Ivan Nagy

Who was Ivan Nagy?

Ivan Nagy was a Hungarian ballet dancer.

He became one of American Ballet Theater's most popular stars in the 1970s as an acclaimed partner to great ballerinas.

Nagy was born in Debrecen, eastern Hungary on 28 April 1943. He had been trained in Budapest by Soviet-influenced teachers before he defected to the United States in 1965.

Nagy met his wife, the Australian ballerina Marilyn Burr at the National Ballet. After three years with the National Ballet, Nagy danced for one season, in 1968, with the New York City Ballet. By July 1968, he had moved to Ballet Theater, He established partnerships with Natalia Makarova, Gelsey Kirkland and Cynthia Gregory at Ballet Theater and on tour with Dame Margot Fonteyn. Nagy retired from Ballet Theater in New York at the age of 35 in 1978.

In 1980, he embarked on a second career as an artistic director of the Ballet de Santiago in Chile from 1982 to 1986 and artistic director of the Cincinnati/New Orleans Ballet from 1986 to 1989. From 1990 to 1993, he was artistic director of the English National Ballet before returning to the Ballet de Santiago for several years. He had been working during the past year as artistic adviser to the Hungarian State Opera House Ballet.