Nora Kaye

Who was Nora Kaye?

Nora Kaye was an American ballerina called the Duse of Dance after the acclaimed actress Eleonora Duse. She also worked in films as a choreographer and producer.

Kaye was born Nora Koreff in Brooklyn, New York, to immigrant parents from Tsarist Russia, but later Americanized her surname. In 1936, she joined the American Ballet, directed by George Balanchine. She later became a member of the Radio City Music Hall corps de ballet and danced in several Broadway productions, including Giselle, Antony Tudor's Pillar of Fire, and Two's Company, a revue starring Bette Davis. She worked as an assistant on the musicals I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Tovarich, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

Kaye's marriage to Isaac Stern in November 1948 ended in divorce the following year. She married the film director, producer, choreographer and actor Herbert Ross in August 1959. The couple collaborated on several screen projects, including Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Last of Sheila, Funny Lady and The Sunshine Boys, and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. Playwright and screenwriter Arthur Laurents claimed in his autobiography Original Story By that he and Kaye had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship after he was discharged from the U.S. Army in 1946.