Though her first love was the theatre, after she decided that dance was to be her life, she studied seriously with, among others, Mikhail Mordkin, Michel Fokine, Antony Tudor, and Bronislava Nijinska.

She created the Eldest Sister in Tudor's Pillar of Fire (1942) and the Greedy One in Agnes de Mille's Three Virgins and a Devil (1941).

She devoted her energy and a large part of her personal fortune over four decades to ensure the company's survival.

She brought Tudor and Baryshnikov to American Ballet Theatre and encouraged US choreographers such as Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley and Twyla Tharp.

: Lucia Chase and the American Ballet Theatre, written by her son Alex C. Ewing, was released.