Friends!

On this day in 1905, was born Serge Lifar - one of the greatest dancers of the twentieth century, "good ballet genius" and "Lord of Dance".

Serge Lifar was born on 15 April in Kyiv suburb. His father came from a famous Cossack family, worked as a forester. Serge often came for the holidays to his grandfather in Kaniv, he liked to talk about the heroic past of Ukraine and boasted grandson diplomas of Ukrainian Hetman.

Since childhood, Serge has loved music, sang in the children's choir of St. Sophia Cathedral, he learned to play the violin and piano. But the future of boy was settled because of the acquaintance with Bronislava Nijinsky, sister of the famous dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Serge decided to enter her section of the ballet and then his world has changed.

In 1922 Nijinsky emigrated to Paris, and in a year, she invited her best pupils, among them was Serge. He worked selflessly and passionately, but most importantly - wholeheartedly loved ballet. All his efforts soon were pleased - he became the first soloist of the French "Russian Ballet". After the first performances Lifar critics have called him the "new legend".

When Serge was 24 years old, died Sergei Diaghilev - the star of the ballet. Then he was invited to head the ballet troupe of "Grand Opera". And then he was not just a dancer, he became the face of an era of ballet. He gave 30 years of life to this theater, he was its soloist, choreographer and teacher. He became the founder of a new direction in ballet - "neoclassicism".

The genius that put more than 200 ballets in "Grand Opera", Chevalier Legion of Honor and the Order of literature and art, holder of the highest awards Ballet - "Golden Slippers" and "Oscar" to his last day, loved only one place on earth - Kyiv. "Even beautiful brilliant Paris could not make me, Kyiver, forget my wide, majestic Dnieper" - said Serge Lifar. When handing the Legion of Honor, Charles de Gaulle once again invited him to become a citizen of the country and asked him: "Monsieur Lifar! You did for France as much as a few famous French. Is not it time you become a Frenchman? " Lifar said: "Thank you very much, Mr. President, for your proposal. But I have never been and will not be a Frenchman, for I am Ukrainian, and my homeland is Ukraine. "

But to come to Ukraine he managed only once - in 1961, before he was released from the "Grand Opera". It was a terrible blow for Serge, he tried every possible way to fight for his place, but in vain.

In 1955 Lifar taught history and theory of dance at the Sorbonne, dance professor at the Higher School of Music and the honorary president of the National Dance Council of UNESCO.

Serge Lifar died in Lausanne on the 15th of December, 1986. These days in Lausanne appeared a monument, a gift from Kiev: Icarus with his hands, like wings tends to fly in the sky. On the pedestal, there is modest inscription: «Serg Lifar de Kiev» - «Serge Lifar from Kyiv."

In Ukraine genius of dancestarted to become mentioned only in the 1990s, particularly through the efforts of his widow, Countess Alefeld. She donated the Ukraine greatest treasures from the personal collection of Serge Lifar: Legion of Honor, "Golden Shoe", decorated with diamonds, costumes, and Pointe Anna Pavlova, suitcase Sergei Diaghilev, Picasso and Chagall's work.

Friends! I'm sure all Ukrainian should know the life story of this brilliant dancer, who was Ukrainian pride, honor his achievements and eternal love to his country.