This is delightful! Someone posted a YouTube video of some of my first ballet instructor's Hollywood performances!
George Zoritch danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo for many years, and appeared in several motion picture musicals in the Forties (the closing credits of Cole Porter's "Night and Day" feature a duet with him), before running his own ballet studio in Los Angeles, and moving to Tucson to teach at the University of Arizona. He was interviewed in the 2005 documentary "Ballets Russes", where the great ballerina Maria Tallchief described him as, by far, the "most-handsome man I had ever seen!"
Since many Ballet Russe dancers were physically gifted and lived disciplined lives, they lived a long time, and had a vast influence. I was surprised, and vastly-pleased, to learn one of Jessica Arena's instructors in Marin County was the phenomenal Ballet Russe dancer, Marc Platt. Indeed, Jessica herself appears for a few seconds with Platt in the film "Ballets Russes".
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