two years. [5] [1] He staged six ballets in Latvia, and developed dances for several operas. In 1934, he returned to Poland where, in 1935, he was offered the position of ballet master at the Warsaw Grand Opera Theater, and also the director of the Warsaw Ballet School. [5] [7] In 1952, Pianowski ran his own ballet studio in Boston. He later moved to Amarillo, Texas, and taught at the Musical Arts Conservatory in Amarillo.
Pianowski was born January 1, 1890, in Warsaw, Poland, to Jan Pianowski and Jozffa Skrzypinska. [3] Pianowski's father, Jan, was a merchant, and owned a delicatessen shop where they lived in an apartment above the shop. [3] He had two siblings, Henry and Helen. He began his ballet training at age 6, when his father took him to an audition at the Warsaw Grand Opera Theatre ballet company. [3] The ballet master accepted him into the school, even though he was a year too young. About 12 years later when he was ready to graduate, he had to stay in school an extra year because he was too young to be accepted as a member of the company. [3] A year later, he became a soloist with the Warsaw Grand Opera [3] to supplement his income while dancing, he took a job as a teacher at an all-girls school, where he met his wife Sabina. [3] They married after Sabina's graduation in Switzerland where she had begun to study medicine. [3]
In 1939, Sabina was living in the couple's country home in northern Poland with their son Jorge, who was about 16 at the time, while Pianowski lived and worked in Warsaw. [7] [8] Every Saturday after Pianowski's performance, he would return to his wife and son there. In 1939, the Germans invaded Poland, the opera house was bombed and Pianowski was taken to a concentration camp in Germany where he was forced to labor in a munitions factory. [2] [7] Because they were in Northern Poland at the time, his wife and son didn't know that he had been taken by the Germans, and were unaware of his plight. [1] [7] When the Russians came from the North, Pianowski's wife and son were put on a train to Siberia. [7] [1] After a year, Jorge was given a chance to leave Siberia if he joined the Polish army and fight for Russia. He did so, and eventually made a career in the British army. [7] Jorge didn't see his parents again until 1967. In 1947, Sabina was returned to her native Poland, where she spent three months in a Red Cross hospital. [1] In 1945, Pianowski was freed by the American army [5] In 1946, he was released from the German work camp, but he declined to go back to Poland. Instead, he went to a displaced persons camp, where he lived in an American sector of Germany. [2]
In the late 1940s, a ballet patroness in Boston learned of Pianowski's troubles and arranged for him to go to Boston and direct the Boston Ballet Center [7] In 1952, Pianowski went to Amarillo Texas to head the ballet school at the Musical Arts Conservatory [7] In 1956, Pianowski became an American citizen. [9] On July 16, 1958, Pianowski was reunited with his wife thanks to the efforts of Neil and Camille Hess in Amarillo. In 1958, Pianowski and Sabina moved to Seattle for Sabina's health. In 1962 Neill Hess received a letter from Pianowski's doctor saying that Pianowski had cancer, so Neil Hess and his wife rented an apartment for the Pianowskis and brought them back to Amarillo. [1] Pianowski and his wife were reunited with their son Jorge in Amarillo, Texas, one week before Pianowski passed away.
Pianowki married Sabina Sniezko-Blocka who was born 1895 in Minsk, USSR. Sabina's father and grandfather were physicians. She had 7 brothers [1] Pianowski had one son, Jorge, who was born in Bergenfield, New Jersey in 1921. [5] Jorge became a sergeant for the British Army Reserve. [7] Jorge married, and had five sons. [7] Pianowski lost his mementos from his time with Pavlova and the rest of his career due to the burning of the theater in Warsaw [7]
Pianowski died March 30, 1967, of cancer. [2] He is buried at the Llano Cemetery in Amarillo, Texas. His wife Sabina died October 31, 1972, in Panhandle, Texas, and is buried at the Panhandle cemetery. Pianowski's son Jorge died in 1971 in a plane crash. [10]
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.
Vaslav or Vatslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry. He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova was a Russian prima ballerina. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, but is most recognized for creating the role of The Dying Swan and, with her own company, being the first ballerina to tour the world, including South America, India, Mexico and Australia.
Michael Fokine was a Russian choreographer and dancer.
Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc to piano music by Frédéric Chopin, selected and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov.
Tamara Toumanova was a Russian-born Georgian-American prima ballerina and actress. A child of exiles in Paris after the Russian Revolution of 1917, she made her debut at the age of 10 at the children's ballet of the Paris Opera.
Adolph Rudolphovich Bolm was a Russian-born American ballet dancer and choreographer, of German descent.
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. After its initial Paris season, the company had no formal ties there.
The company Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo was formed in 1932 after the death of Sergei Diaghilev and the demise of Ballets Russes. Its director was Wassily de Basil, and its artistic director was René Blum. They fell out in 1936 and the company split. The part which de Basil retained went through two name changes before becoming the Original Ballet Russe. Blum founded Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, which changed its name to Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo when Léonide Massine became artistic director in 1938. It operated under this name until it disbanded some 20 years later.
The Original Ballet Russe was a ballet company established in 1931 by René Blum and Colonel Wassily de Basil as a successor to the Ballets Russes, founded in 1909 by Sergei Diaghilev. The company assumed the new name Original Ballet Russe after a split between de Basil and Blum. De Basil led the renamed company, while Blum and others founded a new company under the name Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo. It was a large scale professional ballet company which toured extensively in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the United States, and Central and South America. It closed down operations in 1947.
Pierre Vladimiroff, or Pyotr Nikolayevich Vladimirov, was a Russian dancer and teacher.
The Polish National Ballet is the largest and most influential ballet company in Poland. It continues a ballet heritage, dating to the 17th century.
Roman Jasinski was born in Warsaw, Poland and died in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Roman, commonly known as Yasha within the dance community, was a Polish ballet dancer who discovered his love for dance at a very young age. He performed from 1933–1950 with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and then became the ballet master and manager for a smaller company under Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo's concert company. A premier danseur, he was recognized for his elegance and style, in both his dancing and choreography, which was fused with unorthodox ballet movements and port de bras that he learned from previous teachers, such as Balanchine. After his son, Roman L. Jasinski, was born, Roman decided to retire from performing and in 1956 he founded a ballet school in Tulsa, Oklahoma with his wife Moscelyne Larkin, the Tulsa Ballet. It is one of numerous regional companies founded by former members of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and is currently a premiere ballet company in the United States.
National Ballet of Ukraine from the Taras Shevchenko National Opera of Ukraine performs works of classical ballet and tours internationally. It currently has 24 ballets in its repertory, one of the largest in the world, and has had many notable dancers among its members.
Anna Ludmila, born Jean Marie Kaley, was a ballet dancer based in Chicago, New York City, and then France. She toured widely before injuring her leg in 1930 and after that focused on ballroom dancing and teaching. During her career, she performed for the Chicago Opera Ballet in the Chicago Opera Association, later known as Chicago Civic Opera Company, on Broadway in New York City, and in film. As a teacher she moved with her husband to Panama where she headed the ballet division of a new National School of Dance.
Cléopâtre is a ballet in one act with choreography by Mikhail Fokine and music by Anton Arensky, Alexander Taneyev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Glazunov, Modeste Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Tcherepnin. The scenery and costumes were created by Léon Baskt. The first production opened at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on June 2, 1909.
Leon Woizikovsky, originally Léon Wójcikowski was a Polish dancer and ballet master, and later choreographer and teacher. He first came to prominence as a member of the Ballets Russes. Later he worked with various ballet companies, e.g., Pavlova, de Basil, de Valois, Ballet Polonaise, Massine, the London Festival, the Royal Flemish.
Hilda Butsova, was an English ballet dancer, a member of the companies of Russian dancers Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin.
Janet L. Springer is an American ballet dancer, artistic director, choreographer, and specialist in classical ballet. She was a professional dancer in the early 1970s with the Oklahoma City Ballet. She is a ballet pedagogue, specializing in the method of teaching classical dance; the six and eight-year program of ballet training developed by Agrippina Vaganova, and Vaganova's assistant, Vera Kostrovitskaya.
Nina Novak was a Polish prima ballerina, choreographer, ballet director, and dance teacher.