George Zoritch was a dancer born in Moscow. He joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was a ballet company created by members of the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo in 1938 after Léonide Massine and René Blum had a falling-out with the co-founder Wassily de Basil...

 in 1935 and toured with them in the United States after WWII. He appeared in a number of films, including Night and Day (1946) and Samson and Delilah

Samson and Delilah (1949 film)

Samson and Delilah is a 1949 film made by Paramount Pictures , produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr as the title characters...

(1949).

In 1994 George Zoritch was among the first American dancers, choreographers and writers honored by being awarded the Vaslav Nijinsky

Vaslav Nijinsky

Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent, cited as the greatest male dancer of the 20th century. He grew to be celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations...

 Medal, sponsored by the Polish Artists Agency in Warsaw, for work in honor of Nijinsky. Other awardees were Gerald Arpino

Gerald Arpino

Gerald Arpino was an American dancer and choreographer. He was the artistic director and co-founder of The Joffrey Ballet.-Life and career:...

, Ann Barzel

Ann Barzel

Ann Barzel was an American writer, critic and lecturer on dance.In 1920, Barzel moved to Chicago. Her first Chicago dance teachers were Mark Turbyfill and Adolph Bolm. From about 1931 to 1943, Barzel performed as a dancer...

, Oleg Briansky, Vladimir Dokoudovsky, Illaria Ladre, Peter Ostwald, Richard Philp, Jennie Schulman, Mr. Turnbaugh, and Anatole Vilzak.

Zoritch appears in the documentary Ballets Russes

Ballets Russes (documentary)

Ballets Russes is a 2005 feature documentary about the dancers of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. It was directed by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, and featured Irina Baronova, Alicia Markova, George Zoritch, and Tatiana Riabouchinska, among others. It was narrated by Marian Seldes...

. George Zoritch spent his last years in Tucson, Arizona, where he died at the age of 92.

Sources

• New York Times Obituary

Obituaries

• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/arts/dance/06zoritch.htmlNY Times by Anna Kisselgoff
  Anna Kisselgoff
  Anna Kisselgoff is a dance critic and cultural news reporter for the New York Times. She began at the Times as a dance critic and cultural news reporter in 1968, and became its Chief Dance Critic in 1977, a role she held until 2005...
  
  , 5 November 2009]
• George Zoritch – Daily Telegraph obituary

External links

• Official web site