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Bettijane Sills is an American ballerina. Sills has had a long career in theater and as a soloist in the New York City Ballet. During her career, she danced for both George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. [1]
Sills was born and raised in New York City, the daughter of Michael Siegel, a Broadway musician/singer who also performed with the Boston Pops. Sills began acting as a child, appearing in Broadway productions, including the musical 'Seventeen', and television programs, including 'Studio One' and The Children's Hour.' She studied dance at the School of American Ballet, and was accepted to both the acting and dance programs at the New York High School of Performing Arts (the Fame school now called LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts). She chose to major in dance.
She was invited by George Balanchine to join New York City Ballet in 1961. She was promoted to Soloist in 1964, and danced principal roles in many works, including Western Symphony, Jewels, Who Cares?, Divertimento #15 and The Nutcracker. During her 11 years with the New York City Ballet, she performed in numerous productions all over the world and received critical acclaim as the "Wife" in Jerome Robbins' 1972 revival of The Concert . [2]
In recent years, she has acted as a repetiteur for the Balanchine Trust, staging the Balanchine repertory and choreographing numerous works for the Purchase Dance Corps as well as several other companies throughout the United States. In 1996, she staged Balanchine's Serenade at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts. She was designated by the Balanchine Trust to stage Allegro Brilliante for the Orlando Ballet in Florida in 2006. She then returned to Asia in January 2007, to stage Serenade for the Taipei National University of the Arts.
She is currently a tenured professor at State University of New York at Purchase and has served on the Conservatory of Dance faculty at Purchase College since 1979. [3]
Broadway, Balanchine, and Beyond: A Memoir, which Bettijane Sills co-wrote with Elizabeth McPherson, was published by University Press of Florida in 2019. [4] It was reviewed by Marcia Siegel in the Arts Fuse [5] and by Helen Shaw in The New York Times. [6] Sills wrote a letter to the editor as a response to The New York Times review to defend her career decisions. [7]
George Balanchine was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer who was one of the most influential 20th-century choreographers. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music.
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.
Alvin Ailey Jr. was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Ailey School as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance. His work fused theater, modern dance, ballet, and jazz with Black vernacular, creating hope-fueled choreography that continues to spread global awareness of Black life in America. Ailey's choreographic masterpiece Revelations is recognized as one of the most popular and most performed ballets in the world.
Ruth A. Sobotka was an Austrian-born American dancer, costume designer, art director, painter, and actress.
Megan Fairchild is an American ballet dancer. She is currently a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.
Heather Watts is a ballerina, most known for her time with the New York City Ballet. Born in Long Beach, California, her dream as a little girl was to be an actress. An acting coach advised her taking ballet classes, seeing as she was incredibly dramatic. So she started dancing at the age of 10, to "develop poise". She came to New York at the age of 13 on a Ford Foundation summer scholarship to attend the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet. She moved permanently to New York at age 15, again on a Ford Foundation scholarship to the School of American Ballet.
Tiler Kalyn Peck is an American ballet dancer who is a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. As well as ballet, she has performed in musical theatre shows and has made cameo appearances in films including Donnie Darko and television series including Tiny Pretty Things.
Sara Ann Mearns is an American ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer at New York City Ballet.
Kyra Nichols is an American retired ballet dancer and teacher. She joined the New York City Ballet in 1974 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1979. She is one of the last dancers to have worked with George Balanchine, although he did not create any new work on her. However, she originated roles in several ballets by Jerome Robbins. Nichols retired from performing in 2007, after a 33-year career.
Karin von Aroldingen Gewirtz was a German ballet dancer. She danced as a soloist at the Frankfurt Opera Ballet before joining the New York City Ballet in 1962 after receiving a personal invitation from George Balanchine. She was named as one of Balanchine's main beneficiaries in his will. Von Aroldingen retired from New York City Ballet in 1984, having reached the rank of principal dancer in 1972. In her later life she worked as a répétiteur for the Balanchine Trust, for which she was also a founder, staging his ballets for various companies.
Alexandra Noel Ansanelli is a retired American ballet dancer.
Lourdes Lopez is a Cuban-American ballet company artistic director of Miami City Ballet and former principal dancer of New York City Ballet. She is also a member of the board of trustees of the Ford Foundation.
Kay Mazzo is an American former ballet dancer and educator. In 1961, she joined Jerome Robbins' company, Ballets USA. The following year, she joined the New York City Ballet, and was promoted to principal dancer in 1969. She created roles for George Balanchine and Robbins, before retiring from performing in 1981. She then joined the permanent faculty of the School of American Ballet in 1983, named Co-Chairman of Faculty in 1997 and Chair of Faculty in 2018. She will step down from the position in June 2022.
Zachary Catazaro is an American ballet dancer and former principal dancer of the New York City Ballet and Bayerisches Staatsballett.
Yvonne Mounsey was a South African-American ballet dancer and teacher. Described as "a dancer of glamour, wit, and striking presence," she spent ten years with the New York City Ballet (1949-1959), where she created important roles in the works of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.
Sally Harrington, known professionally as Sara Leland, was an American ballet dancer and répétiteur. She started her career with the Joffrey Ballet in 1959, and was recruited to join the New York City Ballet by George Balanchine in 1960. She was promoted to principal dancer in 1972, and created roles for both Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.
Paul Boos is an American dancer, ballet master, archivist, and répétiteur. He danced with New York City Ballet from 1977 until 1990 before becoming a guest teacher for the Royal Danish Ballet. In addition to teaching internationally, he is part of a select group of répétiteurs sanctioned by the Balanchine Trust to set the ballets of George Balanchine. Having previously served as Project Associate since 2016, in 2021, Boos was appointed to Director of the Video Archives for the George Balanchine Foundation.
Lauren Lovette is an American ballet dancer and choreographer who was previously a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.
Georgina Pazcoguin is an American ballerina. She is a soloist with the New York City Ballet, and is known for challenging racism in ballet, and for performing on Broadway.
Maria Calegari is an American ballet dancer, teacher and répétiteur. She joined the New York City Ballet in 1974 and became a principal dancer in 1983. She left the company in 1994, then occasionally performed until 2004. She also teaches ballet and began working as a répétiteur for the Balanchine Trust and Robbins Rights Trust in 1996 and 2003 respectively.