Gabovich, Mikhail

Gabovich, Mikhail Markovich 

Born Nov. 24 (Dec. 7), 1905, in the village of Velikie Guliaki, now in Fastov Raion, Kiev Oblast; died July 12, 1965, in Moscow. Soviet ballet dancer. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1951). Member of the CPSU from 1936. Student of the balletmaster A. A. Gorskii.

Upon graduating from the Moscow Ballet School in 1924, Gabovich was accepted into the Bolshoi Theater’s troupe. A dancer of principal roles in classical ballets, Gabovich was the first performer at the Bolshoi Theater of such leading roles in ballets by Soviet composers as Vatslav in Asaf ev’s The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Romeo in Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Evgenii in Gliere’s The Bronze Horseman, the Prince in Prokofiev’s Cinderella (State Prize of the USSR, 1946), and Ma Li-chen in Gliere’s The Red Poppy (State Prize of the USSR, 1950). In 1954 he began teaching at the Moscow Choreographic School, where he was also artistic director from 1954 to 1958. He also worked out theoretical problems in the art of ballet. Gabovich was awarded two orders and various medals.