Ask la Cour Rasmussen (born ) is a Danish ballet dancer. He joined the

Royal Danish Ballet The Royal Danish Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Danish Theatre in Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen, Denmark. It is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world and originates from 1748, when the R ...

in 2000, then moved to the

New York City Ballet 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' ...

in 2002, and was promoted to principal dancer in 2013. He retired from the company in 2021.

Early life

Ask la Cour was born in Copenhagen, and is the son of ballet dancer and former

associate artistic director Lise la Cour and conductor . His maternal half-brother, Nilas Martins, was a principal dancer with the

. As a young child, he had no interest in ballet, instead preferring soccer and skateboarding. However, when he was nine, he overheard his mother telling a friend the

Royal Danish Ballet School The Royal Danish Ballet School is a ballet school that trains dancers for the Royal Danish Ballet. It was founded in the 1770s. Beginnings In 1771, the first formalised ballet school at the Royal Danish Theater was founded by the French dancer a ...

needed more boys, so he decided to audition for the school, and was accepted.

Career

La Cour joined the

in 2000, and was soon cast in solo roles. Two years later, he approached

Peter Martins Peter Martins (born 27 October 1946) is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. Martins was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and with the New York City Ballet, where he joined George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and John Taras as ...

, Nilas Martins' father who heads the New York City Ballet, about joining the company, and was accepted. He later stated that he originally intended to stay at the company for a few years. He made his company debut in Balanchine's ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchai ...

''. He started dancing solo roles while still in the corps de ballet, before becoming a soloist in May 2005. He was promoted to principal dancer in February 2013. In his career, he had danced 60 ballets, including works by George Balanchine,

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

, Peter Martins, August Bournonville, Christopher Wheeldon,

Justin Peck Justin Peck (born September 8, 1987) is an American choreographer, director, and dancer associated with New York City Ballet, of which he was appointed Resident Choreographer in July 2014, being the second person in the history of the instituti ...

Alexei Ratmansky Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky (russian: Алексей Осипович Ратманский, born August 27, 1968) is a Russian-American choreographer and former ballet dancer. From 2004 to 2008 he was the director of the Bolshoi Ballet. He left Rus ...

Benjamin Millepied Benjamin Millepied (; born 10 June 1977) is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States since joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He has also ...

Jorma Elo Jorma Elo is a contemporary choreographer. Early life He was born 30 August 1961 in Helsinki, Finland. His father, Jaakko Elo, is a urological surgeon, mother Ruth Elo née Carlstedt, a dentist. Jorma Elo's partner since 1994 is Nancy Euverin ...

, Susan Stroman,

Lauren Lovette Lauren Lovette (born November 10, 1991) is an American ballet dancer and choreographer who was previously a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. Early life and education Lovette was born in Thousand Oaks, California, and started her ...

Boris Eifman Boris Eifman (Борис Яковлевич Эйфман) (born 22 July 1946, in Rubtsovsk) is a Russian choreographer and artistic director. He has done more than fifty ballet productions. Eifman was born in Siberia, where his engineer father h ...

, Robert Binet and Richard Tanner. He also originated roles in some ballets, such as Wheeldon's ''Shambards'' and '' After the Rain'', Ratmansky's ''Voices'', Peck's ''The Most Incredible Thing'' and Lovette's ''Not Our Fate''. In January 2020, la Cour became the artistic director of the

Commack, New York Commack ( ) is a hamlet and census designated place (CDP) that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the towns of Huntington and Smithtown in Suffolk County, on Long Island, in New York. The CDP's population was 36,124 at the ...

-based Frank Ohman School of Ballet and New York Dance Theatre. He retired from the New York City Ballet in October 2021, and danced Balanchine's ''

Monumentum pro Gesualdo ''Monumentum pro Gesualdo'' is a ballet by the New York City Ballet (NYCB) co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to music by Igor Stravinsky composed in honor of the 400th birthday of the composer Carlo Gesualdo and consisting of Stravins ...

'', ''

Movements for Piano and Orchestra ''Movements'' is a sequence of five pieces for piano and orchestra by Igor Stravinsky lasting under ten minutes altogether. It was written during his Serial period and shows his dedication to that idiom as well as the influence of Anton Webern. ...

'' and Wheeldon's ''After the Rain'' at his farewell performance. He then returned to the Royal Danish Ballet to teach and coach apprentices.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:La Cour, Ask Living people 1980s births Danish male ballet dancers New York City Ballet principal dancers Royal Danish Ballet dancers Danish expatriates in the United States 21st-century ballet dancers