Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin (Russian: Леонид Фёдорович Мясин), better known in the French transliteration Léonide Massine (August 9 1896 Moscow - March 15 1979 Cologne) was a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer. He studied at the Bolshoi Theatre school in Moscow. From 1915 to 1921 he was the principal choreographer of the Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Following the departure of Vaslav Nijinsky, the company's first male star, Massine became the preeminent male star and took over Nijinsky's roles.

After the death of Diaghilev, and the supposed death of the Ballets Russes, Massine helped revitalize the world of ballet by his involvement with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Massine created his, and the world's, first symphonic ballet, Les Présages, in 1933 using Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. This caused a furore amongst musical purists, who objected to a serious symphonic work being used as the basis of a ballet. Undeterred, Massine also adapted Hector Berlioz's 1830 Symphonie fantastique and danced the role of the Young Musician with Tamara Toumanovaas the Beloved at its premiere at Covent Garden, London, on 24 July 1936 with the Ballets Russes.blank">http://www.australiadancing.org/subjects/5161.html

Massine appeared in the two _Powell and Pressburger ballet films: The Red Shoes (1948) and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951); and in Powell's later Luna de Miel (1959). He also starred in several ballet short subjects, including a color film version of Gaite Parisienne retitled The Gay Parisian in 1942. He died at the age of 82 in Cologne, West Germany.

Leonide Massine, dancer and choreographer was born in Moscow in 1895 the son of a soprano & a musician from the Bolshoi Theatre chorus. He studied acting & dance from the age of 8 at Moscow's Imperial Theatre School. He was 19 when he was spotted by Diaghilev and recruited as the principal dancer in the Ballets Russes to replace the recently married Nijinsky. Although many said that as a person he was distant and unemotional, when on stage (or film) he showed a livliness and an ability for the understanding and expressing of strong emotions and tremendous humour. Massine's first original work of choreography was the innovative Parade (1917) with a libretto by Jean Cocteau, music by Erik Satie and decor by Pablo Picasso. Later on his set designers included Matisse, Salvador Dalí and Chagall. He went on to a hugely successful career as an international dancer and choreographer and while his private life remained tempestuous with four marriages and many affairs, his professional career seems to have been totally happy and satisfying for him. he was still dancing in his mid-sixties and was choreographing right up to his death in 1979.