country and moved gradually from performing to teaching. He played an important part in the growth of regional ballet across the United States but remained associated with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo until 1962, when the company was dissolved. In 1964, he opened a ballet school in West Hollywood, California, where he exercised strict discipline and often employed sarcasm in giving corrections to his pupils. Finding children disagreeable, he preferred older students, to whom he gave master classes. Leaving California, he joined the dance faculty at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He established a home there and taught at the university from 1972 to 1987. He never really stopped teaching. Amazingly spry and upright even in old age, he had been known to teach from a wheelchair if the opportunity arose. In 1994, he was a recipient of a Vaslav Nijinsky Medal, sponsored by the Polish Artists Agency in Warsaw, for work in honor of Nijinsky, referring to his performances of Nijinsky's roles in Le Spectre de la Rose and L'Après-midi d'un Faune. In his memoir, Zoritch readily acknowledged that he was not a bravura technician. Declaring that artistry was more important than technique for dancers like him, he wrote, "Good ballet dancing is not simply a gathering of a vocabulary of steps; it is more like a good conversation, having theme and meaning. None of us older dancers enjoyed the phenomenal techniques displayed by today's dancers. We enjoyed, however, a mood, a quality, and artistry, which comes from keen individual perception." Zoritch's personality, charm, and wisdom survive delightfully in the 2005 documentary film Ballets Russes'', a priceless reunion of the survivors from the post-Diaghilev days. Four years later, in 2009, he was hospitalized after a fall in his home in Tucson. He died in November, at age 92, beloved by former colleagues and students alike. References 1917 births 2009 deaths American male ballet dancers Russian male ballet dancers Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancers Soviet expatriates in France Soviet emigrants to the United States American people of Russian descent LGBT dancers 20th-century LGBT people 20th-century American ballet dancers