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

and

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 ...

Biography

Sills was born and raised in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, 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 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 ...

, and was accepted to both the acting and dance programs at the New York

High School of Performing Arts The High School of Performing Arts (informally known as "PA") was a public alternative high school established in 1947 and located at 120 West 46th Street in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, from 1948 to 1984. In 1961, the school was m ...

(the ''Fame'' school now called LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts). She chose to major in dance.

Career

She was invited by

to join

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 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''. 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 Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

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 The State University of New York at Purchase (commonly Purchase College or SUNY Purchase) is a public liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. It was fo ...

and has served on the Conservatory of Dance faculty at Purchase College since 1979. ''Broadway, Balanchine, and Beyond: A Memoir'', which Bettijane Sills co-wrote with Elizabeth McPherson, was published by University Press of Florida in 2019. It was reviewed by Marcia Siegel in the ''Arts Fuse'' and by Helen Shaw in ''The New York Times''. Sills wrote a letter to the editor as a response to ''The New York Times'' review to defend her career decisions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sills, Bettijane American ballerinas Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women