George Zoritch

Who was George Zoritch?

George Zoritch also spelled Zorrich was a dancer born in Moscow. He joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1935 and toured with them in the United States after WWII. He appeared in a number of films, including Night and Day and Samson and Delilah.

In 1994 George Zoritch was among the first American dancers, choreographers and writers honored by being awarded the Vaslav Nijinsky Medal, sponsored by the Polish Artists Agency in Warsaw, for work in honor of Nijinsky. Other awardees were Gerald Arpino, Ann Barzel, Oleg Briansky, Vladimir Dokoudovsky, Illaria Ladre, Peter Ostwald, Richard Philp, Jennie Schulman, Mr. Turnbaugh, and Anatole Vilzak.

Zoritch appears in the documentary Ballets Russes. George Zoritch spent his last years in Tucson, Arizona, where he died at the age of 92.