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Writer's pictureLauryn Johnson

NYCB Vol. 8 No. 24 - Prodigal Son

In 1929, Balanchine choreographed The Prodigal Son for the Ballets Russes. Serge Lifar danced the title role, and Felia Doubrovska danced the Siren. Lifar writes in his autobiography:


"I danced Le Fils prodigue [The Prodigal Son] and improvised as I were in a nightmare. The hero I was personifying was myself, tortured by a presentiment that this was the end of something, the end of a dying world...it was I with my feelings of renunciation, with my need to renounce, to renounce a protection that threatened to become restrictive, oppressive...It was I that was harrowed...what I was acting was my own life"

— Serge Lifar in Ma Vie: An Autobiogrpahy





Felia Doubrovska & Serge Lifar. Photo by Sasha, 1929.


Victoria & Albert Museum



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