"The Fascist Turn in the Dance of Serge Lifar"
by Mark Franko
Oxford University Press, UK, 2020
by George Jackson
copyright George Jackson 2020
Before tackling this exhaustive and exhausting book about the controversial Serge Lifar by Mark Franko, who is a widely published critic and a professor at the University of California's Santa Cruz campus, I suggest that readers review what is generally known about Lifar (1905 - 1986) as a dancer, choreographer, company director, commentator on dance and as a person. I encountered Lifar directly in 1948, when he brought his Paris Opera Ballet to tour the USA. The company was large. Its training seemed admirably uniform. Stylistically, though, many Americans found the dancing "mannered". The choreography and dramaturgy, mostly by Lifar, seemed old fashioned compared to Antony Tudor's psychodramas or George Balanchine's neoclassicism.