Lucia Chase

Lucia Hosmer Chase (March 24, 1897 – January 9, 1986) was an American dancer, actress, ballet director, and co-founder of American Ballet Theatre. Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, she was the daughter of Elizabeth Hosmer (Kellogg) and Irving Hall Chase. She received her early education at St. Margaret's School and later attended Bryn Mawr College. Drawn initially to theater, she trained at New York's Theater Guild School, where she also began taking ballet lessons. She subsequently studied dance with Mikhail Mordkin, Michel Fokine, Antony Tudor, and Bronislava Nijinska, ultimately committing herself to a career in dance.

Chase performed with the Mordkin Ballet from 1937 to 1939, dancing the title roles in The Sleeping Beauty and Giselle. In 1940, she and Richard Pleasant founded Ballet Theatre, later known as American Ballet Theatre, with Chase serving as principal dancer and prime financial backer. She concentrated particularly on dramatic and comedic roles within the company. Her created roles included the Greedy One in Agnes de Mille's Three Virgins and a Devil in 1941 and the Eldest Sister in Tudor's Pillar of Fire in 1942. In 1945, she and Oliver Smith jointly assumed direction of American Ballet Theatre.

Her Broadway career spanned from 1941 to 1946 and included appearances in Giselle and the musical Fancy Free. Chase retired from the stage in 1960 and continued leading American Ballet Theatre until 1980, when Mikhail Baryshnikov succeeded her as company director. Over four decades, she devoted a substantial portion of her personal fortune to ensuring the company's survival. She brought Tudor and Baryshnikov to American Ballet Theatre and supported American choreographers including Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley, and Twyla Tharp.

In 1980, Chase received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was inducted posthumously into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in 1988. Her son Alex C. Ewing published Bravura!: Lucia Chase and the American Ballet Theatre in 2009. Chase was married to Thomas Ewing, with whom she had two sons. She died in New York City on January 9, 1986.