Foliations by complex curves and the geometry of real surfaces of finite type

We show that if the Levi form of a smooth CR manifold is de-generate in every conormal direction, then on a dense open set, the manifold is foliated by complex curves. As a consequence we show that every real analytic manifold of finite D'Angelo type can be stratified so that each stratum locally is contained in a Levi nondegenerate hypersurface. Received in final form: 11 June 2001 / Published online: 28 February 2002