{{Short description|Dancer and dance instructor}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2021}} thumb|Louis Harvy Chalif circa 1913 '''Louis Harvy Chalif''' (''Лазарь Гершович Халиф'';<ref>[https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/ukraine/Odessa%2F39-2-8%2F214.jpg Birth record 29 December, 1878 in the Office of Odessa Municipal Rabbi]: Lazar Khalif, son of Gersh Khalif from Radyvyliv and his wife Idis-Tsivya.</ref><ref>[https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/ukraine/Odessa%2F39-5-104%2F262.jpg Marriage record in the Office of Odessa Municipal Rabbi on December 4, 1902]: Lazar Gershov Khalif and Sura Avrum-Moysheva Katz</ref> December 29, 1876{{spaced ndash}}November 25, 1948) was a Ukrainian dance instructor and an author. His name is also recorded as Louis Harvey Chalif. Born in Odessa, he was one of the first Ukrainian dance instructors to teach in the United States, moving to New York City in the early 1900s.
Initially teaching at various New York City institutions, Chalif founded his own school, the Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing, in 1905. Chalif wrote many textbooks on dance techniques and books describing folk dances, including five that were translated to multiple languages. He is credited with the creation of several compositions, arrangements, and ballet performances. From the 1900s until his death, Chalif lived in New York City with his wife Sara and six children.
== Early life == Louis Harvy Chalif was born on December 29, 1876, into a Jewish family in Odessa,<ref>[https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/ukraine/Odessa%2F39-2-8%2F214.jpg Birth record 29 December, 1878 in the Office of Odessa Municipal Rabbi]: Lazar Khalif, son of Gersh Khalif from Radyvyliv and his wife Idis-Tsivya.</ref> which at the time was part of the Russian Empire.<ref name="NYCL p. 2">{{harvnb|Landmarks Preservation Commission|1999|ps=.|p=2}}</ref> His name is also recorded as Louis Harvey Chalif; his parents' names have not been recorded.<ref name="ANB p. 624">{{harvnb|ps=.|Gale|1999|p=624}}</ref> When he was nine years old, he attended the Odessa Government Theater where he was mentored by Thomas Laurentiyevich Nijinsky, father of dancers Vaslav Nijinsky and Bronislava Nijinska.<ref name="NYCL p. 2" /><ref name="ANB p. 624" /><ref name="Zeller p. 166">{{harvnb|ps=.|Zeller|2016|p=166}}</ref> In 1887, he performed in the ballet ''Excelsior'' alongside Virginia Zucchi.<ref name="ANB p. 624" />
Chalif graduated from the Odessa Government Theater in 1893.<ref name="NYCL p. 2" /><ref name="NCAB" /> According to ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography'', his graduation thesis inspired an "exercise composed from the five standard positions" of ballet.<ref name="NCAB">{{cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015078229054&view=1up&seq=270|title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography|date=1927|volume=17|page=92|chapter=Chalif, Louis Harvey|access-date=May 28, 2021}}</ref> He was then invited to the Warsaw Imperial Ballet, where he received a post-graduate diploma in 1895.<ref name="NYCL p. 2" /><ref name="NCAB" />
== Career == Chalif became the Odessa Government Theater's ballet master in 1897.<ref name="NYCL p. 2" /><ref name="ANB p. 624" /> The following year, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky noticed Chalif during a performance and invited him to dance in one of his own ballets.<ref name="ANB p. 624" /> Between 1899 and 1902, Chalif was a soldier in the Russian army.<ref>{{harvnb|Landmarks Preservation Commission|1999|ps=.|p=7}}</ref><ref name="ANB p. 624" />
In the early 1900s, Chalif became the first Russian-born dance and ballet teacher to immigrate to the United States.<ref name="ANB p. 624" /> Different dates are cited for his immigration. Writer Lisa C. Arkin has cited both 1903 and 1905 as the date when he arrived in the U.S., but records from the Ellis Island immigration center indicate that a 28-year-old dancing master named Lasar Chalif had arrived in 1904, which corresponds with Chalif's birth year and career.<ref name="Zeller p. 166" /> ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography'' has cited an arrival date of 1903<ref name="NCAB" /> and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has cited a date of 1904.<ref name="NYCL p. 2" /> At the time, he was able to speak English, French, and Italian, in addition to his native Russian.<ref name="ANB p. 624" />
Chalif taught dancing at the Elinor Comstock School of Music for three years after his arrival in the U.S.<ref name="NCAB" /> In addition, Metropolitan Opera Ballet director Luigi Albertini hired Chalif as an assistant ballet master in either 1904–1905<ref name="NYCL p. 2" /><ref name="Zeller p. 166" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Arkin|first=Lisa C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F161AAAAIAAJ|title=Proceedings Society of Dance History Scholars|publisher=Society of Dance History Scholars|year=1998|editor-last=Tomko|editor-first=Linda J.|page=68|chapter=Continuity in National Dance Technique in Early Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Sources}}</ref> or 1905–1906.<ref name="ANB p. 624; Oakes 2013" /> He gave lessons in the New York Society for Ethical Culture School and the Henry Street Settlement.<ref name="NYCL p. 2; Oakes 2013" /> At the latter, he programmed festivals with Alice and Irene Lewisohn for pupils of his own school.<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Zeller|2016|pp=166–167}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Tomko|first=Linda J.|title=Dancing Class: Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Divides in American Dance, 1890-1920|date=1999|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-33571-5|pages=114|doi=10.2307/j.ctt1zxxxs3|jstor=j.ctt1zxxxs3}}</ref> Chalif was also hired by New York University (NYU) as a folk dancing teacher.<ref name="ANB p. 624; Zeller pp. 166-167">{{harvnb|Gale|1999|p=624}}; {{harvnb|ps=.|Zeller|2016|pp=166–167}}</ref> The NYU staff who attended Chalif's class preferred that he teach the same "baby dances" that he had taught at the Henry Street Settlement, as they felt his syllabus was overly complex.<ref name="ANB p. 624" /> Chalif was also still a performer at this time, teaching dance at the Teachers College at Columbia University.<ref name="ANB p. 624; Zeller pp. 166-167" /> During 1909, Chalif headed an "athletic dancing" course for the YMCA.<ref name="Oakes 2013">{{cite web|last=Oakes|first=Dick|date=January 12, 2013|title=Louis Chalif|url=http://www.phantomranch.net/folkdanc/teachers/chalif_l.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130112024139/http://www.phantomranch.net/folkdanc/teachers/chalif_l.htm|archive-date=January 12, 2013|access-date=June 7, 2021|website=phantomranch.net}}</ref>
Chalif served as a director at the Congress of the Playground Association of America in 1908 and a choreographer at the Hudson–Fulton Celebration in 1909.<ref name="NYCL p. 2" /><ref name="NCAB" /><ref name="Oakes 2013" /> Chalif was vice president of the American Society of Teachers of Dancing,<ref>{{cite book|last=Martin|first=Carol J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GMuBAAAAMAAJ|title=Dance Marathons: Performing American Culture of the 1920s and 1930s|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=1994|isbn=978-0-87805-673-6|series=ACLS Humanities E-Book|page=182}}</ref> and between 1910 and 1918 he was also a teacher for the American Society of Professors for Dancing.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lausevic|first=Mirjana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZvtsgEACAAJ|title=Balkan Fascination:Creating an Alternative Music Culture in America|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|year=2007|isbn=978-0-19-517867-8|series=American Musicspheres|page=99}}</ref> Chalif stopped performing after 1910, devoting himself solely to teaching.<ref name="NYCL p. 2; Oakes 2013">{{harvnb|Landmarks Preservation Commission|1999|p=2}}; {{harvnb|ps=.|Oakes|2013}}</ref> Chalif choreographed in classical ballet, but his main goal was to teach organized dancing, which in the first decade of the 20th century was still in its development.<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Gale|1999|pp=624–625}}</ref>
=== Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing === In 1905, Chalif opened his own dance and pedagogical school, known as the Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing.<ref name="ANB p. 624; Oakes 2013">{{harvnb|Gale|1999|p=624}}; {{harvnb|ps=.|Oakes|2013}}</ref> The school was initially situated on the Upper West Side and then at 360 Fifth Avenue inside the Aeolian Company's showroom.<ref name="NYCL p. 2" /> At the school, one of the first in United States to train dance instructors, Chalif also taught children and amateur dancers.<ref name="ANB p. 624; Oakes 2013" /> According to an early catalog, the school offered "Professional Courses in Esthetic Greek, National, Interpretive, Character, Folk, Contra and Fine Ballroom Dancing".<ref name="ANB p. 624" /> In 1907, the school relocated to 7 West 42nd Street.<ref name="NYCL p. 2; Oakes 2013" />
thumb|Chalif's school on 165 West 57th Street
Chalif commissioned a new five-story building at 165 West 57th Street close to Carnegie Hall, from George A. and Henry Boehm in 1916.<ref>{{harvnb|Landmarks Preservation Commission|1999|ps=.|pp=2–3}}</ref><ref name="rer19150415">{{cite journal|date=April 15, 1916|title=Chalif School of Dancing in West Fifty-Seventh Street|url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031148_057&page=ldpd_7031148_057_00000559&no=1|journal=The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide|volume=97|pages=595|via=columbia.edu|number=2509}}</ref> The building included space for dressing rooms, ballrooms, and the Chalif family's own apartment.<ref name="NCAB" /><ref name="rer19150415" /> ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography'' called the school "a surprisingly beautiful building",<ref name="NCAB" /> and ''The Sun'' referred to 165 West 57th Street as the "Temple of Terpsichore".<ref>{{Cite news|date=1915-08-22|title=A Temple of Terpischore|pages=65|work=The Sun|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79151905/a-temple-of-terpischore/|access-date=2021-06-08}}</ref>{{efn|Another source states that, between 1913 and 1914, Chalif's school moved to 57th Street, close to Carnegie Hall.<ref name="Oakes 2013" /> Chalif's textbook nicknamed that location the "Temple of Terpsichore", but it is unclear whether this refers to 165 West 57th Street.<ref name="Zeller p. 167"/>}} Chalif advertised the building as being "unparalleled for its purposes in America" as well as "striking evidence" of the school's success.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chalif|first=Louis Harvy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-TnaAAAAMAAJ|title=Russian Festivals and Costumes for Pageant and Dance|publisher=Chalif Russian school of dancing|year=1921|page=166}}</ref> ''Dance Magazine'' characterized the building as "the greatest highlight and dream of Chalif's lifetime", noting that Chalif would walk past the building even after other parties had purchased it.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vitak|first=Albertina|date=Jan 1949|editor-last=Orthwine|editor-first=Rudolf|title=In Memoriam: Louis H. Chalif|journal=Dance Magazine|volume=23|issue=1|pages=28–29}}</ref>
By the 1930s, the school's syllabus required 500 hours of study in various styles of dance. Chalif would work for up to sixteen hours a day on his work and career, according to his son Amos. Louis Chalif also taught classes at other places across the New York metropolitan area, including in Bernardsville, New Jersey (where his son Edward taught), and Chatham, New Jersey (where Amos taught).<ref name="ANB p. 625" /> The Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing moved out of 165 West 57th Street in 1933.<ref name="Oakes 2013" /><ref name="NYCL p. 4" /> Chalif gave up ownership of that building the next year as part of a foreclosure proceeding.<ref name="nyt20020811" /><ref name="NYCL p. 4">{{harvnb|Landmarks Preservation Commission|1999|ps=.|p=4}}</ref> Subsequently, the school was situated at the Steinway Hall building at 113 West 57th Street. In 1937, he moved from Steinway Hall to the International Building at the nearby Rockefeller Center.<ref>{{cite news|date=31 Aug 1937|title=Real Estate Transactions in the City and Suburban Fields: Dancing School Rents Quarters On 5th Avenue 'Chalif Will Move Studios From West 57th Street to Rockefeller Center|page=33|work=New York Herald Tribune|id={{ProQuest|1243575448}}}}</ref>
===Other activities=== Chalif also led several organizations that sought to codify the instruction of dance education.<ref name="nyt20020811">{{Cite news|last=Gray|first=Christopher|date=2002-08-11|title=Streetscapes/165 West 57th Street; A School for Dance Built by a Russian Immigrant|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/11/realestate/streetscapes-165-west-57th-street-school-for-dance-built-russian-immigrant.html|access-date=2021-06-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He endorsed a law in 1922 that would have banned the teaching of certain "immodest dances" in New York state,<ref>{{Cite news|date=1922-06-12|title=Ask Law to Forbid Immodest Dancing; Group of Prominent Men and Women Organize 'American League' to Push Measure.|language=en-US|page=18|work=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/06/12/98784564.pdf|access-date=2021-06-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> though the law was not passed.<ref name="nyt20020811" /> In his later life, Chalif continued to express his opinions vigorously. In the 1930s, he was quoted in an anonymous news clipping as being strongly against tap dancing because, as he believed, "The whole world is full of hate, and so is the modernistic dance".<ref name="nyt20020811" />
== Personal life == Chalif was married to Sara Katz in Odessa on December 4, 1902.<ref>[https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/ukraine/Odessa%2F39-5-104%2F262.jpg Marriage record in the Office of Odessa Municipal Rabbi on December 4, 1902]: Lazar Gershov Khalif and Sura Avrum-Moysheva Katz</ref><ref>[https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/samuel-chalif-24-1nshyy4 Samuel Chalif Birth Record (parents: Sara Katz and Lasar Chalif]</ref> The couple had eight children.<ref name="ANB p. 624" /><ref name="nyt19481125">{{Cite news|date=November 25, 1948|title=Louis H. Chalif, 71, Master of Dancing; Founder of School Here Dies-- Dean of Teachers, He Decried Modern Music and Steps|language=en-US|page=31|work=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/11/25/85309446.pdf|access-date=June 7, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> They had five sons (the first two sons Abraham<ref>[https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/ukraine/Odessa%2F39-5-107%D0%B0%2F32.jpgBirth record in the Office of Odessa Municipal Rabbi on July 17, 1903]</ref> and Samuel<ref>[https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/samuel-chalif-24-1nshyy4 Samuel Chalif Birth Record (parents: Sara Katz and Lasar Chalif]</ref> were born in Odessa in 1903 and 1906, respectively; Edward, Selmer, and Amos, and three daughters, Vitalis, Helen, and Frances.<ref name="nyt19481125" /> All three of Chalif's sons taught at the Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing at some point.<ref name="ANB p. 625">{{harvnb|ps=.|Gale|1999|p=625}}</ref> The Chalifs' two oldest children were born in Russia, but they moved to the United States with their mother in the early 1900s.<ref name="ANB p. 624" /> Amos Chalif, who grew up at 165 West 57th Street, said the building had been "a wonderful place to grow up", as he learned to ride a bicycle there.<ref name="nyt20020811" />
Chalif participated in several Jewish organizations and attended Temple Rodeph Sholom.<ref name="NYCL p. 2; Oakes 2013" /> On November 25, 1948, aged 71, Louis H. Chalif died of a heart attack. He had been riding in a vehicle with friends in New York City's Central Park when he died.<ref name="nyt19481125" /> Chalif's children took over the school after their father's death and operated it until 1955.<ref name="nyt20020811" /><ref name="NYCL p. 4" /> Afterward, the Chalif children continued to teach dance;<ref name="nyt20020811" /> when Amos Chalif retired in the 2000s, the family had taught dance for 100 years.<ref name="Democrat 2012">{{cite web|last=Democrat|first=Hunterdon County|date=2012-11-18|title=Obituaries: Frenchtown resident Amos Chalif dies at 94; part of family that taught ballet 100 years|url=https://www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/2012/11/obituaries_frenchtown_resident_7.html|access-date=2021-06-07|website=nj}}</ref>
His granddaughter Sonia Chalif Simon was an art historian on the faculty of Colby College.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1980-11-24 |title=Edward L. Chalif |pages=10 |work=The Daily Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114001383/edward-l-chalif/ |access-date=2022-12-02 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Publications== Chalif has been attributed as the author of around 1,200 ballets and dance compositions, which were categorized into several dance genres based on their difficulty.<ref name="NYCL p. 2; Oakes 2013" /><ref name="ANB p. 625" /> The works covered the "Aesthetic, Ballet, Ballroom, Character, Folk, Historical, National, and Pantomime" genres, according to writer Dick Oakes. Five of his works were translated into other languages.<ref name="Oakes 2013" /> Chalif's work also includes 120 folk dances and 35 ballets.<ref name="ANB p. 625" /> To promote his school and dance societies, Chalif distributed twenty thousand mail-order catalogs worldwide.<ref name="ANB p. 625" />
During his lifetime, Chalif published six textbooks. One of these textbooks was about Russian folklore and costumes.<ref name="ANB p. 625" /> Chalif also published five volumes of ''The Chalif Text Book of Dancing'' between 1914 and 1924. The first, second, and fourth volumes were mostly about ballet and some ballroom dancing techniques; the third volume was about Greek dancing; and the fifth volume was about toe dancing.<ref name="Zeller p. 167">{{harvnb|ps=.|Zeller|2016|p=167}}</ref>
== Legacy == In 1945, ''Dance Magazine'' wrote that Louis Chalif had been "at the forefront of the movement that introduced ballet instruction to 'the average American child'".<ref name="NYCL p. 2; Oakes 2013" /><ref>{{Cite journal|first=Ann|last=Barzel|date=July 1945|editor-last=Orthwine|editor-first=Rudolf|title=Louis H. Chalif|journal=Dance Magazine|volume=19|issue=7|pages=20, 43–44}}</ref> Upon his death, his ''New York Times'' obituary described him as "the dean of New York dance teachers".<ref name="nyt19481125" /> Both in New York City and across the U.S., Chalif was a major promoter of dance. His pupils had included actor-dancers such as Cyd Charisse, Buddy Ebsen, and Ann Miller, as well as actresses like Marion Davies, Alice Faye, Helen Gahagan, Mae Murray, and Ann Sothern.<ref name="NYCL p. 2" /> He also taught dance to Harriet Hoctor, who went on to found her own dance school.<ref>{{cite book|last=McLean|first=Adrienne L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tAoyqQzIfXgC|title=Dying Swans and Madmen: Ballet, the Body, and Narrative Cinema|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8135-4467-0|page=264}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Flint|first=Peter B.|date=1977-06-11|title=Harriet Hoctor, 74, Ballet Dancer, Dies|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/11/archives/harriet-hoctor-74-ballet-dancer-dies-appeared-in-vaudeville-and.html|access-date=2021-06-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> After Chalif's death, the Library of Congress compiled a collection of his mail-order catalogs as well as photographs of him.<ref name="ANB p. 625" />
==See also== * List of Russian ballet dancers
==References== ===Notes=== {{notelist}}
===Citations=== {{reflist}}
===Sources=== * {{cite encyclopedia|last1=Gale|first=Joseph|url=https://archive.org/details/americannational04garr/page/n5/mode/2up|encyclopedia=American National Biography|date=1999|isbn=0195127838|volume=4 |entry=Chalif, Louis Harvey |oclc=772374229|url-access=registration}} * {{cite web|date=October 19, 1999|title=Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing|url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2041.pdf|publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission|ref={{harvid|Landmarks Preservation Commission|1999}}}} * {{cite book|last=Zeller|first=Jessica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sNIdDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA166|title=Shapes of American Ballet: Teachers and Training Before Balanchine|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-19-029669-8}}
* García Martín, Judith Helvia. Straus, Rachel. "La recepción de la danza española durante la Spanish Craze (1890-1930) en Nueva York el curioso caso de Louis Chalif". Tras los pasos de la Sílfide: Imaginarios españoles del ballet romántico a la danza moderna. Idoia Murga Castro, Carolina Miguel Arroyo, Irene López Arnáiz, Alejandro Coello Hernández (coords.) Editorial: Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte ; Museo del Romanticismo. http://hdl.handle.net/10261/284026
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalif, Louis Harvy}} Category:1876 births Category:1948 deaths Category:Jews from Odesa Category:Imperial Russian Army personnel Category:Dancers from Odesa Category:Male ballet dancers from the Russian Empire Category:Dance teachers Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States