Born: 24 March 1897, United States
Died: 9 January 1986
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Lucia Chase Ewing
Lucia Chase was an American dancer, actress, ballet director and co-founder of the American Ballet Theatre in New York City. Although her first love was theatre, she decided to commit to dance and studied with great dancers and choreographers of the time. She performed with the Mordkin Ballet (1937-1939), dancing the title roles in The Sleeping Beauty and Giselle. In 1940 she and Richard Pleasant founded Ballet Theatre (later American Ballet Theatre), with Chase as principal dancer and main financial backer, although she focused on the more dramatic and comedic roles.
She created the roles of Eldest Sister in Tudor’s Pillar of Fire (1942) and the Greedy One in Agnes de Mille’s Three Virgins and a Devil (1941). In 1945, she and Oliver Smith jointly took over direction of ABT.
Over the course of four decades, Chase poured her energy and significant funds into the company. She brought Antony Tudor and Mikhail Baryshnikov to ABT and supported US choreographers such as Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley and Twyla Tharp.
She retired from the stage in 1960, and retired as company director in 1980, the same year hhe was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2009, the biography, Bravura!: Lucia Chase and the American Ballet Theatre, written by her son Alex C. Ewing, was released.