He first appeared professionally with Opera on Tour for which Fokine arranged dance. He performed at the
1939 New York World's Fair with
Ballet Caravan at the
Ford Pavilion and joined
Catherine Littlefield's Philadelphia Ballet for a 1941 tour of the southern states, and in 1942 was in the Broadway revival of
J. M. Barrie's
A Kiss for Cinderella. He then toured South America with
American Ballet Caravan. Taras joined
Ballet Theatre in 1942 and rose to
soloist. He rehearsed the ballets of
Lichine,
DeMille,
Nijinska,
Balanchine and
Tudor, and in 1946 choreographed his first ballet,
Graziana. He danced the 1947 season with the Markova-Dolin Company at the Chicago Civic Opera and produced
Camille for
de Basil's
Original Ballet Russe with
Alicia Markova and
Anton Dolin as the leads. Taras was principal dancer in de Basil's company and
regisseur for their
Covent Garden and Paris seasons. He produced
The Minotaur for
Ballet Society that year. In 1949 he choreographed for the experimental Ballets des Champs-Élysées. Taras staged the
Spring Symphony for the
San Francisco Ballet and
Designs with Strings to music of
Tchaikovsky for the
Metropolitan Ballet in Edinburgh in 1948, from which time until 1959 he was choreographer and
balletmaster for the
Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. Among the ballets he made for that company was
Piège de Lumière from 1952 (which he restaged for
New York City Ballet in 1964). He choreographed
Fanfare for a Prince as a ''
pièce d'occasion'' at the Monte-Carlo Opera for the 1956 marriage of
Prince Rainier and
Grace Kelly.
Balanchine invited Taras to stage
La Sonnambula at
New York City Ballet in 1959, where served as choreographer and ballet master until 1984; among his works for City Ballet are
Ebony Concerto,
Concerto for Piano and Winds,
Scenes de Ballet,
Song of the Nightingale and
Persephone for the Stravinsky festivals;
Daphnis and Chloe for the 1975 Ravel festival and
Souvenir de Florence for the 1981 Tchaikovsky festival. His 1963
Stravinsky ballet,
Arcade was
Suzanne Farrell's first featured role, as the young girl whose budding romance with
Arthur Mitchell is destroyed by a group of chaperones. He was balletmaster of the
Paris Opera Ballet 1969 to 1970, artistic director of West Berlin's
Staatsballet Berlin from 1970 to 1972, staged
Le Sacre du Printemps at
La Scala in Milan for
Natalia Makarova, and Sir
Frederick Ashton's
Illuminations for the
Joffrey Ballet and the
Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. Taras staged his own version of
The Firebird for
Dance Theatre of Harlem, which was seen on
PBS's live show
Kennedy Center Tonight. The original cast of the ballet starred
Lorraine Graves as the princess, Donald Williams as the prince, and
Stephanie Dabney whose performances as the eponymous character rocketed her to stardom. Additionally Taras has staged and rehearsed Balanchine's ballets for major companies, including the premiere of the
Bolshoi Ballet in a Balanchine work as part of their centenary celebration of
Serge Prokofiev.
Mikhail Baryshnikov asked him in 1984 to join
American Ballet Theatre as associate director. During his tenure at ABT, he served as ballet master and choreographer for the company. In the wake of Baryshnikov's departure from the company, Taras resigned as well. He died on April 2, 2004. He is survived by his wife, Hélène Sadowska, and his stepdaughter, Anne. == Bibliography ==