KIRSTEIN, LINCOLN

KIRSTEIN, LINCOLN (1907–1996), U.S. impresario, arts patron, and dance historian. Born in Rochester, New York, he became interested in dance while at Harvard and soon emerged as one of the creative personalities in modern American ballet. He persuaded Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine, whom he met in London in 1933, to go to the United States, where the great master's artistic vision would evolve in freedom for almost 50 years. In 1934, with Balanchine and Edward Warburg, Kirstein cofounded the American Ballet, which acted as the official ballet of the Metropolitan Opera from 1935 to 1938. In 1936 Kirstein founded Ballet Caravan to present American works. Among its productions was Eugene Loring's Billy the Kid, for which Kirstein wrote the libretto. Ballet Caravan and the American Ballet merged and disbanded in 1941. Kirstein, after serving with the U.S. Army during World War II, formed a new company, Ballet Society. In 1948 this group, with Kirstein as general director and Balanchine as artistic director, was invited to become the resident company of the New York City Center of Music and Drama, and changed its name to the New York City Ballet. Kirstein was also the sponsor of Japanese theater in the U.S., including Gagaku (dancers and musicians) and Kabuki (classic dramatic theatre). Kirstein did considerable research and was a leading dance historian. He founded and edited the scholarly periodical Dance Index (1942–48) and published books on Fokine (New York, 1935); Nijinsky (New York, 1974); and the New York City Ballet (New York, 1973). Among his awards are the Order of the Sacred Treasure (Japanese government, 1960); the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of the Arts (1981), and the National Medal of Arts (1985). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: IED, 4:26–30 (Marcia B. Siegel / Amnon Shiloah (2nd ed.)