William Forsythe was born in New York in 1949. Forsythe began his dance training at the Joffrey Ballet School where he eventually worked his way up into Joffrey II and then the main company. Transferring to Europe, Forsythe joined the Stuttgart Ballet under the new direction of Marcia Hayde. Hayde encouraged Forsythe to choreograph for the company and he created some of his first major works along with making ties with big time European choreographers Pina Bausch and Jir Kylian. By 1980 Forsythe had decided to pursue an independent career choreographing. Forsythe created Gnge, Say Bye-Bye for Nederlands Dans Theater and was also invited to create a work he titled Dance/France for the Paris Opera Ballet and featured Sylvie Guillem at the start of her career. In 1984 Forsythe became the artistic director of the Frankfurt Ballet. At this time Forsythe's work continued to get recognition. The public considered his work provocative, intriguing, scandalizing, and major. Forsythe's ability to break down the classical ballet language and apply unheard of elements of disjointed time brought him to the forefront of dance. Forsythe continued to create new works for major ballet companies across the world including The Kirov Ballet, The New York City Ballet, The San Francisco Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, England’s Royal Ballet, and The Paris Opera Ballet. In 2004 after the end of the Frankfurt Ballet Forsythe sought out to create his own company where his work is now performed. In addition to his company Forsythe is also the co-director a teacher at Dance Apprentice Network aCross Europe (D.A.N.C.E.). Forsythe also has many achievements including multiple Bessie and Lawrence Oliviar Awards as well being an Honorary Fellow at the Laban Center for Movement and Dance in London holds a doctorate from Juilliard.
After working so closely with Marcia Hayde, Pina Bausch and Jir Kylian I wondered if there was any specific reason that he ventured off on his own by 1980? Was there a ereka moment when he decided? I loved the youtube clips, really insightful!
ReplyDeleteWell I look at it similarly to the judson group in America. Marcia Hayde took over the company after the previous artistic directors death so I believe she was just pushing for more people to make work for their upcoming seasons since stepping into the position would have been very daunting I would imagine. This gave Forsythe the opportunity to experiment with a ballet company. At this same time Jiri Kylian was bringing new influences into making dances such as studies of animals, Pina was using inspirations from idioms, and Forsythe was bringing in geometry and improvisation. They all had separate paths in the dance world but all came out of the ballet form that is very prominent in Europe. These choreographers are all working in Europe giving them a different dynamic than the post modern choreographers working in New York during the Judson era. Yes, they are all working at the relatively same time doing their own deconstruction of ballet in some way but they are really all working on their own. Forsythe just really brought something new to the table as the other choreographers did and ran with it and it has evolved into the work he is creating today.
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