Ivan Nagy (28 April 194322 February 2014) was a Hungarian ballet dancer. He became one of

American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) in the spr ...

's most popular stars in the 1970s as an acclaimed partner to great ballerinas. Nagy was born in

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

, Hungary on 28 April 1943. He was trained in Budapest by Soviet-influenced teachers before he defected to the United States in 1965. He was sent to the International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria, where he won a silver medal. Nagy met his wife, the Australian ballerina Marilyn Burr, at the National Ballet. After three years with the National Ballet, Nagy danced for one season, in 1968, with the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's fir ...

. By July 1968, he had moved to Ballet Theater, where he established partnerships with

Natalia Makarova Natalia Romanovna Makarova (, born 21 November 1940) is a Russian prima ballerina and choreographer. ''The History of Dance'', published in 1981, notes that "her performances set standards of artistry and aristocracy of dance which mark her a ...

Gelsey Kirkland Gelsey Kirkland (born December 29, 1952) is an American prima ballerina. She received early ballet training at the School of American Ballet. Kirkland joined the New York City Ballet in 1968 at age 15, at the invitation of George Balanchine. She ...

and

Cynthia Gregory Cynthia Kathleen Gregory (born July 8, 1946) is an American former prima ballerina. Career Born in Los Angeles, Gregory took up dancing when she was five, with the encouragement of her parents, who hoped exercise would stem her history of childho ...

, and on tour with Dame

Margot Fonteyn Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, DBE ( Hookham; 18 May 191921 February 1991), known by the stage name Margot Fonteyn (), was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with th ...

. Nagy retired from Ballet Theater at the age of 35 in 1978. Makarova was especially disappointed as he was a favorite partner of hers. She remarked, "It is a great loss. Ivan is in top form. He is quitting far too soon." In 1980, he embarked on a second career as an artistic director of the Ballet de Santiago in Chile from 1982 to 1986 and artistic director of the Cincinnati/New Orleans Ballet from 1986 to 1989. From 1990 to 1993, he was artistic director of the

English National Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scott ...

before returning to the Ballet de Santiago for several years. In his final year he worked as artistic adviser to the Hungarian State Opera House Ballet. He lived with his wife in Valldemossa, on the island of

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

. He did pay a visit to guest-teach at Gelsey Kirkland's School of Classical Ballet. Nagy died on 22 February 2014 while visiting a cousin in Budapest. He was aged 70. He was survived by his wife, two daughters and a granddaughter.

References

1943 births 2014 deaths Hungarian male ballet dancers American male ballet dancers 20th-century American ballet dancers {{dance-bio-stub