Lev Ivanov

(1834–1901)

Born in Moscow. He studied at the Imperial Theater School (now Vaganova Ballet Academy) under Alexander Pimenov, Emile Gredlu, Frédéric Malavergne and Jean-Antoine Petipa. In 1852 he entered the Imperial Theater ballet troupe. Since 1858 he was a teacher at the Theater School. In 1869 he took rank as a premier dancer, performing classical, character and mimic parts.

In 1882 he took up the main director’s position of the ballet troop and after three years he got the position of the second ballet-master. Among his independent works are: The Enchanted Forest (1887), The Magic Flute (1889), Cupid's Prank (1890), Polovtsian Dances in the first Prince Igor performance (1890), the first performance of The Nutcracker (1892), Acis and Galatea (1896), The Mikado's Daughter (1897), Hungarian Dance for Arthur Saint-Léon The Little Humpbacked Horse (1900), Sylvia (staging completed by Pavel Gerdt, 1901).

In February 1894 he composed the second part of the Swan Lake for the play in the memory of Tchaikovsky; in one year he directed the whole ballet together with Marius Petipa. Other plays created in collaboration with Petipa — La Fille mal gardée (1885), The Harlem Tulip (1887), Cinderella (in collaboration with Enrico Cecchetti, 1893), The Awakening of Flora (1894).