1905-04-02

SERGEI LIFAR, Russian dancer, born (d: 1986); Lifar was the last of Diaghilev’s dancer-lovers, and probably the most spiritually faithful. Although he had the talent, the body and the looks to conform to the great impresario’s idea of perfection, one slight fault had to be corrected before the honeymoon – and before the stardom that marriage brought. “Don’t sit in the sun. The paraffin will melt,” his colleagues teased. But the nose job had its intended results. Lifar, just twenty, was now the lead dancer of the Ballet Russes and Mme. Diaghilev, as well.