George Balanchine

George Balanchine, who is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet, came to the United States in late 1933 following an early career throughout Europe.

His trip to the United States in 1933 was at the invitation of Lincoln Kirstein, the Boston born dance connoisseur whose dream it was to establish an American school of ballet equivalent to the European schools, as well as an American ballet company. Kirstein had met Balanchine in Paris after seeing a performance by the company that Balanchine was then directing there, Les Ballets 1933; the two were introduced by Romola Nijinsky, widow of the famous Russian dancer, whom Kirstein assisted in her research for a biography of her late husband.

The first result of the Balanchine Kirstein collaboration was The School of American Ballet, founded in early 1934 (the first day of class, in fact, was January 1 of that year) and existing to the present day. It later became the training ground for dancers going into New York City Ballet, which Balanchine and Kirstein were to establish together after 14 more years, in 1948. Balanchine’s first ballet in this country was Serenade, choreographed in 1934 to music by Tchaikovsky, which was premiered outdoors on the estate of a friend near White Plains, New York, as a workshop performance.

In 1935, Kirstein and Balanchine set up a touring company of dancers from the school and called it the American Ballet. That same year the Metropolitan Opera invited the company to become its resident ballet, with Balanchine as the Met’s ballet master. Tight funding, however, permitted Balanchine to mount only two completely dance-oriented works while with the Met, a dance drama version of Gluck’s Orfeo and Eurydice and an all-Stravinsky program, featuring a revival of one of Balanchine’s first ballets, Apollo, plus two new works, Le Baiser de la Fée, and Card Game.

Despite the popular and critical success of the latter program, Balanchine and the Met parted company in early 1938, and Balanchine spent his next few years teaching at the School and working in musical theatre and films. In 1941, he and Kirstein assembled the American Ballet Caravan, sponsored by Nelson Rockefeller, which toured South America with such new Balanchine creations as Concerto Barocco and Ballet Imperial (later renamed Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2). Then from 1944 to 1946, Balanchine was called in as artistic director to help revitalize the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo; he created Raymonda and La Sonnambula for them.

In 1946 Balanchine and Kirstein collaborated again to form Ballet Society, a company which introduced New York subscription only audiences over the next two years to such new Balanchine works as The Four Temperaments (1946) and Stravinsky’s Renard (1947) and Orpheus (1948).

On October 11, 1948, Morton Baum, chairman of the City Center finance committee, saw Ballet Society in a City Center Theater program that included Orpheus, Serenade, and Symphony in C (a ballet which Balanchine had created for the Paris Opera Ballet under the title Le Palais de Crystal the previous year). Baum was so highly impressed that he initiated negotiations that led to the company’s being invited to join the City Center municipal complex (which at that time the New York City Drama Company and the New York City Opera were a part of) as the “New York City Ballet.” Balanchine’s talents at last had found a permanent home.

Since that time, Balanchine served as artistic director for New York City Ballet, choreographing (either wholly or in part) the majority of the now 175 productions the company has introduced since its inception. Among the most noteworthy were The Firebird (1949; restaged with Jerome Robbins, 1970); Bourrée Fantasque (1949); La Valse (1951); The Nutcracker (his first full length work for the company), Ivesiana and Western Symphony (1954); Allegro Brillante (1956); Agon (1957); Seven Deadly Sins (a revival of the original Les Ballets 1933 production) and Stars and Stripes (1958); Episodes (1959); Monumentum Pro Gesualdo and Liebeslieder Walzer (1960); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1962); Movements for Piano and Orchestra and Bugaku (1963); Don Quixote (in three acts) and Harlequinade (in two acts) (1965); Jewels (1967) (his first full length plotless ballet) and Who Cares? (1970). In June 1972, he choreographed Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Duo Concertant, Choral Variations on Bach’s Von Himmel Hoch, Scherzo à la Russe, Symphony in Three Movements, Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fée, and new versions of Pulcinella (with Robbins) and Danses Concertantes for the New York City Ballet Stravinsky Festival.

The son of a composer, Balanchine early in life gained a knowledge of music that far exceeded that of most of his fellow choreographers. He began studying the piano at the age of five and following his graduation in 1921, from the Imperial Ballet School (the St. Petersburg academy where he had started his dance studies at the age of nine), he enrolled in the state’s Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano and musical theory, including composition, harmony and counterpoint, for three years. Such extensive musical training made it possible for Balanchine as a choreographer to communicate with a composer of such stature as Igor Stravinsky; the training also gave Balanchine the ability to reduce orchestral scores on the piano, an invaluable aid in translating music into dance.

Balanchine made his own dancing debut at the age of ten as a Cupid in the Maryinsky Theatre Ballet Company’s production of The Sleeping Beauty. He joined the company as a member of the corps de ballet at 17 and staged one work for them, called Enigmas. Most of his energies during this period, however, were concentrated on choreographic experiments outside the company.

In the summer of 1924, Balanchine was one of the four dancers who left the newly formed Soviet Union for a tour of Western Europe. The others were Tamara Geva, Alexandra Danilova, and Nicholas Efimov, all of whom later became well known dancers in Europe and the United States. All four dancers were invited by impresario Serge Diaghilev to audition for his Ballets Russes in Paris and were accepted into the company.

Diaghilev also had his eye on Balanchine as a choreographer as well, and after watching him stage a new version of the company’s Stravinsky ballet, Le Rossignol, Diaghilev hired him as ballet master to replace Bronislava Nijinska. Shortly after this, Balanchine suffered a knee injury which limited his dancing and correspondingly bolstered his commitment to full time choreography.

Balanchine served as ballet master with Ballets Russes until the company was dissolved following the death of Diaghilev in 1929. After that, he spent the next few years on a variety of projects which took him all over Europe: choreographing for the Royal Danish Ballet; making a movie with former Diaghilev ballerina Lydia Lopoukhova (then the wife of British economist John Maynard Keynes) in England; staging dance extravaganzas for Britain’s popular Cochran Musical Theatre Revues; and working with DeBasil’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (where he discovered the young Tamara Toumanova).

Returning to Paris, Balanchine formed his own company, Les Ballets 1933, collaborating with such leading artistic figures as Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (Seven Deadly Sins), the artist Pavel Tchelitchev, and composers Darius Milhaud and Henri Sauguet. It was during this period that the meeting with Lincoln Kirstein occured, which was to lead to Balanchine’s move from Europe to the United States.

Balanchine has choreographed numerous musical comedies over the years, including On Your Toes (of which Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, a work in New York City Ballet’s repertory, was a part), Cabin in the Sky, Babes in Arms, Where’s Charley?, Song of Norway, The Merry Widow, and The Ziegfield Follies of 1935. His film credits include Star Spangled Rhythm, I Was An Adventuress, and Goldwyn Follies. He choreographed the operas The Rake’s Progress and The Magic Flute for the Met and he collaborated with Stravinsky on the television ballet, Noah and the Flood, in 1962.

Balanchine’s style has been described as neoclassic, a reaction to the Romantic anticlassicism (which had turned into exaggerated theatricality) that was the prevailing style in Russian and European ballet when he had begun to dance. As a choreographer, Balanchine has generally tended to de-emphasize plot in his ballets, preferring to let “dance be the star of the show,” as he once told an interviewer.

He always preferred to call himself a craftsman rather than a creator, comparing himself to a cook or a cabinetmaker (two crafts in which he was rather skilled). He was known throughout the dance world for the calm and collected way in which he works with his dancers and colleagues.

Balanchine himself has written: “We must first realize that dancing is an absolutely independent art, not merely a secondary accompanying one. I believe that it is one of the great arts. The important thing in ballet is the movement itself, as it is sound which is important in a symphony. A ballet may contain a story, but the visual spectacle, not the story, is the essential element. The music of great musicians, it can be enjoyed and understood without any verbal introduction and the choreographer and the dancer must remember that they reach the audience through the eye and the audience, in its turn, must train itself to see what is performed upon the stage. It is the illusion created which convinces the audience, much as it is with the work of a magician. If the illusion fails, the ballet fails, no matter how well a program note tells the audience that it has succeeded.”

Balanchine’s long time friend and collaborator, Igor Stravinsky, once described their association on one particular ballet as follows: “Balustrade, the ballet that George Balanchine and Pavel Tchelitchev made of the Violin Concerto, was one of the most satisfactory visualizations of any of my works. Balanchine composed the choreography as he listened to my recording, and I could actually observe him conceiving gesture, movement, combination, and composition. The result was a series of dialogues perfectly complimentary to and coordinated with the dialogues of the music. Hofmannsthal once said to Strauss: ‘Ballet is perhaps the only form of art which permits real intimate collaboration between two people gifted with visual imagination.’”

Architect of, and principal choreographer for, the New York City Ballet’s Homage àagrave; Ravel festival, Balanchine brought to life a three week celebration of 16 new ballets of which eight were his own creations. At a ceremony held on the evening of the Company’s Ravel Festival Gala at the New York State Theater in May 1975, the French Government proclaimed him a member of the Legion of Honor. In an extraordinary gesture of esteem, Balanchine was awarded the rank of Officer, a position usually reserved for those with many years of prior membership in the Legion.

Also in the spring of 1975, the Entertainment Hall of Fame in Hollywood inducted Balanchine as a member in a nationally televised special, hosted by Gene Kelly. The first choreographer so honored, he joins the ranks of such show business luminaries as Fred Astaire, Walt Disney and Bob Hope. Additionally, in May 1975, the National Institute of Arts and Letters presented him with a rarely given award for Distinguished Service to the Arts, an honor of special significance from the 250 leading American artists who comprise the Institute.

In the last few years, Balanchine has produced two spectacular choreographic achievements. The first was the hour long Bicentennial tribute Union Jack which premiered in May 1976. In the Spring of 1977 came perhaps the most lavish production in the New York City Ballet’s repertory, Vienna Waltzes, which was greeted with resounding critical and popular acclaim. Through the wonders of television, millions of people have been able to see New York City Ballet in their own homes. Choreography by Balanchine, a four part Dance in America presentation on the PBS series Great Performances, began in December 1977. Included on the programs have been The Four Temperaments, Tzigane, Prodigal Son, Allegro Brillante, segments of Jewels and Ballo della Regina, one of his more recent works. Balanchine travelled to Nashville with the company for the video tapings in 1977 and 1978 and personally supervised every shot, in some cases revising steps or angles to be compatible with the camera. The series has been broadly applauded by critics and audiences over the country and was nominated for an Emmy.

In January 1978, New York City Ballet participated in the acclaimed PBS series Live from Lincoln Center for the first time. Coppélia, choreographed by George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova in 1974, was seen live from the stage of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. This presentation also netted Balanchine an Emmy nomination.

Although New York City Ballet has entered its fourth decade, the energy and achievements of George Balanchine continue unabated. Two of his most popular recent works, Ballo della Regina and Kammermusik No. 2 were premiered in 1978, and in December 1978, Balanchine, along with Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, Richard Rodgers, and Arthur Rubinstein, was one of the five recipients of the First Kennedy Center Honors. The Awards, which were presented by President Carter in an official ceremony at the White House, were followed by a nationally televised program honoring the recipients and their achievements. The citation read in part: “Each has raised the artistic standards to which successors must aspire, but more importantly, each, by talent and dedication, has raised our hearts.”

The 1980’s promised even more in terms of both creativity and recognition. Balanchine introduced four new works to New York City Ballet audiences in the spring of 1980: Ballade, to music by Gabriel Fauré; Walpurgisnacht Ballet from Charles Gounod’s opera Faust (this ballet was created for the Paris Opera in 1975, but was restaged for the New York City Ballet); Richard Strauss’ Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, (Balanchine created this comic ballet for the New York City Opera in April, 1979, and it was first performed by the New York City Ballet in May 1980), and finally, in June 1980, Robert Schumann’s Davidsbundlertanze.

Also, in the spring of 1980, Balanchine was honored by the National Society of Arts and Letters with their Gold Medal of Merit, and by the New York Chapter of the American Heart Association with their Heart of New York Award. He was also informed that the Austrian Government would be awarding him the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Letters, First Class. This Award joined his French Legion of Honor, his French Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters decoration, and his 1978 Knighthood of the Order of Dannebrog, First Class, given by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, on the list of stellar honors given by foreign Governments for his services and contributions to the artistic development of the 20th century.

Source: New York City Ballet

Frederick Ashton

Frederick Ashton was born in 1904 and spent his childhood in South America.  He studied with Leonide Massine and Marie Rambert, who also gave him his first opportunities as a choreographer.

A Tragedy of Fashion, a commission in 1926, was his first ballet to be staged – as part of a revue entitled Riverside Nights.  In 1928, he joined Ida Rubinstein’s company in Paris, where he also came under the influence of Bronislava Nijinska from whom, he acknowledged, he learned his craft.  He came to England in 1929 to choreograph for Rambert and the Camargo Society.  He also danced with the Rambert Company in both the classics and modern works, and partnered Tamara Karsavina, Lydia Lopokova, and Alicia Markova, at the same time pursuing a successful career as a dancer in musicals and revues.

In 1931, he created his first work, Regatta, for Ninette de Valois’ Vic-Wells Ballet, and four years later was invited to become Resident Choreographer.  Ashton remained De Valois’ associate until 1948 when his position as Associate Director was publicly recognized.  In 1963, he succeeded Dame Ninette as Director of the company (now called The Royal Ballet), a position he held until he retired in 1970.  In 1935, Ashton began his association with Margot Fonteyn, creating the Bride in Le Baiser de la Fée for her.  Among the ballets he has since made with her in mind are Nocturne, Horoscope, Dante Sonata, Symphonic Variations (his first ballet for the Covent Garden stage), Daphnis and Chloë, Ondine, and Marguerite and Armand (for Fonteyn and Nureyev).  Ashton’s choreography has caused an unmistakably lyrical style to emerge in British ballet.  In addition to comic and dramatic ballets and those of “pure” dance, his innate sense of theatre is always apparent.

Of nearly 100 ballets, many have been landmarks, including Cinderella, Daphnis and Chloë, The Two Pigeons, and Birthday Offering for the company’s Silver Jubilee.  In addition to the inspiration of Fonteyn, he created The Dream for Anotinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell.  La Fille Mal Gardée has been a brilliant success throughout the world, often mounted by Ashton himself.

More recent full-scale ballets have been Rhapsody, created for Mikhail Baryshnikov, in honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s 80th birthday; Verdi Capricci, premiered on April 19, 1983, the opening night of The Royal Ballet’s season at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York; and before that, A Month in the Country.

During 1985, Ashton choreographed a solo for Merle Park, La Chatte Metamorphoses en Femme, for a gala in honor of Fanny Elssler in Vienna and supervised London Festival Ballet’s revival of his Romeo and Juliet.  Ashton first worked in opera in 1934, when he staged Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts, in the United States.  In 1953, he staged Gluck’s Orfeo at Covent Garden, with Kathleen Ferrier singing the title role in her last appearance.  Benjamin Britten’s last opera, Death in Venice, also includes dances choreographed by Ashton.  In 1981, he created choreography for the Nightingale and the Fisherman (on Natalia Makarova and Anthony Dowell) for Igor Stravinsky’s opera Le Rossignol for the Metropolitan Opera’s triple-bill Stravinsky Centenary evening.  In September 1983, this production, with designs by David Hockney, was taken into the repertoire of the Royal Opera at Covent Garden.

Frederick Ashton was made a CBE in 1950, and knighted in 1962.  In 1970, he became a Companion of Honour, and in October 1977, he was invited by The Queen to become a member of the Order of Merit.  France admitted Ashton to the Legion d’Honneur in 1962 and Denmark made him a Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1963.  Recognition of his achievement came in 1959 from the Royal Academy of Dancing, which gave him its Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award; in 1972 from the Carina Aria Foundation in Sweden with its Gold Medal; and with honorary degrees: as Doctor of Letters in the Universities of Durham (1962) and East Anglia (1967), and as Doctor of Music in the Universities of London (1970) and Oxford (1976).

On August 19, 1988, Frederick Ashton died in his sleep at his country home in Eye, Suffolk.  He was 83.

Frederick Ashton

Frederick Ashton was born in 1904 and spent his childhood in South America.  He studied with Leonide Massine and Marie Rambert, who also gave him his first opportunities as a choreographer.

A Tragedy of Fashion, a commission in 1926, was his first ballet to be staged – as part of a revue entitled Riverside Nights.  In 1928, he joined Ida Rubinstein’s company in Paris, where he also came under the influence of Bronislava Nijinska from whom, he acknowledged, he learned his craft.  He came to England in 1929 to choreograph for Rambert and the Camargo Society.  He also danced with the Rambert Company in both the classics and modern works, and partnered Tamara Karsavina, Lydia Lopokova, and Alicia Markova, at the same time pursuing a successful career as a dancer in musicals and revues.

In 1931, he created his first work, Regatta, for Ninette de Valois’ Vic-Wells Ballet, and four years later was invited to become Resident Choreographer.  Ashton remained De Valois’ associate until 1948 when his position as Associate Director was publicly recognized.  In 1963, he succeeded Dame Ninette as Director of the company (now called The Royal Ballet), a position he held until he retired in 1970.  In 1935, Ashton began his association with Margot Fonteyn, creating the Bride in Le Baiser de la Fée for her.  Among the ballets he has since made with her in mind are Nocturne, Horoscope, Dante Sonata, Symphonic Variations (his first ballet for the Covent Garden stage), Daphnis and Chloë, Ondine, and Marguerite and Armand (for Fonteyn and Nureyev).  Ashton’s choreography has caused an unmistakably lyrical style to emerge in British ballet.  In addition to comic and dramatic ballets and those of “pure” dance, his innate sense of theatre is always apparent.

Of nearly 100 ballets, many have been landmarks, including Cinderella, Daphnis and Chloë, The Two Pigeons, and Birthday Offering for the company’s Silver Jubilee.  In addition to the inspiration of Fonteyn, he created The Dream for Anotinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell.  La Fille Mal Gardée has been a brilliant success throughout the world, often mounted by Ashton himself.

More recent full-scale ballets have been Rhapsody, created for Mikhail Baryshnikov, in honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s 80th birthday; Verdi Capricci, premiered on April 19, 1983, the opening night of The Royal Ballet’s season at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York; and before that, A Month in the Country.

During 1985, Ashton choreographed a solo for Merle Park, La Chatte Metamorphoses en Femme, for a gala in honor of Fanny Elssler in Vienna and supervised London Festival Ballet’s revival of his Romeo and Juliet.  Ashton first worked in opera in 1934, when he staged Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts, in the United States.  In 1953, he staged Gluck’s Orfeo at Covent Garden, with Kathleen Ferrier singing the title role in her last appearance.  Benjamin Britten’s last opera, Death in Venice, also includes dances choreographed by Ashton.  In 1981, he created choreography for the Nightingale and the Fisherman (on Natalia Makarova and Anthony Dowell) for Igor Stravinsky’s opera Le Rossignol for the Metropolitan Opera’s triple-bill Stravinsky Centenary evening.  In September 1983, this production, with designs by David Hockney, was taken into the repertoire of the Royal Opera at Covent Garden.

Frederick Ashton was made a CBE in 1950, and knighted in 1962.  In 1970, he became a Companion of Honour, and in October 1977, he was invited by The Queen to become a member of the Order of Merit.  France admitted Ashton to the Legion d’Honneur in 1962 and Denmark made him a Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1963.  Recognition of his achievement came in 1959 from the Royal Academy of Dancing, which gave him its Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award; in 1972 from the Carina Aria Foundation in Sweden with its Gold Medal; and with honorary degrees: as Doctor of Letters in the Universities of Durham (1962) and East Anglia (1967), and as Doctor of Music in the Universities of London (1970) and Oxford (1976).

On August 19, 1988, Frederick Ashton died in his sleep at his country home in Eye, Suffolk.  He was 83.

Jae Man Joo

Jae Man Joo is an internationally acclaimed choreographer and the recipient of the prestigious 2009 Princess Grace Award. Hailing from Korea, he brought his unique artistic vision to the United States in 1996, where he served as the Associate Artistic Director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet.

As a former principal dancer at Ballet Hispanico and Complexions, Joo has worked and performed with a diverse range of choreographers, including William Forsythe, Dwight Rhoden, Shen Wei, Igal Perry, and Jessica Lang, enriching his artistic journey.  Joo was invited to create new works for Jacob’s Pillow in 2017 and 2019. He received the Best Individual Artist Award from the Bagnolet International Dance Festival in Paris, France. Joo’s artistic prowess has been recognized globally, with the 2021 and 2023 Korea Dance Critics Choice Awards and the 2022 Korea E-daily Cultural Grand Prize for his full-length evening ballet Vita.

He has created more than seven different ballets for Complexions, all of which premiered at The Joyce Theater in New York. In 2023, he premiered the full-evening ballet Divine for Gwangju City Ballet, Korea, which received the Best Dance Art Work of the Year 2023. He premiered a brand new full-act ballet, When Time Stands Still, for Pittsburgh Ballet Theater’s 2024 season at The Benedum Theater. In 2024 Joo premiered his work Eternal Variations for Dallas Black Theater. In August 2024, Joo premiered a new version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Korea Metropolitan Ballet Company, the company’s first full-evening ballet.

He is a full-time faculty Ballet Professor at Point Park University and a Resident Choreographer, Ballet Master, and Artist in Residence at Complexions Contemporary Ballet. He is creating a new work for the English National Ballet for 2026/2027 season at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, United Kingdom.

Kyle Abraham

Kyle Abraham is a choreographer, dancer, and curator celebrated as a visionary voice in American contemporary dance. Out magazine has described Abraham as “the best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama.” As Founder and Artistic Director of Kyle Abraham Dance Vanguard, he creates work that embraces the richness of lived experience while honoring the communities that shaped him.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Abraham trained at Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School before earning a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Abraham holds honorary doctorates from SUNY Purchase and Washington & Jefferson College and is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, MacArthur Fellowship, Doris Duke Artist Award, Princess Grace Statue Award, and Dance Magazine Award. His ballet and contemporary choreography has earned National Dance Awards, and his evening-length work, An Untitled Love, was nominated for an Olivier Award and the inaugural Rose Prize.

Beyond developing new works for his company, Abraham has created several works for American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, the Royal Ballet, and the National Ballet of Cuba. In 2025, he choreographed Misty Copeland in Cynthia Erivo’s short-form film No Good Deed in promotion of Wicked: For Good.

A dedicated educator and cultural leader, Abraham has taught at USC’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and UCLA’s World Arts and Cultures/Dance, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was the first-ever guest editor of Dance Magazine. In 2026, Abraham served as a guest curator for Lincoln Center’s inaugural Contemporary Dance Festival, furthering his work to expand the impact of contemporary dance through formal experimentation and cultural resonance.

Natalia Makarova

Natalia Makarova began her career in her native Leningrad, entering the Vaganova School at the age of 13. After graduating, she joined the Kirov Ballet, rapidly rising to the rank of Ballerina. She came to international prominence when she danced Giselle with the Kirov Ballet in London, which became one of her signature roles. She won the Gold Medal in Varna in l965 and the Anna Pavlova Award in Paris in 1970.

On September 4, l970, while on tour in London with the Kirov, Makarova chose to remain in the West to extend her horizons. She began her new career by joining American Ballet Theatre, making her debut with the Company in Giselle. She also appeared as guest artist with major ballet companies throughout the world. Her long association with the Royal Ballet began in 1972. Her vast repertory includes the classical repertoire and the ballets of the great contemporary choreographers including MacMillan, Robbins, Balanchine, Ashton, Tudor, Bejart, Petit, Neumeier, Tetley and Cranko. In 1985 she won the Evening Standard Award in London, presented by Princess Diana, for her performance of Cranko’s Onegin.

Among the ballets and pas de deux created for Makarova are Robbins’s Other Dance (with Baryshnikov); Ashton’s Le Rossignol (with Dowell); Contredances (with Dowell); Neumeier’s Epilogue (with Bruhn); Bejart’s Mephisto (with Donn); Petit’s Blue Angel and MacMillan Pas de Deux (with MacLeary).

Makarova staged the “Kingdom of the Shades” from La Bayadère for American Ballet Theatre in 1974. In 1980, she staged and directed the full-length production for ABT, the first Western company to acquire this work. Her production included for the first time since 1919 a reconstruction of the last act, with Makarova’s choreography after Marius Petipa, restoring the original dramatic structure and impact of this early masterpiece. She has staged her production of La Bayadère for 19 companies including the Royal Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Tokyo Ballet; Australian Ballet; Hamburg Ballet; Teatro Colon; Stanislavsky Ballet in Moscow; Dutch National Ballet; Teatr Wielki in Poland; National Ballet of Kiev; and most recently in 2016 for the National Ballet of China. Her other productions include Giselle for the Royal Swedish Ballet; Sleeping Beauty for the Royal Ballet; Swan Lake for the Perm Ballet of Russia and the National Ballet of China; and Paquita and Kingdom of the Shades.

Her television work includes the 4-part ‘Ballerina’ Series, which she wrote and presented for the BBC; ‘Assoluta’ (BBC); ‘Makarova Returns’ (BBC); ‘In a Class of Her Own’ and  ‘Natasha’. She has also been filmed in Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Other Dances and La Bayadère.

She made her musical comedy debut on Broadway in On Your Toes, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1983, Drama Desk Award, the Stanislavsky Award, Astaire Award and numerous other awards. In 1984, she starred in the West End production of On Your Toes, for which she won the Laurence Olivier Award.

On  February 1, 1989, after 19 years’ absence, Makarova was the first artistic exile to be invited back to perform in the Soviet Union. She returned to her native Leningrad where she danced with the Kirov Ballet on the stage where she began her illustrious career.

In 1991, she made her debut as a dramatic actress in the Chichester Festival production of Tovarich, which transferred to the West End in London. She returned to Russia in 1992 in the play Two for the Seesaw, giving performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1997, she starred in the Chichester Festival production of George Bernard Shaw’s play Misalliance. She played Elvira in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit at the Palace Theatre in England.

Makarova received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012. This award was created “to provide National recognition to individuals who through their lifetime have made significant contribution to American culture through the performing arts.” President and Mrs. Obama held a reception at the White House for the Honorees, which was followed by a Tribute performance at the Kennedy Center.

In 2014, in Moscow, she was awarded the “Soul of Dance” by the Russian Ballet Journal and the Russian Ministry of Culture, which honors her for preserving the Russian heritage of classical ballet through her productions in the West. The 2018 Jury of the Benois de la Danse has chosen Makarova for this year’s Life Achievement Award. She continues to stage classical ballets throughout the world passing on her knowledge to a new generation of dancers.

Helen Pickett

Choreographer Helen Pickett, a native of San Diego, California, has created over 60 ballets for stage and film in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia.

Emma Bovary, which premiered in 2023 with the National Ballet of Canada, made The Top 10 Best Dance Performances in Toronto. The Crucible, Pickett’s full-length for Scottish Ballet, toured to the Kennedy Center and Spoleto Festival USA in 2023 to national acclaim. The Crucible premiered at Edinburgh International Festival in 2019 and won two awards, UK Theatre Critics Award and the Herald Angel Award. Pickett’s dance film, Warehouse Variations (After Hours), won the Best of Boston. From 2020-2021, Pickett choreographed 12 dances for film, including The Air Before Me, which won the Audience Choice Award for Screen Dance International Festival, and Hurley Burley, which was nominated for an Emmy Award.

While resident choreographer for Atlanta Ballet (2012- 2017), she was named Best Choreographer in 2014, and won Best Choreographer and Best Dance Production for her full length, Camino Real in 2015. In 2016, Pickett received an Honorary Doctorate from University of North Carolina School of the Arts, from then Dean of Dance and current Artistic Director of American Ballet Theatre Susan Jaffe.

Since 2005, Pickett has choreographed work for Boston Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Ballet West, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Semper Oper/Dresden Ballet, Vienna State Opera, Scottish Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Alberta Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Charlotte Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Washington Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Louisville Ballet, Ballet X, Smuin Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Washington Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Ballet Rhode Island, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Vail Dance Festival, American Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Kansas City Ballet, and Cincinnati Ballet. In addition, she choreographed for the Chicago Lyric Opera, Les Troyens, and, in London, an evening length, multi-media musical, Voices of the Amazon.

Pickett’s 12 dance films were choreographed and rehearsed on Zoom. Home Studies, a five-film series, was later translated to the stage for a premiere at Jacob’s Pillow in August 2021. Three films from her series The Shakespeare Cycle,were featured on PBS. The film The Air Before Me, created with director Shaun Clarke, made four Official Selection lists around the world and won the Audience Choice Award for Screen Dance International Festival. For the films, Pickett worked with dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, Charlotte Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Kansas City Ballet, Les Grands Ballet Canadians de Montreal, and Royal Swedish Ballet.  In August 2020, Scottish Ballet premiered Trace, a duet created for film, in “My Light Shines On: An Evening with Scottish Ballet” for the Edinburgh International Festival.

In April 2021, Pickett founded the Female Choreographer’s Big Round Table, a Zoom meeting place for female choreographers to build community and forge avenues for more equitable work environments. To date, 150 female choreographers have joined the Roundtable.

In 2020, Pickett created a YouTube talk show. The one-on-one conversations would become “Creative Vitality Jam Sessions.” Pickett created CVJS to not only highlight extraordinary dance and theater artists but also to support and build an inclusive, equitable dance community across 83 sessions.

Pickett danced with William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt 1987-1998. She was involved in 20 original productions in her time with Ballet Frankfurt. During her last season with Ballet Frankfurt, Pickett simultaneously performed with The Wooster Group (director, Elizabeth Le Compte) in the OBIE award winning House/Lights and North Atlantic. From 2005-2012, Pickett reprised the speaking role Agnes in William Forsythe’s Impressing the Czar as a guest artist with The Royal Ballet of Flanders. Impressing the Czar received the Laurence Olivier Award in 2009, and the Prix de la Critique award for outstanding performance of the year in 2012. From 2013-2017, Pickett performed Agnes with Dresden Semper Oper Ballet.

Pickett collaborated, as an actress and choreographer, with the installation video artists and filmmakers Eve Sussman, Toni Dove, and Laurie Simmons. Pickett, a founding member of Eve Sussman’s The Rufus Corporation, played the Queen in 89 Seconds at Alcazar, which premiered at the 2004 Whitney Biennial. She also acted in Sussman’s feature length film, The Rape of the Sabine Women. She choreographed the bubble dance and played Sally Rand in Toni Dove’s video installation and film, Spectropia. Pickett choreographed the dance sequences for Laurie Simmons’ The Music of Regret, which premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Pickett was the co-director, along with Milton Meyers, of the Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Summer Dance School Program in 2021. She created a choreographic intensive for college age choreographers entitled Choreographic Essentials, which she has taught in universities around the country. She has taught Forsythe Improvisation Technologies throughout the United States. In addition, Pickett is a mentor to young choreographers and undergraduate and MFA students throughout the United States. She was Distinguished Visiting Artist at University of North Carolina School of the Arts from 2016-2020.

In 2011, Pickett earned a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Hollins University. For her Master’s Thesis she collaborated with Christopher Janney, sound and light architect, and Kathleen Breen Combes and John Lam from Boston Ballet.

Pickett received a Fellowship Initiative Grant from New York Choreographic Institute (2006). Dance Magazine named Pickett one of “25 to Watch” (2007).  Jacob’s Pillow awarded her a Choreographic Residency (2008). Pickett was one of the first choreographers to receive the Jerome Robbins Foundation’s New Essential Works Grant.

In 2006, Dance Europe published Pickett’s article, “Considering Cezanne.” In 2019, The American Stroke Association published the ode to her parents entitled, “A Tribute to Love.”

Jiří Kylián

Born in Czechoslovakia in 1947, Jiří Kylián started his dance career at the age of nine, at the School of the National Ballet in Prague. In 1962 he was accepted as a student at the Prague Conservatory. He left Prague when he received a scholarship for the Royal Ballet School in London in 1967. After this, he left to join the Stuttgart Ballet led by John Cranko. Kylián made his debut as a choreographer here with Paradox for the Noverre Gesellschaft. After having made three ballets for Nederlands Dans Theater, Viewers, Stoolgame and La Cathédrale Engloutie, he became artistic director of the company in 1975. In 1978 he put Nederlands Dans Theater on the international map with Sinfonietta. That same year, together with Carel Birnie, he founded Nederlands Dans Theater II, which served as a bridge between school and professional company life and was meant to give young dancers the opportunity to develop their skills and talents and to function as a breeding ground for young talent. He also initiated Nederlands Dans Theater III in 1991, the company for older dancers, above forty years of age. This three dimensional structure was unique in the world of dance. After an extraordinary record of service, Kylián handed over the artistic leadership in 1999, but remained associated to the dance company as house choreographer until December 2009. Jiří Kylián has created nearly 100 works of which many are performed all over the world. Kylián has not only made works for Nederlands Dans Theater, but also for the Stuttgart Ballet, the Paris Opéra Ballet, Bayerisches Staatsoper Münich, Swedish television, and the Tokyo Ballet.

Kylián has worked with many creative personalities of international stature, including composers Arne Nordheim (Ariadne, 1997) and Toru Takemitsu (Dream Time, 1983) and designers Walter Nobbe (Sinfonietta, 1978); Bill Katz (Symphony of Psalms, 1978); John Macfarlane (Forgotten Land, 1980); Michael Simon (Stepping Stones, 1991); Atsushi Kitagawara (One of a Kind, 1998); Susumu Shingu (Toss of a Dice, 2005); and Yoshiki Hishinuma (Zugvögel, 2009).

In the Summer of 2006, together with Film Art Director, Boris Paval Conen, he created the film Car-Men. It was choreographed “on location” on the surface brown coal mines of the Czech Republic. In 2010, Kylián served as Mentor in Dance in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. In 2013, together with NTR, he created the film Between Entrance and Exit which was nominated as one of the contestants for the ‘Gouden Kalf’ award during the Dutch Film Festival 2013 in Utrecht. For the Aichi Trienalle in Nagoya, Japan, he created the full-evening dance/film production, East Shadow which was dedicated to the victims of the Tsunami in Japan in 2011.

Over the course of his career, Kylián received many international awards including Officer of the Orange Order (Netherlands), Honorary Doctorate from The Juilliard School (New York), three Nijinsky Awards for best choreographer, company, and work (Monte Carlo), Benois de la Danse (Moscow and Berlin), Honorary Medal of the President of the Czech Republic, and Commander of the Legion d’honneur (France). In 2008 he was distinguished with one of the highest royal honors, the Medal of the Order of the House of Orange given to him by Her Majesty the Queen Beatrix from the Netherlands. In 2011, Kylián received the Lifetime Achievement Award in the field of dance and theater by the Czech Ministry of Culture in Prague.

Brady Farrar

Brady Farrar began dancing at age five and has trained at Stars Dance Studio and The Art of Classical Ballet in Miami, Florida.  He is a five-time Youth America Grand Prix Finals medalist and was the 2021 Grand Prix Winner of the North American Finals. Farrar is also a three-time Best Dancer Winner at The Dance Awards, the 2021 winner of the Carla Fracci Prize at Novara Dance Experience in Novara, Italy, and a double gold medal winner at the South African International Ballet Competition in 2020.

In November 2021, Farrar performed in Twyla Tharp’s Twyla Now at New York City Center. He has also performed in international galas at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center and in Germany, Italy, Israel, and Mexico.

Farrar attended the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in the spring of 2022 and he joined ABT Studio Company in September 2022. He joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in December 2024 and became a member of the corps de ballet in July 2025. His repertoire includes a featured role in Bach Partita as well as roles in all the Company’s full-length ballets.

Farrar has choregraphed works that have appeared in the Youth America Grand Prix Finals in Tampa, Florida, at the Nervi International Dance Festival in Italy, and onstage with ABT Studio Company. His ballet Night Falls was performed by American Ballet Theatre as part of the BAAND Together Dance Festival at Lincoln Center in Summer 2024.

Marius Petipa

Marius Petipa, the “father of classical ballet,” was born in Marseilles, France, in 1819. He began his dance training at the age of seven with his father, Jean Petipa, the French dancer and teacher. Marius was educated at the Grand College in Brussels and also attended the conservatoire, where he studied music. Although he disliked dancing in those early years, his progress was so great that he made his debut in 1831 in his father’s production of Gardel’s La Dansomanie.

In 1834 Jean Petipa became Maitre de Ballet at the theatre in Bordeaux and it was here that Marius completed his education. At the age of sixteen, he became premier danseur at the theatre in Nantes, where he also produced several short ballets.

In 1839 Marius left Nantes to tour North America with his father, and on their return visit went to Paris. The following year he made his debut at the Comedie Francaise, where he partnered Carlotte Grisi in a benefit performance. He continued his studies with A. Vestris and became a principal dancer in Bordeaux.

Petipa next went to Spain in 1845, to work at the King’s Theatre. While in Madrid, he studied Spanish dance and choreographed Carmen et son Terero, La Perle de Seville, L’Aventure d’une fille de Madrid, La Fleur de Grenade, and Depart Dour la Course des Toureaux.

Petipa returned to Paris as a principal dancer, but in 1847 left for Russia. He had signed a one-year contract with the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre, but was to remain there for the rest of his life. As a principal dancer, Petipa often appeared with Fanny Elssler and was much acclaimed for his performances in such ballets as Paquita (which he restaged and in which made his debut), Giselle, La Peri, Armida, Catarina, Le Delire d’un peintre, Esmeralda, Le Corsaire and Faust. Considered an excellent dancer and partner, his acting, stage manners and pantomime were held up as examples for many generations of dancers.

When Giselle was revived in 1850, Petipa made some changes in the Wilis scenes, which became the Grand Pas des Wilis of 1884. In 1854, he married Maria Sourovshchikova, a student in the graduating class of the Imperial School, who later danced in many of her husband’s ballets. (Petipa’s second marriage was to Lubova Leonidovna, a member of the Moscow Ballet, in 1882.) In 1854 he became an instructor in the school, while continuing to dance and to restage ballets from the French repertoire.

Sources differ on the first original work he staged for the Imperial Theatre: some state it was The Star of Granada, others that it was A Marriage During Regency. But all sources concur that his first great success was The Daughter of Pharoh (staged in six weeks), which resulted in his appointment as Choreographer-in-Chief in 1862 — a position he held for nearly fifty years.

In 1869 Petipa became Premier Ballet Master of the Imperial Theatre. The value of his accomplishments is inestimable: he produced more than sixty full-evening ballets and innumerable shorter works and he is considered to have laid the foundation for the entire school of Russian ballet. The ballet repertoire in the Soviet Union is still based mainly on his works.

Those who felt the dramatic content of ballet should be strengthened began to oppose Petipa toward the end of his career. His noble classicism and consciousness of form was considered old-fashioned, and in 1903, at age 84, Petipa was forced to retire from the Imperial Theatre as a direct result of the failure of his ballet, The Magic Mirror. His last years were filled with bitterness and disillusionment because his beloved theatre had been taken away. He died in St. Petersburg in 1910.

Marius Petipa is considered one of the greatest choreographers of all time. He researched the subject matter of the ballets he staged, making careful and detailed preparations for each production, and then worked closely with the designer and composer. Petipa elevated the Russian ballet to international fame and laid the cornerstone for 20th Century ballet. His classicism integrated the purity of the French school with Italian virtuosity.

Sources:
1. The Dance Encyclopedia, Compiled and edited by Anatole Chujoy and P. W. Manchester, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1967.
2. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet, Horst Koegler, Oxford University Press, London, 1977.
3. Complete Book of Ballets. A Guide to the Principal Ballets of the 19th Centurv, Cyril Beaumont, Putnam, London, 1937.
4. Russian Ballet Master: The Memoirs of Marius Petipa, Ed., Lillian Moore,Tr. Helen Whittaker, Adam and Charles Black, London, 1958. Researched and compiled by Fran Michelman.

John Cranko

As a young dance student in South Africa, where he was born, John Cranko had started to make choreography.  By the time he reached London in 1946, he had produced a handful of apprentice works, and when he joined the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet (1946) it was evident that his gifts were ideally suited to the needs of the newly-founded company which was to be a cradle and nursery for interpretive and creative talent.  Within four years John Cranko was named Resident Choreographer of the troupe, and he made some of his finest early ballets for the Wells dancers:  Beauty and the Beast (1949), Pineapple Poll (1951), and Harlequin in April (1951).

In 1950, he was asked to create a ballet for New York City Ballet then visiting Covent Garden, and he produced The Witch to the Ravel G Major Piano Concerto, and, during the rest of the 1950’s, Mr. Cranko created works for both the Covent Garden and Sadler’s Wells branches of The Royal Ballet:  notably Antigone (1959), Bonne Bouche (1952) for Covent Garden, and The Lady and the Fool (1954) for the Wells.

In 1957, he choreographed his first full-length ballet, The Prince of the Pagodas for Svetlana Beriosova and David Blair at Covent Garden, a work further distinguished by its score commissioned from Benjamin Britten.  But John Cranko’s bubbling energies needed greater opportunities than those offered by The Royal Ballet organization.  He produced two revues Cranks (1955) and New Cranks (1960), made two ballets for Rambert company, La Belle Helène for the Paris Opera Ballet and the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet for the ballet of La Scala, Milan.  He also directed the Britten opera, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, at Aldeburgh in 1960, and, in that same year, went to Stuttgart to restage his The Prince of the Pagodas.  This was to prove the turning point in his career. Stuttgart asked him to assume the directorship of its company in 1961, and from that moment on he was to find the ideal outlet for his energies; molding a company, a school and a repertory, that were to bring the Stuttgart Ballet vast international acclaim.  His example was to serve as an inspiration to other German companies, as to the German public, who took the Stuttgart Ballet to its heart.

With Marcia Haydée as his prima ballerina, with Ray Barra, and then Richard Cragun and Egon Madsen as his principal men, with Birgit Keil as a young native-born ballerina, John Cranko’s company was loved wherever it played. For his company he continued to produce the full-length ballets which revealed Haydée as a superlative dramatic lyric artist — Romeo and Juliet (1963), Onegin (1965), Carmen (1970), and the hilarious The Taming of the Shrew (1969), in which Haydée and Cragun were the ideal Kate and Petruchio.

John Cranko also made stagings of the classics, which he felt so necessary for the development of his company, remounting Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and acquiring Peter Wright’s version of Giselle.  Among his shorter ballets of the Stuttgart years such pieces as Opus I and Brouillards are fine examples, and his Initials R.B.M.E.(the initials of Richard Cragun, Birgit Keil, Marcia Haydée, and Egon Madsen) seems central to John Cranko’s personality, a declaration of the love and affection he had for his dancers, which they so warmly and totally reciprocated.

John Cranko died on an airplane bringing his company home from a triumphant season in New York; but his great talent, his great humanity, his humor, and the love he inspired in everyone who knew him, are part of the fabric of the Stuttgart Ballet still, and they continue to give the company a special luster and appeal.

Source:      Ballet and Dance by Clement Crisp and Peter Brinson.

Kevin McKenzie

Kevin McKenzie was a leading dancer with both The Joffrey Ballet and the National Ballet of Washington before joining American Ballet Theatre as a Soloist in March 1979.  He was appointed a Principal Dancer the following December and danced with the company until 1991.  A native of Vermont, McKenzie received his ballet training at the Washington School of Ballet. In 1972, McKenzie was awarded a silver medal at the Sixth International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria.

As a Principal Dancer with ABT, McKenzie danced leading roles in all of the major full-length classics including Solor in Natalia Makarova’s full‑length production of La Bayadère, Don Jose in Roland Petit’s Carmen, the Prince in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s production of the full‑length Cinderella, Franz in Coppélia, the Gentleman With Her in Dim Lustre, Basil and Espada in Baryshnikov’s Don Quixote (Kitri’s Wedding), Albrecht in Giselle, a leading role in The Garden of Villandry, Her Lover in Jardin aux Lilas, the male lead in The Leaves Are Fading, the Friend in Pillar of Fire, the leading role in Raymonda (Grand Pas Hongrois), a featured role in Requiem, the Champion Roper in Rodeo, Romeo and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Prince Desire in The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, James in La Sylphide, and leading roles in Other Dances, Paquita, Les Sylphides, Sylvia Pas de Deux, and Theme and Variations. He created Amnon in Martine van Hamel’s Amnon V’Tamar and a leading role in Clark Tippet’s S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A.

During his performing career, McKenzie appeared as a Guest Artist throughout the world, including in Spoleto, Italy; Paris, London, Tokyo, Havana, Moscow, Vienna, and Korea, dancing with, among others, the London Festival Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, the National Ballet of Cuba, and the Universal Ballet in Seoul.  In September 1989, McKenzie was appointed a permanent guest artist with The Washington Ballet and, in 1991, assumed the position of Artistic Associate.  He has also acted as Associate Artistic Director and choreographer with Martine van Hamel’s New Amsterdam Ballet.

McKenzie was appointed Artistic Director of American Ballet Theatre in October 1992.  His previous choreographic credits include Groupo Zambaria (1984) and Liszt Études (l991) both for Martine van Hamel’s New Amsterdam Ballet, Lucy and the Count (1992) for The Washington Ballet and, for American Ballet Theatre, The Nutcracker (1993), Don Quixote (1995, in collaboration with Susan Jones) a new production of Swan Lake (2000), the conception and direction of a new production of Raymonda (2004, with choreography by Anna-Marie Holmes), and a new production of The Sleeping Beauty with Gelsey Kirkland and Michael Chernov.  In 2014, McKenzie, with ABT Principal Répétiteur Irina Kolpakova, staged a new production of Raymonda Divertissements.

McKenzie has received numerous awards including honorary degrees from Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont (1993) and Adelphi University in Garden City, New York (2019), the Dance Magazine Award (1999), and the Medal of Honor for Achievement in Dance from the National Arts Club (2019).  In addition, he appeared in two Emmy Award winning broadcasts, The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore (1970) and American Ballet Theatre in Le Corsaire (1998) both for PBS’s Dance in America series.  McKenzie is a founding board member of Kaatsbaan International Dance Center in Tivoli, New York.

In December 2022, McKenzie retired as American Ballet Theatre Artistic Director, after three decades of leadership.

Frederick Ashton

Frederick Ashton was born in 1904 and spent his childhood in South America.  He studied with Leonide Massine and Marie Rambert, who also gave him his first opportunities as a choreographer.

A Tragedy of Fashion, a commission in 1926, was his first ballet to be staged – as part of a revue entitled Riverside Nights.  In 1928, he joined Ida Rubinstein’s company in Paris, where he also came under the influence of Bronislava Nijinska from whom, he acknowledged, he learned his craft.  He came to England in 1929 to choreograph for Rambert and the Camargo Society.  He also danced with the Rambert Company in both the classics and modern works, and partnered Tamara Karsavina, Lydia Lopokova, and Alicia Markova, at the same time pursuing a successful career as a dancer in musicals and revues.

In 1931, he created his first work, Regatta, for Ninette de Valois’ Vic-Wells Ballet, and four years later was invited to become Resident Choreographer.  Ashton remained De Valois’ associate until 1948 when his position as Associate Director was publicly recognized.  In 1963, he succeeded Dame Ninette as Director of the company (now called The Royal Ballet), a position he held until he retired in 1970.  In 1935, Ashton began his association with Margot Fonteyn, creating the Bride in Le Baiser de la Fée for her.  Among the ballets he has since made with her in mind are Nocturne, Horoscope, Dante Sonata, Symphonic Variations (his first ballet for the Covent Garden stage), Daphnis and Chloë, Ondine, and Marguerite and Armand (for Fonteyn and Nureyev).  Ashton’s choreography has caused an unmistakably lyrical style to emerge in British ballet.  In addition to comic and dramatic ballets and those of “pure” dance, his innate sense of theatre is always apparent.

Of nearly 100 ballets, many have been landmarks, including Cinderella, Daphnis and Chloë, The Two Pigeons, and Birthday Offering for the company’s Silver Jubilee.  In addition to the inspiration of Fonteyn, he created The Dream for Anotinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell.  La Fille Mal Gardée has been a brilliant success throughout the world, often mounted by Ashton himself.

More recent full-scale ballets have been Rhapsody, created for Mikhail Baryshnikov, in honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s 80th birthday; Verdi Capricci, premiered on April 19, 1983, the opening night of The Royal Ballet’s season at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York; and before that, A Month in the Country.

During 1985, Ashton choreographed a solo for Merle Park, La Chatte Metamorphoses en Femme, for a gala in honor of Fanny Elssler in Vienna and supervised London Festival Ballet’s revival of his Romeo and Juliet.  Ashton first worked in opera in 1934, when he staged Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts, in the United States.  In 1953, he staged Gluck’s Orfeo at Covent Garden, with Kathleen Ferrier singing the title role in her last appearance.  Benjamin Britten’s last opera, Death in Venice, also includes dances choreographed by Ashton.  In 1981, he created choreography for the Nightingale and the Fisherman (on Natalia Makarova and Anthony Dowell) for Igor Stravinsky’s opera Le Rossignol for the Metropolitan Opera’s triple-bill Stravinsky Centenary evening.  In September 1983, this production, with designs by David Hockney, was taken into the repertoire of the Royal Opera at Covent Garden.

Frederick Ashton was made a CBE in 1950, and knighted in 1962.  In 1970, he became a Companion of Honour, and in October 1977, he was invited by The Queen to become a member of the Order of Merit.  France admitted Ashton to the Legion d’Honneur in 1962 and Denmark made him a Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1963.  Recognition of his achievement came in 1959 from the Royal Academy of Dancing, which gave him its Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award; in 1972 from the Carina Aria Foundation in Sweden with its Gold Medal; and with honorary degrees: as Doctor of Letters in the Universities of Durham (1962) and East Anglia (1967), and as Doctor of Music in the Universities of London (1970) and Oxford (1976).

On August 19, 1988, Frederick Ashton died in his sleep at his country home in Eye, Suffolk.  He was 83.