Eugene Loring (1914-1982), was the founding Chair of the UCI Dance Department (1965-1978). He studied with George Ballanchine and Pierre Vladimiroff at the new School of American Ballet in New York in 1935. In his early career he was in touring dance companies such as the Ballet Caravan and Ballet Theatre, and was director of the Dance Players. In Loring’s very diverse career in dance, he is best known for two important contributions: his choreographic abilities as a leading developer of an American style of dance and his pedagogical skills (the latter first surfaced through his association with the American School of Dance and continued through his brilliant work at UCI). His own best known work was Billy the Kid (1938), and he also worked in film and television. Below are photographs of Loring teaching dance and rehearsing the Dance Players in Idyllwild, CA during the summer of 1956. [Photographer unknown.]
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MS-P002. Eugene Loring Papers. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.