Ballet Choreographer Edward Villella

Edward Villella

born: 1936

Born in Bayside New York in 1936, Edward Villella entered the School of American Ballet at the age of 10. A few years later he interrupted his dance training to concentrate on academics and graduated from the New York Maritime Academy with a B.S. in marine transportation. Edward also got into sports, was lettered in baseball and became a Golden Gloves boxing champion. At the age of 19 he returned to the School of American Ballet and two years later was invited to join New York City Ballet under Balanchine. In one year, Villella became a soloist and in 1960 was promoted to Principal dancer.

Many roles were created on Villella: Tarantella, "Rubies" dance from Jewels and the character of Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is probably most known for his interpretation of the 1960 revival of Balanchine's 1929 masterpiece The Prodigal Son. Edward Villella became the first American dancer to perform with the Royal Danish Ballet and is the only American ever to be asked to dance an encore at the Bolshoi Theater. He also danced for President Kennedy's inauguration and through the years for Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford.

Mr. Villella was the producer and director for the PBS series "Dance in America" for a year and a half and his CBS television production of Harlequinade in 1975 won him an Emmy award.

Six years were spent as a Board Trustee of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. From 1981 to 1982, he was a Visiting Artist at the US Military Academy at West Point. Mr. Villella was the Artistic Director of Ballet Oklahoma from 1984 to 1986 and in 1986 he founded the Miami City Ballet. His wife Linda, a former Olympic figure skater, was the founder and director of the Miami City Ballet School. Together they had three children: a son named Roddy and two daughters named Lauren and Crista.

In 1991 Union College established the Edward Villella Fellowship and it was awarded for the first time in May 1996. In 1992, he wrote his autobiography Prodigal Son: Dancing for Balanchine in a World of Pain and Magicwhich was reissued in 1998 by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

A big year for Mr. Villella was 1997; he saw himself awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President Bill Clinton and he was also named a Kennedy Center Honoree. We can also see him in the 1997 movie Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse. He also received the National Society of Arts and Letters Award for Lifetime Achievement Gold Medal, making him only the fourth dance personality to receive this award. Edward has also been a Harvard Visiting Artist in 1999-2000 and received the Kiphuth Fellowship Award from Yale University.

Mr. Villella now serves on the Board of Trustees of the School of American Ballet and is the Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Miami City Ballet.

Funny Fact:

• Edward Villella's favorite soup is clam soup! (according to Tanaquil Le Clercq's The Ballet Cookbook.)

Quotes by Edward Villella:

• "Dance the music. Don't dance the steps"


• "Dance is a language that crosses borders. We can all read physicality."


• When asked if there was a basketball player active today that might have made a great ballet dancer, he replied "Kobe Bryant with the Lakers is like all great ballet dancers, he can go forward and backwards at the same time."

Why do People Take Interest in Ballet Dancing?

Dancers dance because they love dancing. All dancers love dancing for different reasons, but they all love dancing, and they also all admit that they must be a bit insane. Some dancers find great joy in getting a complicated combination right after working hard at it, others know that they can never get bored with ballet because they can always improve, because there is no such thing as a perfectly executed dance. There can always be more beats, higher jumps, and better placement, among other things. Other dancers love the thrill of letting the music carry them through the steps and just following along by instinct. For some it has always been their dream to "be a ballerina." Ask almost any three year old girl what she wants to do when she grows up and that's what she'll tell you, "I want to be a ballerina." Some of the ladies in dance have actually lived out these childhood dreams and are now ballerinas. When Rudolf Nureyev was seven years old he saw his first ballet. Because his family was very poor his mother had to sneak the family in, but that day changed his life, as he said, "From that day I can truthfully date my unwavering decision to become a ballet dancer." The final reason most dancers dance is because of the applause. To stand out on stage at the end of a performance and know that they have thrilled the audience to the extent where they will applaud, cheer, or give a standing ovation is an incredible feeling.

Ballet Choreographer Vladimir Vasilev

Vladimir Vasilev

born: 1940Russian. Studied with Mikhail Gabovich at the Bolshoi Ballet School. Joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1958, became a principal dancer. He is one of the leading male dancers of the twentieth century.
He often partners his wife, Ekaterina Maximova. Danced the title role in the Yuri Grigorovich production ofSpartacus, the Don Quixote pas de deux, and many other roles.
Vladimir Vasilev has choreographed Icarus and won many awards including Honoured Artist of the RSFSR in 1964.

Ballet Choreographer Edward Villella

Edward Villella

born: 1936

Born in Bayside New York in 1936, Edward Villella entered the School of American Ballet at the age of 10. A few years later he interrupted his dance training to concentrate on academics and graduated from the New York Maritime Academy with a B.S. in marine transportation. Edward also got into sports, was lettered in baseball and became a Golden Gloves boxing champion. At the age of 19 he returned to the School of American Ballet and two years later was invited to join New York City Ballet under Balanchine. In one year, Villella became a soloist and in 1960 was promoted to Principal dancer.

Many roles were created on Villella: Tarantella, "Rubies" dance from Jewels and the character of Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is probably most known for his interpretation of the 1960 revival of Balanchine's 1929 masterpiece The Prodigal Son. Edward Villella became the first American dancer to perform with the Royal Danish Ballet and is the only American ever to be asked to dance an encore at the Bolshoi Theater. He also danced for President Kennedy's inauguration and through the years for Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford.

Mr. Villella was the producer and director for the PBS series "Dance in America" for a year and a half and his CBS television production of Harlequinade in 1975 won him an Emmy award.

Six years were spent as a Board Trustee of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. From 1981 to 1982, he was a Visiting Artist at the US Military Academy at West Point. Mr. Villella was the Artistic Director of Ballet Oklahoma from 1984 to 1986 and in 1986 he founded the Miami City Ballet. His wife Linda, a former Olympic figure skater, was the founder and director of the Miami City Ballet School. Together they had three children: a son named Roddy and two daughters named Lauren and Crista.

In 1991 Union College established the Edward Villella Fellowship and it was awarded for the first time in May 1996. In 1992, he wrote his autobiography Prodigal Son: Dancing for Balanchine in a World of Pain and Magicwhich was reissued in 1998 by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

A big year for Mr. Villella was 1997; he saw himself awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President Bill Clinton and he was also named a Kennedy Center Honoree. We can also see him in the 1997 movie Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse. He also received the National Society of Arts and Letters Award for Lifetime Achievement Gold Medal, making him only the fourth dance personality to receive this award. Edward has also been a Harvard Visiting Artist in 1999-2000 and received the Kiphuth Fellowship Award from Yale University.

Mr. Villella now serves on the Board of Trustees of the School of American Ballet and is the Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Miami City Ballet.

Funny Fact:

• Edward Villella's favorite soup is clam soup! (according to Tanaquil Le Clercq's The Ballet Cookbook.)

Quotes by Edward Villella:

• "Dance the music. Don't dance the steps"


• "Dance is a language that crosses borders. We can all read physicality."


• When asked if there was a basketball player active today that might have made a great ballet dancer, he replied "Kobe Bryant with the Lakers is like all great ballet dancers, he can go forward and backwards at the same time."

Ballet Choreographer Marius Petipa

Marius Petipa

born: 1818
died: 1910The son of Jean Petipa, an excellent ballet dancer and teacher himself, Marius Petipa was the second of the two boys that made up this dancing family. Petipa's older brother by three years, Lucien, ended up as a dancer and ballet master at the Paris Opera.
Marius Petipa was born in 1818 in Marseille, France. He received his early training, starting at the age of seven, with his brother from their father.
The family moved to Brussels where Petipa attended the Grand College and also studied music at theconservatoire. He disliked dancing as a youngster but made such progress that he appeared in his father's La Dansomanie n 1831. In 1838 Petipa became a principal dancer at the theatre in Nantes, France where he also staged opera dances for the theatre.
In 1839 Jean Petipa took a leave from his post as ballet master at Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels when he was invited to America and Marius, recovering from a broken leg, accompanied him there. While in the United States Petipa performed at the National Theatre on Broadway in La Tarentule bringing a little bit of ballet to America eighty-four years before Balanchine arrived in 1933. La Tarentule however was far from a hit and so Marius and Jean Petipa went back to Europe that winter.
Petipa returned to Paris where he danced at the Comédie Française then at the Paris Opera where Lucien was a premier danseur. While at the Paris Opera Petipa studied with August Vertris. It was around the time that Marius was dancing at the Paris Opera that Jean left the Théâtre de la Monnaie and became a teacher at the Imperial Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg.
Marius grew tired of living in Lucien's shadow at the Paris Opera and struck out on his own. He went to Bordeaux for a year in 1842 then to Madrid for four years. It was in Madrid that Petipa learned about Spanish dance which would come through in the Spanish dances he choreographed for ballets in Russia.
In 1847 Petipa was engaged to dance at the Imperial Theatre, (also known as the Mariinsky Theatre), in St. Petersburg, Russia. His first appearance at the Mariinsky was that fall in Paquita. As a dancer Marius Petipa had developed a reputation as a talented pantomime artist and an outstanding dancer and partner for the time.
Petipa's first choreography in Russia occurred in 1949 for Flotow's opera Alessandro Stradella in Moscow. He did not, however, choreograph a ballet for several more years.
Petipa married another dancer, Marie Scurvshikova, in 1854, the same year he became an instructor at the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg and in 1857 Marius and Marie had a daughter together, also named Marie.
Petipa choreographed his first original ballet in Russia, Un mariage sous régence, for his wife in 1858. He still was not very well known as a choreographer partly because he was working under Jules Perrot and Arthur Saint-Leon their fame by far outshone Petipa's.
Petipa continued choreographing and four years later invented La fille du pharon, his first outstanding success. Because of La fille du pharon Marius Petipa was made Choreographer-in-Chief of the Imperial Theatre. In 1869 Petipa was made the Premier Ballet Master of the Imperial Theatre. 1869 wasn't all good news for Marius though, it was then that he and Maria were divorced.
Over the next several years Petipa choreographed several classics which not only survive to this day but are some of the pillars of classical ballet. He brought us the ballet Don Quixote to music by Minkus in 1869 and La Bayadère in 1877.
Petipa excelled at stylized dances for operas. In fact many of Petipa's ballets had a choreographic counterpart in the dances he created for operas. For example the ballet Camargo has a similar subject to the dances Petipa choreographed in the opera Manon. Petipa especially favoured Spanish dances – something that came from his time spent in Spain, and he rarely choreographed Russian dances; he would usually assign these to native Russian choreographers working under him.
Petipa brought the French and Italian traditions to Russia and gave increased importance to dance over pantomime. He was talented at pleasing audiences and dealing with the bureaucracy of the Imperial Theatres while still maintaining artistic integrity in his works.
In 1881 when Ivan Vsevolojsky was appointed Director of the Imperial Theatres. His patronage led to the creation of the three great Petipa/Tchaikovsky masterpieces: The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake. Although they were not immediately successful these three ballets have become considered by many to be the greatest ballets of all time show classical ballet at its best. They are definitely the most popular ballets in existence.
In 1882 Marius Petipa's former wife Maria died and he re-married a dancer from the Moscow ballet named Lubova Leonidovna.
Unfortunately Vsevolojsky's tenure at the Imperial Theatres came to an end and he was replaced by Colonel Telyakovsky who pressured Petipa to change. The result of this change was a ballet called The Magic Mirrorwhich was a total flop. After The Magic Mirror Marius Petipa retired in 1903 and was barred from the Imperial Theatres that had been his home for fifty-six years. He wrote his memoirs which were published in 1906 and died an unhappy man in the Ukraine in 1910 at the ripe old age of ninety-two.
After a lifetime of ballet Marius Petipa, the Frenchman who came to be known as "the father of Russian ballet," left us a legacy of classical ballet that continues to this day. He greatly expanded the role of male dancers and we have him to thank for the leaping, twirling, breathtaking men's choreography we see in ballets now. While numbers are hard to find it appears that he staged at least fifty original ballets and created dances to thirty-five operas in addition to reviving another seventeen ballets. In reality he probably contributed to many, many more productions.

Ballet Choreographer Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky

Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky

born: 1889
died: 1950Russian. Started studying at the Imperial Ballet School, St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet, 1908.
Danced with the Ballets Russes from 1911-1913 and from 1916-1917. Settled in Switzerland where he suffered a mental illness from which he never recovered. During his nine year ballet career a legend was made.
Often considered the greatest male dancer in the history of ballet. Danced many different roles including the title role in Schéhérazade. Choreographer of several ballets including The Rite of Spring. Has been the subject of two biographies, one by his wife, Romola. He is the author of The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky.

Ballet Choreographer Arthur Mitchell

Arthur Mitchell

born: 1934Arthur Mitchell was born in New York City on the 27^th of March 1934. When he was very young, his father left him, his mother and four other siblings. Arthur started shining shoes for money to support the family. He used to go to the Police Athletic League glee club where he learned how to tap and at the age of thirteen Arthur was encouraged by a school guidance counselor, who had seen him jitter bug, to audition for the New York High School of Performing Arts. For his audition Mitchell performed Fred Astaire's Top Hat, White Tie and Tails and got a full scholarship. Although most dance teachers were encouraging Mitchell to go into modern dance, which was more accepted for black dancers, his ballet teachers thought that he had what it took to be a ballet dancer and encouraged him to go that route.
Arthur auditioned for the Katherine Dunham School of Dance to take more ballet classes and won a scholarship to study with Karel Shook, who became his mentor and great friend. Upon Arthur Mitchell's high school graduation in 1952 he won the school's annual dance award, being the first male student to do so and at the age of eighteen Mitchell got a scholarship to attend the School of American Ballet.
Upon his arrival at the School of American Ballet Mitchell was told by Lincoln Kirstein that if he wanted to succeed he would need to work twice as hard as any other dancer around him. Mitchell was very dedicated and worked extremely hard even though parents complained of his presence in class and him partnering their daughters. After two years of study and an appearance on Broadway in Truman Capote's House of FlowersArthur Mitchell joined the New York City Ballet in 1955.
Mitchell's debut with the New York City Ballet was in Western Symphony but his big break wasn't until Balanchine choreographed the Agon pas de deux for him and Alegra Kent in 1957. Audience members complained about Mitchell partnering a white woman but Balanchine never payed them much attention. In 1959 Arthur became a soloist and soon after a principal dancer making him the first black principal dancer of a major ballet company. Mitchell's best performance was as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1964. In 1968, two years before he left New York City Ballet, Arthur Mitchell and Alegra Kent were finally allowed to perform the Agon pas de deux on television on the Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show.
The U.S. Government asked Arthur Mitchell to help create the National Ballet of Brazil and it was during his final trip there that he learned of Martin Luther King Jr. assassination. Mitchell was so shaken up by the news that he decided to help the black community of his childhood the best way he knew how, through dance. The perfect opportunity came to him when soprano singer Dorothy Maynor invited him to start a dance program at her Harlem School of the Arts. In 1968 for the first summer of the dance program there were 30 students. Arthur Mitchell would leave the doors open so that the people walking by could look in and see what was done in those classes. In just a few months the attendance had risen to 400 students and the facilities could no longer support those classes. Arthur remodeled a garage with his own money and funds found with the help of Balanchine and Kirstein and started his own dance school, the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Mr. Mitchell then asked his former ballet teacher Karel Shook, who was a ballet master of the Dutch National Ballet at the time, to help direct Dance Theatre of Harlem.
To try and encourage boys to join the program Mr. Mitchell relaxed the dress code, letting his students wear cut offs and jeans, and made them dance to the rhythm of drums instead of classical piano music. Students enrolled in this program studied the entire theater process: costume design and production, music, lighting and even typing. Arthur Mitchell brought his students to lecture-demonstrations in 1969 and by 1970 he had a company of 20 dancers ready for their debut at the 1971 festival in Spoleto, Italy making Dance Theatre of Harlem the first black classical ballet company.
In 1973 Arthur Mitchell and his company presented the prize-winning television special Rythmetron, choreographed by Mitchell himself in 1968. After two European tours and three National tours the company had their first full season in New York in 1974. In 1981 Dance Theatre of Harlem performed at Covent Garden and in 1982 had their first season at the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, in New York. Arthur Mitchell's 1984 Creole Giselle, set in 19^th century Louisiana where Giselle is the favorite mistress of the plantation owner, was the first American ballet to win England's Laurence Olivier Award for best new dance production. Dance Theatre of Harlem then toured Russia for five weeks in 1988 and segregated South Africa in 1992. Arthur Mitchell established the Dancing Through Barriers outreach program, an ongoing "traveling university" of lectures, classes and workshops for inner-city children in the U.S.A. and England. In 1993 Arthur Mitchell received the Kennedy Center Honors Award and was given Living Landmark status by the New York Landmark Conservancy. 1994 was a very difficult year for the company because it had to be downsized from 52 to 36 dancers because of lack of funds. Arthur Mitchell received the National Medal of Arts in 1995.
In 1997 Arthur Mitchell was struck a big blow when his own dancers went on strike demanding better wages, something which he didn't understand since he was giving them so much of himself as well as performing opportunities that they wouldn't get anywhere else. In 1998 he was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Hall of Fame. In 2004 there was a temporary shutdown of the school and the company is still on hiatus because of lack of funds. The school is once again operational with over a thousand students enrolling every year but Mitchell still has plans and dreams for the future. He would like to have an International School of the Allied Arts. "I'd bring children from all over the world and call it Noah's Art. I'd put together a company with these young people and tour the world to show that regardless of race, class, creed or color, it's the quality of what you do that's important. "Over the years Arthur Mitchell has received Honorary Doctorates from Harvard, Princeton and 11 other institutions. He is also featured in the 2004 documentary Balanchine. We can say that Arthur Mitchell has "done for ballet what Jackie Robinson did for baseball".
On the 6^th of February 2006, President Bush hosted a White House performance by and social dinner honouring the School of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and it's resident company. The President said that they set "a new standard for excellence in dance and [for winning] international acclaim". He also honoured the outreach programs that the school has which give the opportunity to study dance to children all over the world.

Fun Facts:

• Arthur Mitchell choreographed Ode to Otis in 1969.


• Arthur Mitchell wrote the foreword for Katherine Dunham, a Biography in 1979.


• Some of the dancers of Dance Theatre of Harlem have included; Stephanie Baxter, Virginia Johnson, Eddie Shellman, Mel Tomlinson, Donald Williams and Alicia Graf.

Ballet Choreographer Peter Martins

Peter Martins

born: 1946Peter Martins was born on October 27^th 1946 in Copenhagen, Denmark and at the young age of seven he started his ballet studies at the School of the Royal Danish Ballet. Everyone in his family being dancers Peter says he "never really had a lot of choice about the future of his profession."
In 1965 Peter Martins was given a Corps de ballet contract with the Royal Danish Ballet. Two years later he was promoted to soloist. That same year Balanchine invited him to dance the lead role in Apollo with the New York City Ballet during it's appearance at the Edinburgh Festival. This lead to Mr. Martins coming often to New York during the next three years doing guest appearances with the New York City Ballet until joining the company permanently as a Principal dancer in 1970.
During the following years Peter Martins and Suzanne Farrell created a legendary partnership because their lines complimented each other perfectly. He also had a brief partnership and even relationship with Gelsey Kirkland.
In 1981, while still a dancer of the company, Martins shared the title of Ballet Master with Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and John Taras. When Balanchine passed away in 1983 Peter retired as a ballet dancer of the company and became, with Jerome Robbins, co-ballet master in Chief of the New York City Ballet and chairman of Faculty of the School of American Ballet. He was also dubbed a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe II that same year. In 1986 Peter was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Choreography for "Song and Dance." Since the death of Jerome Robbins in 1990 Peter Martins has been the only ballet master in chief for the NYCB.
In 1991 Peter Martins married a principal dancer of the company, Darci Kistler, and they gave birth to a daughter, Talicia, in June 1996. Mr. Martins received the Artistic Leadership Award in 2001. After spending 30 years with the New York City Ballet and having choreographed more than 50 works Peter Martins has already accomplished plenty. He has thought of someday going back to Denmark to raise his daughter with Darci but says he cannot leave his other family, the NYCB, behind. At the moment he says he has unfinished business to take care of.

Fun Facts:

• Peter Martins wrote an autobiography in 1982: Far From Denmark.


• Peter Martins is a big art collector.


• He choreographed for both movies Barbie of Swan Lake and Barbie in the Nutcracker.

Ballet Choreographer Jacques d'Amboise

Jacques d'Amboise

born: 1934Jacques d'Amboise was born in 1934 in Dedham, Massachusetts but grew up in Manhattan. His father, an Irishman from Boston, and his mother, a French-Canadian from Quebec, named the youngest of four children Joseph Ahearn, a name which he later changed to Jacques d'Amboise. He started dance at the age of seven because his mother wanted to keep him out of trouble and away from the gangs that were roaming the streets.
At the age of fifteen Jacques dropped out of school to dance with the New York City Ballet. By the age of seventeen he was promoted to Principal dancer of the company and had many ballets choreographed on him including Who Cares? by Balanchine. In 1954, d'Amboise received a special leave of absence from the New York City Ballet to be able to film the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in the role of Ephraim Pontabee, one of the brothers. Although he was recalled by the company before filming was completed however the film was still completed. We can also see him in two movies produced in 1956: The Best Things in Life Are Freeas a specialty dancer and Carousel as Louise's dancing partner. Even with a very busy life, Jacques fell in love with a beautiful dancer named Carolyn George and married her the 1^st of January 1956.
Jacques d'Amboise is also a choreographer. He choreographed for the New York City Ballet: The Chase in 1963 and Quatuor and Irish Fantasy in 1964. While still a Principal at the New York City Ballet d'Amboise founded the National Dance Institute to prove that arts have a unique power to engage and motivate young people. He wanted to offer a way for children to take charge of their lives and not turn to street gangs that are so present around them. Jacques said "Dance is the most immediate and accessible of the arts because it involves your own body. When you learn to move your body on a note of music, it's exciting. You have taken control of your body and, by learning to do that, you discover that you can take control of your life."
The Bates College in Lewiston, presented him with his first honorary Doctorate in 1978. After writing and publishing the book Teaching the Magic of Dance in 1983 Jacques retired from the New York City Ballet at the age of 50. A documentary about Jacques d'Amboise's work with the National Dance Institute, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', won him an Academy Award and six Emmy Awards in 1984. In 1986, he received another Honorary doctorate degree from the Boston College and the New York Governor's Award. The MacArthur Fellowship was awarded to him in 1990, the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 1995 and the National Medal of the Arts in 1998.
In May of 1999, at almost 65 years old, Jacques d'Amboise started a seven month trek on the Appalachian Trail to raise money for the National Dance Institute. He had choreographed a "Trail Dance" that he taught to anyone he met on the way that was willing to learn and asked them in return to teach it to two other people they knew and ask the same of them. The trek was filmed for a documentary by director John Avildsen, known for his movies Rocky and Karate Kid. Jacques ended the trek on Saturday December the 18^th 1999 after hiking a distance of 2,157 miles.
His son and one of his daughters are also well known people in the dance world. Jacques' daughter, Charlotte d'Amboise, is now a Broadway star. She made her debut in the musical Cats in 1983 and had a Tony nomination for her appearance in Jerome Robbins' Broadway. She is most known for her wonderful portrayal of Roxy Hart in the famous musical Chicago. Charlotte is now married to wonderful husband Terrence Mann. Her brother, Christopher d'Amboise has also been busy following in his father's footsteps. Christopher danced with the New York City Ballet for many years as a Principal dancer before becoming Artistic Director of Pennsylvania Ballet from 1990-1994. His book; Leap Year: A Year in the Life of a Dancer was published in October of 1982. Christopher has choreographed around 50 ballets and is working on a new musical with Cat Stevens. He now teaches at the the Broadway Dance Center.

Fun Facts

• Jacques can say hello and goodbye in 20 different languages.


• His favorite soup, according to Tanaquil Le Clercq's The Ballet Cookbook, is fish chowder.

Ballet Choreographer David Blair

David Blair

born: 1932David Blair was born in 1932 in Yorkshire as David Butterfield and after seeing his sister's dance class he decided to take up dance. At the age of fourteen David received a scholarship from the Sadler's Wells Ballet School but upon his acceptance into the school he was told that he had to grow during his first term there or he would receive injections of growth-inducing hormones. Although he grew enough to satisfy the staff of the school David was still one of the shortest boys and as a result the school thought he would become a character dancer.
Upon joining the Sadler's Wells Ballet company at the age of fifteen David Butterfield changed his name to David Blair. Anton Dolin saw potential for great things in him and coached David Blair for his debut role inNutcracker, Balanchine chose him as the lead for his ballet Trumpet Concerto when it was created on the company and John Cranko also offered him the principal role in Pineapple Pole, one of the most frequently performed of all British ballets. David Blair married another principal dancer of the company, Maryon Lane, and later had twin daughters.
David Blair moved to the Royal Ballet Covent Garden in 1953 and it didn't take long for him to start dancing lead roles in the classics. In 1958, David toured with the Royal Ballet to Melbourne, Australia, and performed Act II of Swan Lake with Lynn Seymour. Ashton choreographed his version of La Fille Mal Gardée for Blair and his partner Nadia Nerina in 1960. When Michael Somes, Margot Fonteyn's partner, was about to retire David must of thought he would be the one to replace him but luck was against him; Nureyev defected and arrived at the Royal Ballet just in time to take this position that Blair wanted. David Blair was one of those dancers that could pirouette practically forever. We can see him perform in two videos: Romeo and Juliet with the Royal Ballet as Mercutio and An Evening with the Royal Ballet in Act III of Sleeping Beauty as Margot Fonteyn's partner.
David stopped dancing much sooner than he thought he would but started to build quite a reputation for himself as a producer of the classics, especially in the United States. David Blair brought Swan Lake to American Ballet Theatre in 1967 with scenery by Oliver Smith and costumes by Freddy Wittop and this version became a standard reference point for American audiences. Mr. Blair choreographed and directed the filming of Gisellewith American Ballet Theatre in 1969. His choreography for Giselle is said to be "possibly the best in the world" by the Saturday Review. He was about to become the Artistic Director of the Norwegian Ballet when he passed away suddenly at the age of 43.
There is now a David Blair Memorial Scholarship which entitles the winner to have expert tuition from the most prestigious dancers and teachers at the Ilkley Ballet Seminars.

Ballet Choreographer Alvin Ailey

Alvin Ailey

born: 1931
died: 1989Alvin Ailey was born on the 5^th of January 1931 in Rogers, Bell County, Texas. He was the only child of his 17 year old mother, Lula. When Alvin was six months old his father left his mother and him to fend for themselves. They first moved to Navasota but eventually settled in Los Angeles. To survive Alvin Ailey and his mother picked cotton and did domestic work.
The first time Alvin discovered dance was during a high school field trip to see the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. He later studied with Katherine Dunham but his most important influence was choreographer and teacher Lester Horton.
After leaving his studies in romance language at UCLA Alvin Ailey began studying with Horton in 1949. His Broadway debut was in the 1950 production of Truman Capote's House of Flowers after which Ailey decided to stay in New York for a while and study ballet, modern dance and acting. He studied with, among others, Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. During the 1950's Ailey became the longtime lover of American Socialist Politician David McReynolds.
In 1953 Lester Horton passed away and Ailey took over his performing troupe. During the next few years he appeared on and off Broadway and on film as a dancer, choreographer, actor and director. Ailey choreographed the debut performance at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Leonard Bernstein's Mass. He also choreographed the inaugural production for the Metropolitan Opera at the Lincoln Theater on Samuel Barber's opera Antony and Cleopatra. Even with those successes it was his choreography Blues Suite performed at New York's 92^nd street in 1958 that marked the beginning of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company.
Ailey's most famous work, Revelations (1960), has been performed in front of tens of millions of people to date. This masterpiece is a union of modern dance and gospel based on his experiences growing up as an African-American in the south. In 1963 Alvin Ailey integrated his company and was criticized by some black Americans. He explained his reasons for doing so saying that he had "met some incredible dancers of other colors who could cut the work" and that he had run into "reverse racism." In 1965 Alvin decided to stop dancing and concentrate on choreography and directing his company. Starting in 1969 the troupe was the resident company of the Brooklyn Academy of music for three seasons. The Alvin Ailey Dance Company was the first American dance company to tour the U.S.S.R. in 50 years, (American tour of the U.S.S.R. was Isadora Duncan in the 1920's). Their Leningrad performance in 1970 got an ovation that lasted more than twenty minutes. In 1972 the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center was created to home the school and company. In honor of his mother's birthday he choreographed a solo called Cry danced by his leading dancer Judith Jamison. He dedicated this piece to "black women everywhere".
Alvin Ailey and his company have received many awards such as the Dance Magazine Award in 1975, the Capezio Award in 1979, the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award in 1987 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1988. Ailey also got honorary doctorates from Princeton University, Bard College and Adelphi University. Alvin Ailey died of terminal blood dyscrasia, a disease that affects the bone marrow and red blood cells, on the 1^st of December 1989 in New York at the age of 58. It was later revealed in the 1996 biography by Jennifer Dunning that the disease had been AIDS related. Upon his death Judith Jamison was named Artistc Director of the company.
During his life Ailey has choreographed 79 works and to date more than 170 works by 65 choreographers have been performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Ballet Choreographer Lev Ivanovich Ivanov

Lev Ivanovich Ivanov

born: 1834
died: 1901Born in Moscow in February of 1834 Lev Ivanov was the son of Tio Adamova, a businessman who we believe came from Georgia. Young Ivanov had a rough childhood being shuffled around between hospitals, boarding schools, and even a merchant's family by his mother before being enrolled in the Imperial School of Ballet at the age of eight. At the Imperial Ballet School Ivanov had many great teachers including Pimenov, Gredlu, Fr�d�ric, and Marius Petipa's father, Jean.
Lev Ivanov also had an incredible talent for music � he could play the entire score of a ballet on piano by ear. The director of the ballet school even threatened to "let him rot for his uncontrollable inclination toward music." Ivanov was invited to join the Conservatiore of Music but didn't like music theory so he never joined. He composed a few pieces but he never learned to write them down.
When he grew up Ivanov joined the Imperial Ballet in 1850 with much promise, however Jules Perrot was in charge of the company at that time and he didn't much like Russian dancers so Ivanov didn't dance much. Then in 1855 T.P. Smirnova asked him to dance La Fille Mal Gard�e for a benefit. Ivanov did such a great job that he was cast as a soloist at the theatre.
The story of how Ivanov demonstrated his mime skills is very similar to how he became a soloist. Petipa became ill one day so Ivanov had to step in for him. He rehearsed the mime scenes in the morning and successfully performed them that evening! During his dancing career Lev Ivanov performed most of the important ballets and was known as an excellent classical and character dancer.
In 1858 Lev Ivanov was appointed to teach two junior classes at the school and in 1882 was offered the job ofregisseur, (a kind of stage manager), a job which he held until 1885 when he became Petipa's assistant ballet master, (the equivalent to a modern-day assistant artistic director).
At the Imperial Theatre Ivanov choreographed or staged nearly twenty different ballets, some by himself and some in collaboration with Petipa, however he received little credit during his lifetime as Petipa's name was always first in the program.
Lev Ivanov was said to have made good use of his experience as a dancer and stage manager in his choreography. Ivanov was one of the first to base his choreography on the structure and emotional content of the music rather than trying to show off how technically brilliant his lead dancers were. Ivanov also was one of the first to use the corps de ballet to it's fullest potential. He excelled in making patterns and shapes on the stage with the corps as shown in his "snowflakes" dance in The Nutcracker and in the second and fourth acts of Swan Lake. He is considered a for runner of Fokine in using the corps to tell the story of the ballet.
Ivanov is the choreographer of The Nutcracker, (1892), portions of Swan Lake, (1895), and Act II of Cinderella, (1893). He also revived La Fille mal Gard�e with Petipa and re-choreographed Copp�lia with Cecchetti, creating the version on which current versions are based. In addition to his creations for the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg Ivanov choreographed ballets for the Czar's private theatre at Krasnoe Selo for many years.
In his personal life Ivanov was married twice and had three children by each wife. The first was Vera Lyadova, and actress, singer, and dancer who he danced with in what may have been his first choreography, a bolero inLa Muette de Portici in 1857. They were married in 1859 and separated ten years later and in march 1870 Vera fell ill and died. His second wife was Varvara Ivanova, (known on stage as Malchugina), they were married in 1875.
Lev Ivanov was always hard at work and at his 50^th jubilee declared his "dearest wish" was to "die in harness." This with came true in November of 1901 when he was working on a revival of Sylvia he became ill and died in December of that year leaving us with some of the greatest corps work in the repertoire.

Ballet Choreographer George Melitonovich Balanchine

George Melitonovich Balanchine

born: 1904
died: 1983The grandson of a Russian Orthodox Bishop and German Baron and son of a soloist of the Tbilisi Opera and composer Georgi Melitonovich Balanchivadze, (whom we know today as George Balanchine), was born January 22, 1904 - the day that Marius Petipa saw no heir to the great ballet tradition he had created and recorded in his diary "All my work is reduced to ashes." on Kirochnaya Street in St. Petersburg.
In his seventy-nine years Balanchine choreographed over three hundred ballets of which about one hundred are still performed today. His ballets have been performed around the world and somewhere there is probably a company staging one of his works right now. Although he refused many honorary degrees he did still get four doctorates, several awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest U.S. honour for a civilian.
Balanchine changed and expanded ballet in ways that nobody else thought possible. He did away with huge costumes and stage clutter and was "One of the major forces in causing Americans to start paying attention to ballet." according to his obituary in the National Review. Martha Graham said that watching Balanchine choreograph was "like watching light pass through him, and in the same natural yet marvelous way that a prism refracts light, he refracts music into dance."
For Balanchine dance was about motion and its relationship to the music. Something that he realized nearly a century ago but many people have yet to realize. There is not yet a new steward that we know of to carry on the tradition of Petipa and Balanchine.

Ballet Choreographer Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton

Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton

born: 1904
died: 1988Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton, the great English choreographer, was born on September 17, 1904 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Through most of his childhood he lived in Lima, Peru and had no plan to dance beyond what would be required socially. This all changed one evening when he was thirteen years old. That was when he saw Anna Pavlova dance in Lima and his passion for dance was born. As he would say later on "She injected me with her poison."
Now Ashton's family wasn't so supportive of his love of dance, plus he lived in South America at a time when there wasn't too much ballet in South America, so Frederick Ashton didn't start actually dancing until he was sent to England to complete his education in 1924. Once he arrived in England, though, Ashton started studying ballet in secret with Leonide Massine.
Frederick Ashton continued training with Massine as well as with Nicholas Legat and Marie Rambert. It was Rambert who encouraged his first choreographic experiments and 1926 saw the premiere of Ashton's first ballet: The Tragedy of Fashion Ashton danced with the Ida Rubenstein Company in London in 1927 but also studied choreography with Massine and with Bronislava Nijinska. He returned to the Rambert company in 1928 and encouraged by Marie Rambert he created Capriol Suite in 1930.
Ashton joined the Vic-Wells ballet, (which later became the Sadler's Wells ballet, then in 1956 the Royal Ballet), in 1933 and distinguished himself as a good mime and character dancer in roles such as Carabosse inThe Sleeping Beauty and "the gigolo" in his own Façade, (1931). He was also busy distinguishing himself as a choreographer, (he was the chief choreographer of the Vic-Wells ballet, a position he held until his retirement), with ballets such as Cinderella, Sylvia, Daphnis and Chloe, and the film Tales of Hoffman. By now his dancing was taking second place to his choreography.
Over the next few years Ashton continued his choreography and in 1947 his work for the opera Albert Herringdelighted the the composer, Benjamin Britten, and started a lifelong artistic relationship.
Five years later Frederick Ashton became the Associate Director of the Sadler's Wells Ballet, as it was now known.
During the next ten years his contribution to ballet was great enough that Frederick Ashton was knighted Sir Frederick Ashton by Queen Elizabeth II in 1962. The very next year Ashton created a ballet called Marguerite and Armand for the new partnership of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev and was named director of the Royal Ballet, a position he held until he retired in 1970 to devote all of his time to choreography.
Although he had previously announced that he would retire when he was sixty-five Ashton's retirement was a bit of a surprise to everyone. According to Derek Rencher, a veteran character artist who created many Ashton roles "Sir Fred was someone who, every time he took a curtain call, would say "No, no" but he'd be holding his hand out for you to drag him on. And I'm absolutely certain he was expecting to be asked to stay." After Ashton retired Rencher has said of the Royal Ballet "We were a bit like a chicken with its head cut off." and even Ashton himself "felt out of touch."
Although he was feeling out of touch Ashton continued choreographing. The year of his retirement he choreographed and danced in the motion picture Tales of Beatrix Potter, (released in 1971), featuring the dancers of the Royal Ballet and three years later created dances for another of Britten's operas, Death in Venice which were integral to the work as well as creating at least four other ballets in between.
Sir Frederick Ashton's choreographic style is very distinctive with rounded and controlled arms, hip levelarabesques so that the line is not contorted, and sometimes some very fluid motion. Iain Webb, who is excellent with different styles in ballet and dances many of Ashton's ballets, recalls being coached by Ashton in Façade: "He got hold of my hair at the front - very gently - and said "Now Follow Me." and he just made me go, so there was a flow of movement through the body." Indeed if you watch early footage of Ashton dancing you see an amazing fluidity in his arms, upper body, and head which probably came from his growing up in South America. Ashton's use of movement in the body and epaulment are blended with very intricate footwork make an interesting contrast with the very controlled arms and low arabesques and all together it creates the Ashton style.
It is interesting that Frederick Ashton and George Balanchine should develop such different styles, Ashton's very controlled, (even at speed), and Balanchine's being all about movement to the point that control is sacrificed when admittedly they both had the same starting point: the music. Unlike many choreographers who have a certain story to tell or set of movement they want to show off these two let the music be their guide and guide them it did.
In choreographing pas de deux's Ashton showed his timeless belief in romantic love. The low skimming lifts suggest gentle love and support between the two dancers.
After eighteen years of retirement Sir Frederick Ashton passed away on August 18, 1988 in Sussex, England.
During his life ballet brought Sir Frederick Ashton halfway around the globe to England where he was indispensable in building one of the world's greatest ballet companies, and helped to create the English style of ballet. Ashton choreographed over one hundred ballets of which over thirty are still in the repertoire of the Royal Ballet alone, it is this work upon which the Royal Ballet was built.

8 Step Les Sylphides Ballet

The ballet has no plot, that is why there is no scenario credit. It is "romantic reverie." Les Sylphides is composed of a suite of dances in the romantic atmosphere of a moonlit park. The sylphides, (magical figures, like the sylph in La Sylphide), dance with the "poet" in search of the ideal. The dances are in the following order: 

• Prelude: The curtain rises and all dancers are on stage, posed motionless. 


• Nocturne: an ensemble danced by the whole cast. 


• Waltz: a solo variation performed by a soloist. 


• Mazurka: a solo by the prima ballerina. 


• Mazurka: a solo by the lone male dancer in the cast. 


• Prelude: a solo by a different soloist. 


• Waltz pas de deux for the prima ballerina and the poet. 


• Grand Waltz: the final ensemble.

Concerns:

This ballet, because of its name, is quite often confused with La Sylphide. The two are quite different, in fact. Les Sylphides was originally called Chopiniana, after Chopin, the composer who wrote the music. However, the name was changed for its premiere in Paris, where the audience had recently seen La Sylphide.

2 Act La Sylphide Ballet

Act I: La Sylphide takes place in Scotland. James is sitting in an armchair at the fireside at the dawn of the day of his marriage to Effie. Near him a winged spirit, a sylphide, (sylph), appears, gazes at him with love, and wakes him with a kiss. As James wakes up, the sylph runs away, dancing. Effie, her mother, some neighbours, Gurn, (Effie's disappointed suitor), and Madge, (an old witch that James had sent away), arrive. Madge prophesies that Effie is not loved by her betrothed, (James), and will marry Gurn. When he is left alone James sees the sylph again. This time she professes her love for him and invites him to follow her. Gurn has witnessed this and runs to tell Effie, so that she may see James' infidelity. The sylph is in the big chair, but James covers her with his cloak, and when Gurn whips it away the chair appears to be empty. During the party the sylph moves among the dancers, visible only to James. Finally, she takes the wedding ring intended for Effie from his hand and rushes into the forest, with James in pursuit, leaving Effie in tears. Gurn leads the guests in search of James. 
Act II: The witch Madge is in a dark cave conjuring spells and surrounded by demons. She dips a filmy scarf into the cauldron. Now, in a dense forest, James enters followed by the sylph, with whom he is now in love, even though she continually evades him. Meanwhile Gurn and the others have returned from their search after failing to find James. Madge appears and gives James the scarf "with which he can hold his elusive love." After a couple of tries he succeeds in tricking the sylph and encircling her in the scarf. Immediately her wings fall off, as Madge has cast a spell on the scarf, and the sylph dies. Overcome, James falls to the ground, and in the distance we hear the sounds of the marriage feast of Gurn and Effie, while the witch gloats over her revenge.

Concerns:

This ballet is set in Scotland, a land that was considered remote and exotic at the time, and was created, for Marie Taglioni to dance the role of the sylph, by her father. However, the version you will probably see today is not the original Taglioni version, it is the newer Bournonville version.

4 Act Swan Lake Ballet

Act I: At his castle, Prince Siegfried is celebrating his twenty-first birthday with his friends. His motherarrives and reminds him that he must choose a bride from among the ladies invited to the ball the following day. When Siegfried's mother leaves the party continues, but Siegfried stands apart overcome by a vague melancholy. He sees some white swans fly overhead and decides to leave his friends and go hunt them. 
Act II: At the banks of a moonlit lake near the castle, a group of swan-maidens appears. The prince has already aimed his bow when the Swan Queen presents herself and tells Siegfried that she is the Princess Odette changed into a swan, like her companions, by the sorcerer Rothbart, a spell from which she can only be freed by one who will swear eternal love to her. Now deeply in love, Siegfried swears he loves Odette and invites her to the ball, then dawn breaks and the swan-maidens are all turned back into swans. 
Act III: At the ball the prince dances with six young ladies who are presented to him. Then a stranger arrives, Baron Rothbart and his daughter Odile, the evil double of Odette. After looking at her for a while Siegfried decides that she is Odette, his beloved, dances with her, and publicly declares her his bride. Rothbart and his daughter leave in triumph. Then Siegfried sees the white spirit of Odette momentarily at the window and rushes to the lake. 
Act IV: At the lake, the swans dance sadly as they wait for Odette. When she arrives in tears she falls to the ground among her companions. Siegfried finds her and lifts her tenderly; she is dying. He takes her tiara and throws it into the lake, which rises to submerge both him and Odette. Their spirits fly upwards towards the sky above the lake, which is calm once again.

Concerns:

The earliest of the Russian "Big Three," Swan Lake is an important part of the repertoire of all of the major classical ballet companies in the world. First staged in 1877 by Wenzel Reisinger, the Petipa version is the one that survives today.

The Sleeping Beauty Ballet

Prologue: In King Florestan XXIV's castle they are celebrating the christening of the newborn Princess Aurora. The six invited fairies each bring a gift and bestow a blessing on the cradle. Suddenly, the wicked Carbosse, (played by a man), bursts in, offended at not being invited to the christening. She curses the baby to prick her finger on a spindle and die. To the relief of the court the Lilac Fairy has not yet given her gift, and she pronounces that the Princess will not die, but fall into a deep sleep from which she can only be awakened by the kiss of true love. Act I: Sixteen years have gone by during which every pin, thorn, and spinning wheel has been banished from the kingdom. The princess has grown into a beautiful girl. At her birthday ball four princes have arrived from around the world to ask her hand in marriage. An old woman approaches and gives her a gift that she has never seen before: a spinning wheel. The princess pricks her finger and falls asleep. Throwing of the disguise off an old woman, Carbosse appears triumphant before the court. The Lilac fairy arrives to keep her promise, and causes a thick forest to grow up around the palace, while everybody in it magically falls asleep, to awaken only when the princess does. A hundred years go by. Young prince Desiré makes a stops in a clearing in the forest. While his entourage plays, Desiré stands aside. The Lilac fairy appears to him and shows him a vision of the sleeping Princess Aurora. Entranced, Desiré approaches, but as he approaches the vision disappears. He begs the fairy to take him to the princess and follows her to the entrance of the silent palace. Desiré advances through the frozen court to the Princess, at his kiss she awakens as does rest of the court. Act III: Aurora's wedding to Desiré is being celebrated in the grand ballroom of the palace. Many characters dance including Puss-in-Boots and the white cat, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, and the Bluebirds. Finally, the happy couple dance before proceeding to their wedding and happiness.

Concerns:

This is one of the most famous of the ballets, and the music is known around the world. It was even used in the Disney version of the fairy tale. The dancing is known the world over as well. The Rose Adagio that the princess does in the first act is probably one of the most difficult adagios in existence, and the Bluebird pas de deux and the grand pas de deux are incredible.

The Rite of Spring Ballet

Part I: the adoration of the earth: The curtain rises to reveal young men and women in separate groups. Their surroundings are primitive and dominated by the dark forces of nature. At first the dances are light hearted but they slowly change to have more aggressive and savage movements. The young men take possession of the women and carry them offstage. A fight ensues until a wise old man makes peace. There is a stunned silence, then the men throw themselves on the ground in worship, rise again, and start an even more frenzied dance.
Part II: the sacrifice The young women are standing on the stage near a fire, one of them will be chosen as a sacrifice to the earth. The chosen one stands alone and still in the middle of the stage after a mystic dance, and the young members of the tribe gather around her and dance in a "crescendo or brutal excitement." Finally the chosen one joins them and the dancing grows more and more violent until it climaxes and the chosen maiden falls exhausted and dies. The men then carry her over to the sacred stone and fall prostrate. The rite is over.

Concerns:

It is well known that on the opening night of this ballet it was "greeted by riotous disapproval." From the beginning there were whistles and boos, which was soon countered by applause. Eventually the audience became uncontrollable, some members actually came to blows, and although the company did finish the ballet, it was very difficult to do so because the dancers could barely hear the orchestra. What upset the audience so much was not only that Nijinsky had "turned the conventions of ballet inside out" but he had dealt with the subject of barbarism, a subject that the world was not yet ready to deal with.

Raymonda Ballet

Act I: Raymonda, who is betrothed to Jean de Brienne, is celebrating her birthday. Jean, who is expected to arrive the next day, has send some presents in advance. One of these presents is an embroidered portrait of himself. First, however, Abderman arrives and tries to court Raymonda. Raymonda then dreams that Jean comes down from his portrait to dance with her, however, when she wakes up she finds that Abderman is there again to "renew his amorous proposals." Act II: The festivities continue, and Abderman asks Raymonda to dance. Then, he and his accomplices attempt to abduct her. However, at that moment Jean arrives with his brother, the King of Hungary. There is a duel and Abderman is killed. Act III: There is a feast at the castle to celebrate the marriage of the two lovers, and much dancing.

Concerns:

This ballet is the last with any staying power that Petipa choreographed. It can be very difficult to follow as it is more like a chain of divertissements designed to show off the talents of the soloists of the time than it is like a pantomime with a smoothly flowing plot line. However, for a dancing showcase it is excellent and shows a wide variety of styles.