Ruth Page, 92; Innovator in Ballet World

Ruth Page, a Midwestern ballerina and choreographer who designed more than 100 ballets, has died in her Chicago home. She was 92.

Miss Page, an innovative and versatile choreographer credited with arranging Soviet dancer Rudolf Nureyev’s New York debut, died of respiratory failure.

A native of Indianapolis, she performed in and created chiefly opera ballets throughout the world, but made Chicago her base.

Miss Page was trained by dancers who passed through Indianapolis, including the famed Anna Pavlova. After dancing as a teen-ager with the Metropolitan Opera ballet corps in New York, Miss Page moved to Chicago.

She joined Adolf Bolm, ballet master of the Chicago Opera, who made her his premiere danseuse. After her appearance in Bolm’s 1919 production, “The Birthday of Infanta,” she toured with his Ballet Intime company and, in 1925, appeared in his “Coq d’Or” in Buenos Aires.

One of her most memorable works as a choreographer was the 1938 “Frankie and Johnny,” which she co-created with her partner, Bentley Stone. The bawdy story of a lover’s betrayal has been revived by many companies, including the Dance Theater of Harlem. Miss Page’s 1965 production of “The Nutcracker” is annually revived in Chicago.

Miss Page was ballet master of Chicago’s Ravinia Park from 1929 to 1933, the Chicago Opera Company from 1934 to 1937, the Federal Theatre of Chicago from 1937 to 1939, her own touring Ballets Americains in 1950, and the Chicago Lyric Opera from 1954 to 1955.

From 1955 until 1970, she headed the touring company she founded, the Chicago Opera Ballet, which was later known as Ruth Page’s International Ballet. It was with this troupe that Nureyev made his New York debut in 1962.

In 1970, she founded the Ruth Page School of Dance.

Miss Page wrote of her life and work in the 1980 autobiography, “Page by Page,” and “Class” in 1984.

She was married twice--to Chicago lawyer Thomas Hart Fisher, who died in 1969, and to French artist and stage designer Andre Delfau, who survives.