Dolores Lipinski Long

                                              Artistic Director 


                       Dolores Lipinski Long began her dance studies as a scholarship student with 
                   Bentley Stone and Walter Camryn. Her continuing studies over the years included 
                   classes with many well-known teachers including Valentina Pereyaslavec, Felia 
                   Doubrovska, Bill Griffith, Leon Danielian, Patricia Wilde, Melissa Hayden and 
                   Richard Thomas. Because of her lifetime connection to Ruth Page, Ms. Lipinski has 
                   been associated with the world's greatest dancers, choreographers, producers, and 
                   designers.

                       Ms. Lipinski's professional career began as a teen with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. 
                   She started in the Corps de Ballet and left as a Principal Dancer. She appeared in the 
                   Lyric's production of "Prince Igor" with Rudolph Nureyev as the Polevetsian Maiden 
                   and has danced principal roles with every Ruth Page company from 1954 to 1973, 
                   including all principal roles in The Merry Widow, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, 
                   Carmina Burana and Bolero. Ms. Lipinski met her future husband, Larry Long, 
                   while a member of the Ruth Page Company.

                       Ms. Lipinski joined the National Ballet of Washington, D.C. where Frederic Franklin 
                   was Artistic Director. She had the opportunity to dance many Balanchine ballets and 
                   performed such classics as Giselle, Coppelia, Pas de Quatre, Les Sylphides and the 
                   Nutcracker.
    
                       She also danced in the unique and magnificent Chicago Tribune production of The 
                   Nutcracker as the American Beauty Rose and Sugar Plum Fairy for many years. 
                   Upon her retirement, Ms. Lipinski became ballet mistress for the company and was 
                   instrumental in the choice of the new design for the production in 1990 by Jose 
                   Varona.

                       Additionally, Ms. Lipinski danced in summer stock theatres, including the Starlight 
                   Theater in Kansas City and the St. Louis Muni Opera Company. She appeared on 
                   The Ed Sullivan Show, CBS Repertory Workshop, Great Music from Chicago, at the 
                   Chez Paree Night Club and at Harrah's Club in Lake Tahoe with Liberace.

                       Ms. Lipinski taught at the Interlochen Music Camp, the University of Kansas, The 
                   University of Tulsa and the International Ballet of London. With her celebrated 
                   husband of 47 years, Ms. Lipinski founded the Ruth Page Foundation School of 
                   Dance, where she and Mr. Long taught for over 38 years and where together, they 
                   created the Civic Ballet of Chicago.