Lucia Chase

Lucia Chase (24 March 1897, Waterbury, Connecticut — 9 January 1986, New York City) was an American prima ballerina, film actress, and ballet director best known as the co-founder of the American Ballet Theatre company in 1939. Chase studied with Michel Fokine, Bronislava Nijinska, Mikhail Mordkin (1880—1944), and Antony Tudor (1908—1987), among others, and made her stage debut with Mordkin Ballet in 1937. Two years later, she co-founded a new dance company, "Ballet Theatre," with Hollywood agent and impresario Richard Pleasant (1909—1961); Chase was the primary investor and financial backer and scouted most of Mordkin's corps de ballet troupe for the premiere season. In 1945, Lucia Chase became the company's artistic director, sharing the role with prominent stage designer Oliver Smith (1918—1994) for the next 35 years. Chase oversaw the rebranding to "American Ballet Theatre" in 1957, retiring from the stage three years later. In 1980, she hired renowned Mikhail Baryshnikov as the succeeding artistic director.