Sean Lavery (August 16, 1956 in

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...

– February 26, 2018 in

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

) was a former

principal dancer A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. A principal may be male or female. The position is similar to that of '' soloist''; however, p ...

, balletmaster, and assistant to the balletmaster in chief at

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' ...

. He was a

répétiteur A (from the French verb meaning 'to repeat, to go over, to learn, to rehearse') is an accompanist, tutor or coach of ballet dancers or opera singers. A feminine form, , also appears but is comparatively rare. Opera In opera, a is the person ...

for the

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

Trust and a former faculty member at the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...

Early life and dance career

Lavery grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and studied at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet as a young boy before moving to New York to train with Barbara Fallis and Richard Thomas. He joined the

San Francisco Ballet San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Franc ...

in 1973 and the Frankfurt Opera Ballet in 1975, where he was promoted to principal dancer. In 1976, Lavery returned to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

to join New York City Ballet at the invitation of

. A year later he made his major role debut as Titania's

Cavalier The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ). It ...

in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' followed in quick succession by promotion to soloist in early 1978 and to principal dancer later that year. In 1986 at the age of 30, while partnering Patricia McBride during a performance of ''Who Cares?'', Lavery would suffer an injury that proved catastrophic. Due to a then unknown tumor on his spine, this injury would cause Lavery extreme neurological damage which led to the end of his career as a dancer. At the time Lavery carried a bulk of the repertory at City Ballet, giving up to 8 performances a week during the company's season. Despite lacking the proper finances to pay for his surgeries or rehabilitation, Lavery was supported emotionally and financially by the company and its Dancers' Emergency Fund which was created by

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 ...

in 1980 specifically to assist dancers in the troupe waylaid by unexpected medical costs or personal losses. As a well beloved star dancer, Lavery's recovery was extensively covered by

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

in an article titled ''A Dancer's Nightmare''.

Post dance career

Following his recovery, Lavery would visit his alma mater at San Francisco Ballet to attend the opening of its official

ballet school Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

where he would teach a series of successful classes. Returning to New York, he continued teaching at David Howard's school to great acclaim. Upon hearing of Lavery's classes, City Ballet's co-ballet master-in-chief

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 ...

invited him to teach company class. Following these initial classes, Lavery was appointed company teacher and later on balletmaster to the company and assistant to the ballet master in chief, specifically as the right-hand man of Peter Martins. During this time, he would choreograph his version of ''Romeo and Juliet'' for the company and serve as a faculty member of

, where he re-staged his original 1990 ballet ''

Twinkliana ''Twinkliana'' is a ballet made by Sean Lavery, assistant to the ballet master in chief at New York City Ballet, for students of the Barnard College Dance Department, to Mozart's Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" (or "Twinkle, Twinkle, Littl ...

'' for the SAB workshop in June 2007. Lavery retired from City Ballet and SAB in the fall of 2011. In 2012, in recognition of his service to SAB, he was awarded the Mae L. Wien Faculty Award for Distinguished Service. Following his retirement Lavery moved to Palm Springs, California, where he died February 26, 2018, of natural causes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavery, Sean 1956 births 2018 deaths New York City Ballet principal dancers American male ballet dancers Balanchine Trust repetiteurs Ballet masters Ballet choreographers American choreographers Mae L. Wien Faculty Award recipients Artists from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania School of American Ballet faculty 20th-century American ballet dancers