Jasiński Roman, *23 June 1907 Warsaw, †16 April 1991 Tulsa, American dancer, teacher and ballet master of Polish origin. He studied under P. Zajlicha at the ballet school in Warsaw and between 1924 and 1928 he appeared in many ballets in the Grand Theatre’s repertoire. In 1928, before he had even finished school, he joined Ida Rubinstein’s ballet company in Paris; until 1930, he worked there under the guidance of B. Nijinska and studied at L. Yegorova’s school. In 1931, he performed with S. Lifar’s touring company throughout France. In 1932, he danced under the direction of L. Miasin at the La Scala ballet in Milan. In 1932 and from 1934 to 1947, he was a principal dancer with Colonel V. de Basil’s Ballets Russes; in 1933, he performed in G. Balanchine’s Les Ballets 1933. In 1947, he settled in the United States and joined another Russian émigré company operating in America – the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where he was principal dancer until 1950 and ballet master from 1951 to 1952. With both companies, he toured the world, partnering the most outstanding ballerinas, such as A. Danilova, A. Markova and T. Tumanova. After retiring from his dancing career, he settled in Tulsa (Oklahoma) in 1955, where, together with his wife (since 1943), the Russian-born dancer Moscelyne (Musia) Larkin, he founded his own ballet school; at the same time, he directed the Tulsa Civic Ballet. His son Roman is also a dancer.
Jasiński was one of the finest classical dancers in the West during the 1930s–50s. His extensive repertoire included the following roles: the solo in La Sylphide (music by F. Chopin), Siegfried (Swan Lake, music by P. Tchaikovsky), Albrecht (Giselle, music by A. Adam), the Blue Bird (Aurora’s Wedding, music by P. Tchaikovsky), the Hussar (Le beau Danube, music by J. Strauss), the Baron (Gaîté parisienne, music by J. Offenbach), the Poet (The Night Shadow, music by V. Rieti), Eusebius (Carnival, music by R. Schumann), the title roles in Le Spectre de la Rose (music by C.M. Weber), Protée (music by C. Debussy), Icarus (music by J.E. Szyfer), Afternoon of a Faun (music by C. Debussy), and The Prodigal Son (music by S. Prokofiev).
Literature: J. Anderson The One and Only. The Ballet Russe de Monte Cario, London 1981; K. Sorley Walker De Basil’s Ballets Russes, London 1982.
