Dancer. He is recognized as a well-known Ukrainian dancer, teacher, and choreographer. He was one of the most innovative soloist dancers of the first decades of the 1900's. Born Alexander Zuckermann, he abandoned military school to study art in Paris at the Academy of Fine Arts and Académie Julian before marrying the German dancer Clotilde von der Planitz in 1919. They developed a distinctive form and style of dance called abstract pantomime. He choreographed and designed all their outrageous costumes for the team, drawing his inspiration from mythology and renaissance paintings. The couple had together a very successful career between the world wars. When Nazi forces invaded Paris, they were in Spain and did not return to France, but instead traveled to South America, staying until 1949. At that point, they traveled to Rome and eventually, started their own dance school. In his book "Reflections on the Dance and Music," he explained his artistical credo in the following way: "... Clotilde Sakharoff and I did not dance with music or accompanied by music: we danced music. We made the music visual, expressing by means of movements what the composer has expressed by means of sounds... Nothing less than the states of the soul, the impressions, the sensations lived by the composer and transposed to the sound with the help of its art... Our aim was to transpose the sense expressed by the music of the sounds, to the music of the movements." The couple did perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Their last performance was in Paris in 1953. Before her 1974 death, his widow sold many of their costumes and even his portrait by the expressionist avant-garde artist, Alexej von Jawlensky. By 1997, the German Dance Archive in Cologne had purchased 65 costumes, 300 set and costume designs and 500 photographs.

Dancer. He is recognized as a well-known Ukrainian dancer, teacher, and choreographer. He was one of the most innovative soloist dancers of the first decades of the 1900's. Born Alexander Zuckermann, he abandoned military school to study art in Paris at the Academy of Fine Arts and Académie Julian before marrying the German dancer Clotilde von der Planitz in 1919. They developed a distinctive form and style of dance called abstract pantomime. He choreographed and designed all their outrageous costumes for the team, drawing his inspiration from mythology and renaissance paintings. The couple had together a very successful career between the world wars. When Nazi forces invaded Paris, they were in Spain and did not return to France, but instead traveled to South America, staying until 1949. At that point, they traveled to Rome and eventually, started their own dance school. In his book "Reflections on the Dance and Music," he explained his artistical credo in the following way: "... Clotilde Sakharoff and I did not dance with music or accompanied by music: we danced music. We made the music visual, expressing by means of movements what the composer has expressed by means of sounds... Nothing less than the states of the soul, the impressions, the sensations lived by the composer and transposed to the sound with the help of its art... Our aim was to transpose the sense expressed by the music of the sounds, to the music of the movements." The couple did perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Their last performance was in Paris in 1953. Before her 1974 death, his widow sold many of their costumes and even his portrait by the expressionist avant-garde artist, Alexej von Jawlensky. By 1997, the German Dance Archive in Cologne had purchased 65 costumes, 300 set and costume designs and 500 photographs.

Bio by: Linda Davis