Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

347 results found

Ulanova, Galina

(Encyclopedia)Ulanova, Galina gälyēˈnə o͞oläˈnōvə [key], 1910–98, Russian ballerina, b. St. Petersburg. Ulanova made her debut at the Kirov Ballet (1928), where she danced until 1944. That year she becam...

Royal Ballet

(Encyclopedia)Royal Ballet, the principal British ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. It is noted for lavish dramatic productions, a superbly disciplined corps de ballet, and bril...

Mercator, Gerardus

(Encyclopedia)Mercator, Gerardus gārˈhärt krāˈmər [key], 1512–94, Flemish geographer, mathematician, and cartographer. He studied in Louvain, where he had a geographical establishment (1534). From 1537 to 1...

Washington, Denzel

(Encyclopedia) Washington, Denzel (Denzel Hayes Washington Jr.), 1954- , African-American actor, b. Mount Vernon, N.Y., Fordham Univ. (B.A., 1977). Washington’s fa...

Alonso, Alicia

(Encyclopedia)Alonso, Alicia älēˈsyä älōnˈsō [key], 1921–2019, Cuban ballerina and choreographer, b. Havana as Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad del Cobre Martínez y del Hoyo. Alonso danced in Broadway musi...

Childress, Alice

(Encyclopedia)Childress, Alice, 1920–94, American playwright and novelist, b. Charleston, S.C. She moved (1925) to New York City and was raised in Harlem. Childress joined the American Negro Theatre in 1941, and ...

Jamison, Judith

(Encyclopedia)Jamison, Judith jāˈməsən [key], 1944–, American dancer and choreographer, b. Philadelphia. She studied ballet, tap, jazz, and modern dance, and made her debut with the American Ballet Theatre in...

Montherlant, Henri de

(Encyclopedia)Montherlant, Henri de äNrēˈ də môNtĕrläNˈ [key], 1896–1972, French writer. His novels are decadent and egotistical and glorify force and masculinity. Montherlant fought in World War I and wa...

Offenbach, Jacques Levy

(Encyclopedia)Offenbach, Jacques Levy ôˈfənbäk, Fr. zhäk lāvēˈ ôfĕnbäkˈ [key], 1819–80, French composer, b. Cologne. The son of a cantor, he went to Paris to study at the conservatory and in 1849 beca...

O'Hara, Frank

(Encyclopedia)O'Hara, Frank 1926–66, American poet, b. Baltimore, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1950), Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor (M.A., 1951). His poetry is spontaneous, vernacular, witty, personal, and very much of it...