Yakobson L.V., (1904-1975), choreographer

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
YAKOBSON Leonid Veniaminovich (1904, St. Petersburg - 1975), dancer, choreographer, Honoured Worker of Arts of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1957). After graduating from the Leningrad Drama School, where he studied under V.I. Ponomarev, he started performing as an actor in 1926-33. In 1950-52 and 1956-75 he worked as a choreographer at the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre (today the Mariinsky Theatre), choreographing the following ballets: Shuraleh by F.E. Yarullin (1950), Solveig to music by E. Grieg (1952), Spartacus by A.I. Khachaturyan (1956), Bug by F. Otkazov and G.I. Firtich (1962), Twelve by B.I. Tishchenko (1964), Wonderland by I. I. Schwarz (1967), and a great number of various choreographic miniatures. In 1969 he established and headed a troupe called Choreographic Miniatures that today bears his name. A successor of M.M. Fokine, Yakobson disavowed classical dance, acknowledging only its transformed forms, initiating the return of dance plasticity, and extending the frontiers of its expressiveness. He created ballet characters, and disapproved the use of stereotypes. Leading roles of ballets he staged were performed by A.Y. Shelest, A.A. Makarov, I.D. Belsky, V.M. Stankevich, M.B. Darovskaya, I.B. Zubkovskaya, K.A. Rassadin, N.B. Yastrebova, N.R. Makarova, Y.V. Solovyev, A.A. Sapogov, I.A. Chernyshev, N.N. Zvonareva, L.I. Voyshnis, A.E. Osipenko, and I.A. Kolpakova. He lived at 11 Vosstania Street, and was buried at Bogoslovskoe Cemetery.

Works: Letters to Noverre. Tenafly (N. J.), 2001.

References: Леонид Якобсон: Творч. путь балетмейстера, его балеты, миниатюры, исполнители. Л.; М., 1965; Добровольская Г. Н. Балетмейстер Леонид Якобсон. Л., 1968; Уланова Г. С. Памяти Леонида Якобсона // Музыка и хореография современного балета: Сб. ст. Л., 1977. Вып. 2. С. 164-165.

G. N. Dobrovolskaya Belsky Igor Dmitrievich
Chernyshev Igor Alexandrovich
Darovskaya M.B.
Firtich Georgy Ivanovich
Fokin Mikhail Mikhailovich
Grieg Edvard
Khachaturyan Aram Ilyich
Kirov (real name Kostrikov) Sergey Mironovich
Kolpakova Irina Alexandrovna
Makarov Askold Anatolievich
Makarova Natalia Romanovna
Osipenko Alla Evgenievna
Otkazov F.
Ponomarev Vladimir Ivanovich
Rassadin Konstantin Alexandrovich
Sapogov Anatoly Alexandrovich
Schwarz Isaak Iosifovich
Shelest Alla Yakovlevna
Solovyev Yury Vladimirovich
Stankevich Vera Mikhailovna
Tishchenko Boris Ivanovich
Voyshnis Lyubov Ivanovna
Yakobson Leonid Veniaminovich
Yarullin Farid Zagidullovich
Yastrebova Nonna Borisovna
Zubkovskaya Inna Borisovna
Zvonareva N.N.
Vosstaniya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 11
Леонид Якобсон: Творч. путь балетмейстера, его балеты, миниатюры, исполнители. Л.; М., 1965
Добровольская Г. Н. Балетмейстер Леонид Якобсон. Л., 1968
Уланова Г. С. Памяти Леонида Якобсона // Музыка и хореография современного балета: Сб. ст. Л., 1977
Письма Новерру. Tenafly, N. J., 2001 Theatre College
Mariinsky Theatre
Choreographic Miniatures, ballet theatre
Bogoslovskoe Cemetery
1959
1969