Writer and impresario, born in Rochester, New York, USA. Heir to a fortune his father made while working for Filene's Department Store, he fell in love with the theatre as a child and was profoundly inspired by Anna Pavlova in 1920. After graduating from Harvard, he reviewed dance and theatre for Horn and Hound, which he co-founded. In 1933 he recognized George Balanchine's talents, sponsored his emigration to the USA and, to provide vehicles for Balanchine's talents, founded the School of American Ballet (1934) and the American Ballet Company the next year. The American Ballet became attached to the Metropolitan Opera (1935), when Kirstein also ran Ballet Caravan. In 1946 Kirstein and Balanchine founded the Ballet Society, and in 1948 they moved to New York's new City Centre as the directors of what became one of America's top-ranking companies, New York City Ballet. Officially retired in 1989, Kirstein remained a presence in the American dance world and intellectual life. He wrote several books, including Dance (1935) and Movement and Metaphor (1970), as well as poetry, and was founder-editor of Dance Index Magazine (19428).
Lincoln Edward Kirstein (May 4, 1906 - January 5, 1996) was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, and cultural figure in New York City, famous less for his own artistic achievement than for his generally positive social influence.
Born in Rochester, New York, to a very wealthy Bostonian family, he was educated at Harvard, from which he was graduated in 1930. His father was chairman of Filene's Department Store, in Boston, and his mother was the daughter of a successful clothing manufacturer in Rochester, New York.
His interest in ballet and George Balanchine started when he had seen "Apollo" with the Ballet Russe. The studio moved to the fourth floor of a building at Madison Avenue and 59th Street in New York City in 1934. The ballet they did was "Serenade", the first major ballet choreographed by Balanchine in America. Just months later Kirstein and Warburg founded, together with Balanchine and Dimitriev, The American Ballet.
This would become the resident company of the Metropolitan Opera, but this proved unsatisfactory because the Opera would not allow Balanchine and Kirstein artistic freedom. In 1946, Balanchine and Kirstein founded the Ballet Society, renamed the New York City Ballet in 1948.
His eclectic interests, ambition and keen interest in high culture, funded by independent means drew a large circle of friends which would stimulate creativity in many of the arts.
He was married in 1940 to Fidelma Cadmus, some say because he was in love with her brother Paul Cadmus. The New York art world, considered his pursuit of men an "open secret," although he did not publicly acknowledge his sexual orientation until 1982.
Kirstein commissioned and helped to fund the physical home of the New York City Ballet: the New York State Theater building at Lincoln Center, designed in 1964 by gay architect Philip Johnson (1906-2005).
Their collaboration lasted until Balanchine's death in 1983.
Kirstein was a great collector, and early in the history of the Dance Collection gave The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts a wealth of rare dance materials.
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