On "AMERICAN": American Ballet Theatre

The “intrinsic American” Ms. de Mille was looking for may be found on an expansive frontier pushing westward or on wartime shore leave, a dusty cattle ranch, a New England mill town or the urban streets of The Great Depression. More than 40 American choreographers and almost as many American composers have forged memorable works for ABT in its 75-year history. All of them responding to what Ms. de Mille called, “The beat, the beat that sends that intrinsic American marching, that sends him dancing, that keeps pressing us to go farther."

Three Virgins and a Devil
Choreography by Agnes de Mille
Music by Ottorino Respighi
Ballet Theatre Premiere: February 11, 1941
In this comedic ballet, three virgins - one priggish, one lustful and one greedy - succumb to the alluring temptations and trickery of the Devil on their way to church, set to Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances after a story by Boccaccio.

Pictured: Lucia Chase, Maria Karnilova and Annabelle Lyon

Fall River Legend
Choreography by Agnes de Mille
Music by Morton Gould
Ballet Theatre World Premiere: April 22, 1948
Based on the famous Lizzie Borden case - the unsolved ax murders of her father and stepmother - Fall River Legend explores the passions that lead to a violent resolution of oppression and turmoil.

Rodeo
Choreography by Agnes de Mille
Music by Aaron Copland
Ballet Theatre Premiere: August 14, 1950
Agnes de Mille, a New York City native, would help change American dance with her famous ballet, Rodeo. In this loving salute to the American Southwest set to Copland's iconic score, a tomboyish cowgirl sets out to get herself a man, but the odds are set against her as she has to compete against an army of local girls in a quest to win the attention of the Champion Roper.

The Harvest According
Choreography by Agnes de Mille
Music by Virgil Thomson
Ballet Theatre World Premiere: October 1, 1952
Agnes de Mille wrote: “The ballet is a lyric-dramatic trilogy with a simple life pattern as seen through the eyes of a woman. The three parts concern birth, games and war.” The title comes from lines of Walt Whitman: "Life, life is the tillage, and Death is the harvest according."

The Great American Goof
Choreography by Eugene Loring
Music by Henry Brant
Ballet Theatre World Premiere: January 11, 1940
Born in Wisconsin, Eugene Loring was a pioneering choreographer who fused ballet, modern and jazz styles in the creation of a distinctly American idiom. The Great American Goof brought comedy and raw, masculine energy to the stage and was danced to spoken words by famed American dramatist, William Saroyan.

Pictured: Antony Tudor and Eugene Loring

Billy the Kid
Choreography by Eugene Loring
Music by Aaron Copland
Ballet Theatre Premiere: December 8, 1940
Billy the Kid is a psychological representation of the pioneering West through eleven episodic dances based on the story of the notorious desperado Billy the Kid, the infamous outlaw who was born William Bonney in New York City at the close of the Civil War.

Pictured: John Kriza

Fancy Free
Choreography by Jerome Robbins
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Ballet Theatre World Premiere: April 18, 1944
This evergreen ode to three sailors on shore-leave in New York City perfectly captures the American spirit. Fancy Free was New York native Jerome Robbins' first choreographic work that became an instant hit and was his first collaboration with then unknown composer Leonard Bernstein.

Pictured: Jerome Robbins, John Kriza, Harold Lang, Janet Reed and Muriel Bentley

Interplay
Choreography by Jerome Robbins
Music by Morton Gould
Ballet Theatre Premiere: October 17, 1945
Interplay is a breezy ballet based on children's games, such as leap frog and follow-the-leader, in which there is a constant play between classic ballet steps and a contemporary spirit.

Les Noces
Choreography by Jerome Robbins
Music by Igor Stravinsky
ABT World Premiere: March 30, 1965
Les Noces, a commission for Ballet Theatre's 25th Anniversary gala, presents a ritualized abstraction of a Russian peasant wedding in four scenes: The Blessing of the Bride, The Blessing of the Bridegroom, The Bride’s Departure from Her Parent’s House, and The Wedding Feast.

Pictured: Erin Martin

Other Dances
Choreography by Jerome Robbins
Music by Frédéric Chopin
ABT Premiere: June 22, 1976
An homage to Chopin, this beautiful pas deux was created as a showcase of classical ballet technique for Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Pictured: Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov

The Combat
Choreography by William Dollar
Music by Raffaello de Banfield
Ballet Theatre Premiere: July 23, 1953
Born in St. Louis, William Dollar was a celebrated dancer before turning to choreography. The Combat is inspired by Tasso’s poem, “Jerusalem Delivered,” and conveys a tale of mortal combat between a Christian knight and a masked assailant, who is revealed to be his lover, a Saracen maiden.

Pictured: Lupe Serrano

Pas des Déesses
Choreography by Robert Joffrey
Music by John Field
ABT Premiere: May 7, 1956
Choreographed by one of the giants of American dance in the 20th century, Seattle-born Robert Joffrey, Pas des Déeses is a witty comment on the formalities and fantasies created by Romantic ballet.

Pictured: Julio Bocca

At Midnight
Choreography by Eliot Feld
Music by Gustav Mahler
ABT World Premiere: December 1, 1967
Choreographed by ABT dancer from Brooklyn, NY, Eliot Feld, At Midnight exudes heartbreaking lyricism on the themes of love and loneliness. “The man to love rarely coincides with the hour for loving,” — a Thomas Hardy quote that served as inspiration for Feld’s ballet.

Pictured: Marianna Tcherkassky and Terry Orr

Harbinger
Choreography by Eliot Feld
Music by Sergei Prokofiev
ABT World Premiere: March 31, 1967
Feld’s first original work for ABT, his thematic ballet Harbinger, is replete with emotion as human relationships unfold in expressive dance patterns. Movement is personalized for each dancer through unique energy and phrasing, as well as differences in the way one adapts to the space and other people.

Intermezzo
Choreography by Eliot Feld
Music by Johannes Brahms
ABT Premiere: July 6, 1972
Three couples showcase Feld’s trademark playfulness in a romantic-tinged ballet of ever-changing tempo and mood characterized by high-spirited quick steps and set to Brahms' luscious waltzes for solo piano.

Variations on 'America'
Choreography by Eliot Feld
Music by Charles Ives and William Schuman
ABT Premiere: January 9, 1982
This patriotic and triumphant pas de deux is set to scores by the iconic American composers, Charles Ives and William Schuman.

Pictured: Susan Jaffe and Mikhail Baryshnikov

The River
Choreography by Alvin Ailey
Music by Duke Ellington
ABT World Premiere: June 25, 1970
Muscular yet lyrical, The River, Alvin Ailey’s first work for ABT, is an allegory of birth, life and re-birth suggesting tumbling rapids and meandering streams on a journey to the sea.

Pictured: Cynthia Gregory and Gayle Young

Pas de "Duke"
Choreography by Alvin Ailey
Music by Duke Ellington
ABT Premiere: July 29, 1976
Born in Texas, Alvin Ailey was heavily influenced by the music and experiences of his childhood. His elegant, flirtatious Pas de "Duke" (pas de deux) shows off exuberance and virtuosity in a playful game of one-upmanship to the music of Duke Ellington.

Pictured: Judith Jamison and Mikhail Baryshnikov

Le Baiser de la Fée
Choreography by John Neumeier
Music by Igor Stravinsky
ABT Premiere: July 18, 1974
Born and raised in Wisconsin, John Neumeier has focused his choreography on preserving ballet tradition, while introducing a modern dramatic framework. Le Baiser de la Fée (The Fairy's Kiss) began with Stravinsky's score in the style of Tchaikovsky. It follows the story of a young boy marked by a fairy’s kiss to a fatal end, which Stravinsky felt mirrored the life of Tchaikovsky.

Pictured: Jonas Kage, Ivan Nagy and Cynthia Gregory

Gemini
Choreography by Glen Tetley
Music by Hans Werner Henze
ABT Premiere: January 23, 1975
Glen Tetley was born in Ohio and was brought into the dance world by Jerome Robbins while attending medical school, rising to become a leading dancer with ABT. His choreography is internationally renowned for its hybrid modern style. He created Gemini, a pure dance work, as a reflection of the endless horizons of Australia.

Pictured: Martine van Hamel and Clark Tippet

Voluntaries
Choreography by Glen Tetley
Music by Francis Poulenc
ABT Premiere: February 4, 1977
Created in memory of John Cranko, choreographer and Artistic Director of the Stuttgart Ballet, Voluntaries is set to Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ, Strings and Percussion, which Tetley chose for its deeply spiritual basis. The title refers to both a musical “voluntary,” an organ or trumpet improvisation played during religious services, as well as the Latin root of the word meaning “flight and desire.”

Sphinx
Choreography by Glen Tetley
Music by Bohuslav Martinu
ABT World Premiere: December 9, 1977
Sphinx is Tetley’s physical exploration of the second act of Jean Cocteau’s play, The Infernal Machine, a reworking of Oedipus’s encounter with the Sphinx in which she appears not as a beast but a young woman. Designer Rouben Ter-Arutunian created a regal, silken-winged throne and ramp for the Sphinx, which he described as “suggesting mystery, desire and the air of the unattainable.”

Pictured: Martine van Hamel and Ross Stretton

Pierrot Lunaire
Choreography by Glen Tetley
Music by Arnold Schoenberg
ABT Premiere: March 10, 1979
Tetley created one of his earliest works, Pierrot Lunaire, as a solo for himself, integrating modern dance with the bravura of ballet. Inspired by principal characters from the commedia dell’arte, it is a humorous and poetic interpretation of Schoenberg’s song cycle of the same name, which also integrates modern and classical techniques into a striking and unique style.

Pictured: Kirk Peterson, Frank Smith and Lise Houlton

Push Comes to Shove
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Music by Joseph Lamb and Franz Joseph Haydn
ABT World Premiere: January 9, 1976
Born in Indiana, Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than 160 works. Her dances are known for their creativity, wit and technical precision coupled with a streetwise nonchalance - qualities prevalent in her first ABT commissioned work, Push Comes to Shove. The premiere that stunned audiences and was hailed as “groundbreaking” featured Mikhail Baryshnikov in a role that was tailor-made for him.

Pictured: Mikhail Baryshnikov

Sinatra Suite
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Music by Frank Sinatra
ABT World Premiere: December 6, 1983
Tharp’s Sinatra Suite for two dancers is made up of five of the duets from her earlier work, Nine Sinatra Songs set to Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night, All the Way, That's Life, My Way, and One For My Baby (And One More for the Road). An instant audience favorite, it is a clear demonstration of Tharp’s ability to create highly successful cross-over works between genres, this time with ballroom dancing.

Pictured: Elaine Kudo and Mikhail Baryshnikov

Bach Partita
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach
ABT World Premiere: December 9, 1983
When Baryshnikov became ABT artistic director in 1980, he continued to cultivate his relationship with Tharp, commissioning new works and later inviting her to act as artistic associate. One of these works, Bach Partita, is one of Tharp’s largest ballets, created for six principals, fourteen soloists and sixteen corps ballerinas, and demands technical facility and artistry from every dancer in the cast.

In the Upper Room
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Music by Philip Glass
ABT Premiere: December 10, 1988
With an original score by American composer Philip Glass, In the Upper Room fuses a broad spectrum of movement into one vigorous vocabulary; boxing, tap dance, yoga, ballet and sprinting are all intertwined. The 13 dancers are set in two opposing and contrasting groups: one of an athletic, social-dance style wearing sneakers, the other of the classical tradition wearing pointe shoes.

Pictured: Paloma Herrera and Gennadi Saveliev

How Near Heaven
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Music by Benjamin Britten
ABT World Premiere: March 3, 1995
Another ABT commission, How Near Heaven, is set to Benjamin Britten’s landmark work, Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, and receives its name from an Emily Dickinson letter of the same title. The New York Premiere was featured on ABT’s 1995 Gala at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Known by Heart
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Music by W.A. Mozart, Donald Knaack and Steve Reich
ABT World Premiere: November 3, 1998
Known By Heart is a compilation of dances that present a broad spectrum of movement and music, from classical Mozart to contemporary Reich. The “Junk” Duet, set to Knaack’s Junk Music, a percussion work performed on “found objects” and various metals, is often presented as a stand-alone work.

Pictured: Gillian Murphy and Blaine Hoven

The Brahms-Haydn Variations
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Music by Johannes Brahms
ABT World Premiere: March 21, 2000
The Brahms-Haydn Variations features 30 dancers - five principal couples, two solo couples and eight corps couples - with action in the foreground, middle and background, organized into a structure Tharp refers to as “three-part counterpoint.” This creates a beautiful harmony that mirrors Brahms’ famed score, Variations on a Theme by Haydn.

Pictured: Xiomara Reyes and Herman Cornejo

Company B
Choreography by Paul Taylor
Music by the Andrews Sisters
ABT Premiere: October 17, 2008
Paul Taylor was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Juilliard in 1953 and formed a small company, creating works that have helped define the homegrown American art of dance. His work Company B depicts the dualistic elements of America during World War II: young lovers lindy, jitterbug and polka, while in the background appear shadowed figures of soldiers.

Black Tuesday
Choreography by Paul Taylor
Music: Songs from the Great Depression
ABT World Premiere: April 10, 2001
Born exactly nine months after the stock market crash that led into the Great Depression, Taylor has often created works influenced by American society during iconic moments in history. Black Tuesday is an engaging mix of joy and sorrow with songs from Depression-era America, the tragedy of shattered hopes and dreams lifted by the optimism of the “can-do-spirit.”

Pictured: Luciana Paris and Alexandre Hammoudi

Great Galloping Gottschalk
Choreography by Lynne Taylor-Corbett
Music by Louis Moreau Gottschalk
ABT World Premiere: January 12, 1982
Lynne Taylor-Corbett, originally from Denver, Colorado, is known for her work in ballet, theatre and film. When Baryshnikov invited her to choreograph for ABT, she was inspired by the music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Gottschalk was a Civil War-era New Orleans pianist, the “rock star” of his time, who paved the way for Ragtime with his simple and charming tunes.

Duets
Choreography by Merce Cunningham
Music by John Cage
ABT Premiere: May 18, 1982
Hailing from Washington, Merce Cunningham began as a soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company. During that time, he began working with composer John Cage, forming one of the most influential dance/music collaborations in history. Together, they explored the relationship between the two, concluding that although they occur in the same time and space, they should be created independently.

Grand Pas Romantique
Choreography by Fernando Bujones
Music by Adolphe Adam
ABT World Premiere: January 24, 1985
Born in Miami, Florida, Fernando Bujones quickly rose to fame as a dancer, becoming one of the youngest Principal dancers in ABT history at the age of 19. At age 30, Bujones choreographed his first piece for ABT, Grand Pas Romantique, which he described as “Romantic, sweet atmosphere with a certain imperial elegance.”

The Mollino Room
Choreography by Karole Armitage
Music by Paul Hindemith
ABT World Premiere: April 10, 1986
New York based choreographer Karole Armitage was born in Wisconsin and studied ballet in Aspen, Colorado. Known as the “punk ballerina,” she is renowned for pushing boundaries to create contemporary works that blend dance, music and art to engage in philosophical questions about the search for meaning.

Pictured: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leslie Browne and Ricardo Bustamante

The Mollino Room

Although the ballet is named after Italian architect Carlo Mollino, who is thought to be the precursor of contemporary design, Armitage was equally influenced by David Salle, the set and costume designer for The Mollino Room. He created five backdrops of abstract design which all serve to juxtapose the dancing, adding to the study of solitude, particularly with the lead role, danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov in the premiere.

Pictured: Leslie Browne, Ricardo Bustamante and Mikhail Baryshnikov

Caught
Choreography by David Parsons
Music by Robert Fripp
ABT Premiere: January 27, 2004
Born in Illinois and raised in Missouri, David Parsons is sought after as a choreographer, teacher, director and producer. His stroboscopic masterpiece Caught is a fusion of art and technology that demands split-second timing and athletic stamina, featuring more than 100 leaps in six minutes by a solo dancer who is repeatedly trapped in mid-motion by the strobe lights to create an illusion of flight.

Pictured: Angel Corella

Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison
Choreography by David Parsons
Music by George Harrison
ABT World Premiere: October 18, 2002
In collaboration with fellow choreographers Ann Reinking, Natalie Weir and Stanton Welch, Within You Without You encompasses 6 songs by the “gentle Beatle,” George Harrison, with Parson’s touching finale of “My Sweet Lord,” featuring a procession of happy couples and an image of Harrison projected on the backdrop.

Pictured: Ethan Stiefel

Enough Said
Choreography by Clark Tippet
Music by George Perle
ABT World Premiere: January 29, 1987
Born in Kansas as the seventh in a family of eleven children, Clark Tippet rose quickly in ballet, joining ABT at age 18 and becoming a Principal by 22. After creating many new roles as a dancer, he turned his hand to choreography with his first ballet Enough Said.

Pictured: Ross Yearsley, Nora Kimball and Ethan Brown

Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1
Choreography by Clark Tippet
Music by Max Bruch
ABT World Premiere: December 1, 1987
Inspired by Bruch’s first violin concerto, which he heard by chance as the flip side of a Mendelssohn record purchased for $1.99, Tippet created Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in a passion-and-fury romantic style to complement the music. The one nod to Tippet’s contemporary style was the costumes in bright greens, pinks and purples.

Some Assembly Required
Choreography by Clark Tippet
Music by William Bolcom
ABT World Premiere: April 14, 1989.
The duet Some Assembly Required was created on married ABT dancers Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner. In it, Tippet captured the essence of modern American relationships. He drew upon American composer William Bolcom’s Second Sonata, which plays upon the use of ragtime and western tunes.

Pictured: Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner

The Garden of Villandry
Choreography by Martha Clarke
Music by Franz Schubert
ABT Premiere: October 18, 1988
Born in Maryland, Martha Clarke founded Crowsnest, a chamber group with fellow dancers Robert Barnett and Felix Blaska, with whom she created The Garden of Villandry. Using the number three as a leitmotif, a woman in Edwardian dress yearns for two men, leaving the audience to decide who is the lover and who is the husband.

Pictured: Michael Owen, Martine van Hamel and Ross Stretton

Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes
Choreography by Mark Morris
Music by Virgil Thomson
ABT World Premiere: May 31, 1988
Seattle native Mark Morris has never shied away from pushing his choreography to the limits. He founded the Mark Morris Dance Group at age 24, bursting onto the scene with a performance at the New Wave Festival in Brooklyn. Whether grounded in classical forms or experimenting with new media, his choreography always derives directly from and is deeply connected with the chosen music.

Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes

Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes originally appeared as an excerpt in the Dancing for Life Benefit in 1987 in support of the fight against AIDS. There is a sense of ease and naturalness in the ballet, set to music by composer Virgil Thomson, who is associated with the development of the “American sound” in classical music with work rooted in American speech rhythms and hymnbook harmony.

Pictured: Kathleen Moore, Martine van Hamel and Isabella Padovani

Gong
Choreography by Mark Morris
Music by Colin McPhee
ABT World Premiere: May 1, 2001
The fifteen dancers that make up the ballet Gong reflect the music that composer Colin McPhee describes as a “nuclear gamelan,” a traditional Balinese percussion ensemble. Suffused with orientalism, Morris melds light and shadow with Isaac Mizrahi's color-saturated costumes to create a kaleidoscope of innovative movement.

Night Journey
Choreography by Martha Graham
Music by William Schuman
ABT Premiere: June 1, 1989
Martha Graham’s Night Journey is inspired by Sophocles’ famous Oedipus Rex, but hers is from the perspective of Jocasta, Oedipus’ mother. She is at her death bed and is forced to relive the most significant and painful moments of her life.

Pictured: Terese Capucilli and Mikhail Baryshnikov

Diversion of Angels
Choreography by Martha Graham
Music by Norman Dello Joio
ABT Premiere: October 23, 1999
Born in Pennsylvania, Graham was heavily influenced by her father, who taught her the dictum “movement never lies.” Her groundbreaking dance style grew from the elemental movements of contraction and release. There is a distinctly American sense to all her work, as she explained: “A dance reveals the spirit of the country in which it takes root.”

Pictured: Ashley Tuttle and Joaquin de Luz

Diversion of Angels

Diversion of Angels is a lyric dance about the loveliness of youth and the quick joy and quick sadness of being in love for the first time, based on a poetic narrative by Ben Belitt: “It is the wish of the single-hearted, the undivided; play after the spirit’s labor; games, flights, fancies, configurations of the lover’s intention; the believed Possibility, at once strenuous and tender; humors of innocence, garlands, evangels, Joy on the wilderness stair; diversion of angels.”

Pictured: Sandra Brown and Ethan Brown

Serious Pleasures
Choreography by Ulysses Dove
Music by Robert Ruggieri
ABT World Premiere: March 24, 1992
Born in South Carolina, Ulysses Dove began by creating dances for himself to perform for his classmates. He entered college as a premedical student, but quickly transferred to dance. His career included principal dancer with Alvin Ailey before achieving his vast choreographic success.

Pictured: Susan Jaffe, Lucette Katerndahl, Ulysses Dove, Christina Fagundes and Ashley Tuttle

Serious Pleasures

Dove subtitled his work as “the merciless battle between spirit and flesh.” In an interview with Essence, he explained that it is about “love in the age of AIDS.” His unique choreographic style is prevalent in the emotionally charged movements and poses with use of a dramatic set design, including a row of men hanging from pseudo-crucifixion wall pegs. The premiere was particularly noted for his individual showcasing of ABT’s talented corps de ballet members.

The Red Shoes
Choreography by Lar Lubovitch
Music by Jule Styne
ABT Premiere: May 2, 1994
The Red Shoes, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, was originally created as a Broadway musical, featuring choreography by Lar Lubovitch. He brought the dance sequences to ABT a year later. The story follows a girl longing to be a ballerina. She performs a “ballet-within-a-ballet” about a girl who puts on a pair of red shoes that dances her to death.

Pictured: Kathleen Moore

A Brahms Symphony
Choreography by Lar Lubovitch
Music by Johannes Brahms
ABT Premiere: March 3,1995
Although Lar Lubovitch originally created A Brahms Symphony for his own company to Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, he expanded the work with an entirely new fourth movement for ABT. It is purely movement based without a set narrative; however, the choreography depicts lonely figures in a crowd, constantly searching.

Pictured: Keith Roberts, Kathleen Moore, Johann Renvall and Sandra Brown

Othello: A Dance in Three Acts
Choreography by Lar Lubovitch
Music by Elliot B. Goldenthal
ABT World Premiere: May 23, 1997
Lar Lubovitch was born in Chicago and studied at the University of Iowa and The Juilliard School, where his teachers included ABT’s own Antony Tudor. His versatility as a choreographer has led him to produce works not only for ballet, but for ice-dancing and Broadway, receiving a Tony Award nomination for his staging of Into the Woods.

Pictured: Sandra Brown and Desmond Richardson

Othello: A Dance in Three Acts

ABT reached a new milestone with the premiere of Othello: A Dance in Three Acts, its first commissioned full-length work. Lubovitch depicts Shakespeare’s tragic story of jealousy and betrayal as the brooding commander Othello succumbs to the sinister Iago’s machinations. The original cast included Desmond Richardson (Othello), Sandra Brown (Desdemona) and Parrish Maynard (Iago).

Pictured: Desmond Richardson and Parrish Maynard

Baroque Game
Choreography by Robert Hill
Music by Dmitry Polischuk
ABT World Premiere: October 28, 1999
Robert Hill choreographed Baroque Game, his first ballet, while still an active Principal dancer with ABT. With original polystylistic music by Ukrainian composer Polischuk, the work is plotless and instead allows the creative process of the score to drive the movements of the dancers.

Pictured: Julie Kent and Angel Corella

Dorian
Choreography by Robert Hill
Musical arrangements by Jon Magnussen,
based on works by Ernest Chausson, Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin
ABT World Premiere: October 30, 2003
Robert Hill was born in West Babylon, New York and began his dance training in Florida. His professional dance career began with the Atlantic Contemporary Ballet Theatre before joining ABT in 1982, where he also made his choreographic debut.

Pictured: Marcelo Gomes

workwithinwork
Choreography by William Forsythe
Music by Luciano Berio
ABT Premiere: October 24, 2003
New York native William Forsythe was trained in Florida and danced with the Joffrey Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was later named Resident Choreographer. As a highly sought after choreographer of dynamic 21st century works, he has worked with companies across Europe and the United States.

Pictured: Carmen Corella and David Hallberg