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William Forsythe (born December 30, 1949) is an American dancer and choreographer resident in
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, Germany. He is known for his work with the Ballet Frankfurt (1984–2004) and
The Forsythe Company The Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company is a contemporary dance ensemble of eighteen dancers based in Dresden and Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded in 2005 as The Forsythe Company by American choreographer William Forsythe following the closure of ...
(2005–2015). Recognized for the integration of ballet and visual arts, which displayed both abstraction and forceful theatricality, his vision of choreography as an organizational practice has inspired him to produce numerous installations, films, and web-based knowledge creation, incorporating the spoken word and experimental music.


Early life

William Forsythe was born in New York in 1949, but only started dancing seriously in his later teenage years in college. He followed his grandfather musically as he was a violin prodigy. Forsythe played bassoon, violin, flute, and sang in choruses. He also choreographed for his high school's musicals. He began his training in Florida and later continued to dance with Joffrey Ballet. It was while attending college at
Jacksonville University Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university in Jacksonville, Florida. Located in the city's Arlington district, the school was founded in 1934 as a two-year college and was known as Jacksonville Junior College until September 5, 1956, ...
, that Forsythe began his formal training as a dancer with Nolan Dingman and Christa Long.


Life and career

William Forsythe began studying at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York in 1969 and began his professional career as an apprentice with the Joffrey Ballet in 1971. From 1971 to 1973 danced with Joffrey Ballet II, often appearing in the parent company's productions. After this, he followed his then wife, Eileen Brady, joining the Stuttgart Ballet in 1973. Encouraged by the director,
Marcia Haydée Marcia Haydée Salaverry Pereira da Silva (born 18 April 1937) is a Brazilian ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet director. She was prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet under John Cranko and succeeded him as the company's director, serv ...
, Forsythe began choreographing works for the company and in 1976 he choreographed his first piece, ''Urlicht''. He became the Stuttgart's resident choreographer in 1976 and that same year created his first piece for the company, ''Dream of Galilei''. During the next seven years he created original works for the Stuttgart Ensemble, and for ballet companies in Munich, The Hague, London, Basel, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Paris, New York, and San Francisco. In 1979, Forsythe choreographed and created his first full-length ballet called ''
Orpheus Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with J ...
''. Forsythe left Stuttgart Ballet in 1980 to choreograph for other companies such as Munich State Opera Ballet,
Nederlands Dans Theater Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT; literal translation Netherlands Dance Theatre) is a Dutch contemporary dance company. NDT is headquartered at the ''Amare'' building in The Hague. NDT also performs at other venues in the Netherlands, including Amste ...
, the Frankfurt Ballet, and the Paris Opera Ballet. In 1984 he was appointed director of the government-sponsored Ballet Frankfurt. Forsythe choreographed what is now looked at as his most famous ballet known worldwide. The ballet was titled '' In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated'' and was commissioned by
Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev ( ; Tatar/ Bashkir: Рудольф Хәмит улы Нуриев; rus, Рудо́льф Хаме́тович Нуре́ев, p=rʊˈdolʲf xɐˈmʲetəvʲɪtɕ nʊˈrʲejɪf; 17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet ...
starring
Sylvie Guillem Sylvie Guillem (; born 23 February 1965) is a French ballet dancer. Guillem was the top-ranking female dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet from 1984 to 1989, before becoming a principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. She has ...
. In 2002, however, the Frankfurt government began to withdraw its support in order to cut costs and to favor a more conventional dance company. The public protested, but Forsythe decided to move on, and in 2004 the Frankfurt Ballet gave its last performance. After the closure of Ballet Frankfurt in 2004, he founded the Forsythe Company (2005) with the support of the states of Saxony and Hesse, the cities of Dresden and Frankfurt am Main, and private sponsors and which he directed until 2015. The Forsythe Company, based in Dresden and Frankfurt am Main, was about half the size of the Frankfurt Ballet, but nearly all of its dancers were from that company. Forsythe continued to present his vision to a wide audience. With bases in Frankfurt and Dresden and supported by both state and private funding, the Forsythe Company made its debut in 2005 with the premiere of Forsythe's ''Three Atmospheric Studies''. A major retrospective of Forsythe's work was presented at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich in 2006, and in subsequent years, his company toured across Europe, appearing in Paris, Zürich, and London. In 2009 London held a monthlong "Focus on Forsythe" celebration that included events across the city, a traveling multimedia installation, and the performance of ''Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time'', an elaborate installation piece at the
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
, in which dancers weaved through hundreds of suspended pendulums. Forsythe's works developed during this time were performed exclusively by The Forsythe Company, while his earlier pieces are prominently featured in the repertoire of virtually every major ballet company in the world, including Mariinsky Ballet,
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' ...
,
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 Fra ...
,
National Ballet of Canada The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca as the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 ...
, Dresden Semperoper Ballet, England's
Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...
, and the
Paris Opera Ballet The Paris Opera Ballet () is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded a ...
. Throughout his career, Forsythe has experimented with a freer approach to choreography in which the dancers are allowed to make choices about order and timing comparable to those made by musicians playing a cadenza. As a training tool for dancers, he developed a CD-ROM entitled ''Improvisation Technologies'' (1995), which in turn resulted in the piece ''Self Meant to Govern'', the first part of the evening-length work, Eidos: Telos (1995) which used monitors to provide dancers with verbal cues that spurred movement responses. Forsythe has produced and collaborated on numerous installation works, including ''White Bouncy Castle'' (1997, in collaboration with Dana Caspersen and Joel Ryan), ''City of Abstracts'' (2000), ''Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time No. 2'' (2013) and ''Black Flags'' (2014). Installation works by Forsythe have been shown at the Whitney Biennial (New York, 1997), Louvre Museum (2006), Tate Modern (London, 2009), ), MoMA (New York 2010), Venice Biennale (2005, 2009, 2012, 2014), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2020) and other locations. Forsythe has been commissioned to produce architectural and performance installations by architect-artist Daniel Libeskind, ARTANGEL (London),
Creative Time Creative Time is a New York-based nonprofit arts organization. It was founded in 1974 to support the creation of innovative, site-specific, socially engaged artworks in the public realm, particularly in vacant spaces of historical and architectura ...
(New York), and the City of Paris. Forsythe is known to teach at universities and cultural institutions as a guest artist. He became one of the Dance Mentors for the
Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative Rolex SA () is a British-founded Swiss watch designer and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as ''Wilsdorf and Davis'' by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, the company registered ''Rolex'' as the brand name of ...
in 2002. Forsythe was also given honorary degrees such as his Doctorate from The
Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
in New York City and was given the title Honorary Fellow at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London. Awards received by Forsythe and his ensembles include the New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award (1988, 1998, 2004, 2007) and London's Laurence Olivier Award (1992, 1999, 2009). Forsythe has been conveyed the title of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1999) by the government of France and has received the
Hessian Cultural Prize The Hessian Cultural Prize (german: link=no, Hessischer Kulturpreis) is an annual German culture prize awarded by the Government of Hesse. The prize was established in 1982. With a trophy of 60,000 German marks, now 45,000 Euro, it is currently th ...
(1995), the German Distinguished Service Cross (1997), the Wexner Prize (2002), the Golden Lion of the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
(2010), Samuel H Scripps / American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement (2012), the Grand Prix de la SACD (2016) and the German theatre prize DER FAUST Lifetime Achievement Award (2020). Between 2015 and 2021, Forsythe was professor at the
University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...
's newly created Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and artistic advisor at the university's Choreographic Institute. Moreover, in 2015
The Forsythe Company The Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company is a contemporary dance ensemble of eighteen dancers based in Dresden and Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded in 2005 as The Forsythe Company by American choreographer William Forsythe following the closure of ...
changed its name t
Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company
and continued under the directorship of choreographer Jacopo Godani.


Style

Forsythe believes that classical ballet is a language with rules to follow. However, although he is trained with these rules, he is much more interested in bending and eventually breaking these guidelines. His style is based on classical ballet, using traditional positions, but developing them to the extreme. Many of his pieces are danced on pointe, but he has used all kind of footwear, including work-boots, socks, and slippers, in order to explore different choreographic results. Forsythe's choreographic style is both postmodern and deconstructivist. Similar to the style of other postmodernists, Forsythe plays with the unexpected, moments of improvisation, and he emphasizes process within the creation of his works. The extreme positions involved in his ballets require a great deal of flexibility, and, in fact, most of his dancers possess that skill. Forsythe's early work in Stuttgart was created mostly for commission, and all of these early works were neoclassical. However, even in these early years, Forsythe states that he was criticized for creating work that was too modern. As his career progressed Forsythe shifted the focus to the methods of his working, which included space and dynamics. Forsythe's choreographic style often includes political themes. He believes that the rehearsal space is inherently political because each individual lives their politics through their everyday behaviors. In an interview Forsythe said, "I wasn't about to go into politics, but I could perform a political experiment locally." The movement style itself drew inspiration from the work of George Balanchine. Forsythe was drawn to the musicality, speed, and lightness of Balanchine's work. Forsythe's emphasis on space is evident in his big, long, and exaggerated movements. Very fast footwork, and shaped hands—often with the lines broken at the wrists—are at the base of his vocabulary. The arms are intended to lead many of the movements within this technique, unlike the more classical teachings of moving the arms and legs simultaneously. Weight change plays a major part in his work, which is especially evident in his partner-work. The dancers stretch and pull each other far from their center-lines, with the idea being that each will pull the other so far from center that a counterbalance is created between them. This element of counterbalance contrasts with more classical partnering techniques that mainly focus on keeping the ballerina upright and helping her to maintain her balance. While Forsythe deconstructs the classical technique of ballet, he additionally challenges social norms and the representation of these norms within art. For example, in his work ''Behind the China Dogs'', Albert Evans dances with lean and fluid movements—qualities typically viewed as feminine—as Helene Alexopaulos moves fiercely, and with muscular movements—qualities typically viewed as "masculine". In all of his work, the dancers are prompted to extend their limbs past their kinespheres, stretching the arms and legs away from the torso. From a structural point of view, he likes to play with the expectations of the audience. In the second act of ''Artifact'' (1984), for example, he raises and lowers the curtains in the middle of the dance, in order to change drastically the environment on stage, and willingly lights the dancers. Most of Forsythe's pieces use electronic scores composed by Thom Willems. Forsythe and Willems both believe that music and dance are independent from each other, and that, even though they coincide in dynamics and length, neither of the two is there to illustrate the other. Their main concern is the inner structure of their works, so they leave the emotional interpretation to the audience or the listener.


Selected works

*1976 ''Urlicht'' *1983 ''Gänge'' *1983 ''France/Dance'' *1984 ''Artifact'' *1985 ''Steptext'' *1986 ''Isabelle's Dance'' *1986 ''Die Befragung des Robert Scott'' *1987 ''In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated'' *1988 ''
Impressing the Czar ''Impressing the Czar'' is a four-act, award-winning, postmodern Judith MackrelImpressing the Czar: Sadler's Wells, London The Guardian, 7 November 2008 ballet choreographed by William Forsythe to music by Thom Willems, Leslie Stuck, Eva Crossma ...
'' *1990 ''Limb's Theorem'' *1991 ''The Second Detail'' *1991 ''Loss of Small Detail'' *1992 ALIE/N ''A(C)TION'' *1995 ''Self Meant to Govern'' *1995 ''Eidos:Telos'' *1996 ''
The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude ''The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude'' is a ballet choreographed by William Forsythe (choreographer), William Forsythe to the finale of Schubert's Symphony No. 9 (Schubert), Symphony No. 9. The ballet was choreographed for 's programme ''Six Co ...
'' *1997 ''Hypothetical Streams 2'' *1998 ''Workwithinwork'' *1999 ''Endless House'' *2000 ''One Flat Thing, reproduced'' *2000 ''Kammer/Kammer'' *2001 ''Woolf Phrase'' *2002 ''Double/Single'' *2003 ''Decreation'' *2005 ''Three Atmospheric Studies'' *2005 ''You Made Me a Monster'' *2005 ''Human Writes'' *2005 ''Nowhere and Everywhere'' *2006 ''Heterotopia'' *2007 ''The Defenders'' *2008/2010 ''Yes We Can't'' *2008 ''I Don't Believe in Outer Space'' *2009 ''The Returns'' *2011 ''Sider'' *2016 ''
Blake Works I ''Blake Works I'' is a ballet choreographed by William Forsythe to seven songs from James Blake's album '' The Colour in Anything''. The ballet was made for the Paris Opera Ballet, Forsythe's first work for the company since 1999, and premiered ...
'' *2018 "Playlist (Track 1,2)" *2018 "A Quiet Evening of Dance" *2019 "Playlist (EP)" *2020 "The Barre Project (Blake Works II)"


Dance and visual arts

William Forsythe is also known for his work in combining the choreographic and visual arts. He has produced and collaborated on numerous installation works, which he refers to as ''Choreographic Objects,'' including ''White Bouncy Castle'' (1997, in collaboration with Dana Caspersen and Joel Ryan), ''City of Abstracts'' (2000), ''Scattered Crowd'' (2002), ''The Fact of Matter (2009), Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time No. 2'' (2013), ''Black Flags'' (2014) and ''Underall'' (2017). Installation works by Forsythe have been shown at the Whitney Biennial (New York, 1997), Louvre Museum (2006), Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2006), 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo (2007), Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2009), Tate Modern (London, 2009), ), MoMA (New York 2010), Venice Biennale (2005, 2009, 2012, 2014), 20th Biennale of Sydney (2016), Museum Folkwang (2019), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2020) and Kunsthaus Zürich (2021) and other locations. Forsythe has been commissioned to produce architectural and performance installations by architect-artist Daniel Libeskind, ARTANGEL (London),
Creative Time Creative Time is a New York-based nonprofit arts organization. It was founded in 1974 to support the creation of innovative, site-specific, socially engaged artworks in the public realm, particularly in vacant spaces of historical and architectura ...
(New York), and the City of Paris. Forsythe collaborated with different educators and media specialists in order to create new ways to document dance. His first online program was a computer application titled ''Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye'', which he created in 1994. This application was used by professional companies, dance conservatories, universities, postgraduate architecture programs, and secondary schools throughout the world, and it was the inspiration for his later application ''Synchronous Objects''. ''Synchronous Objects'' was launched in 2009, and "One Flat Thing" was reproduced on a digital online score developed by
Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
. The process was revealed, and people began to discover that the choreographic scores and the principles of choreography itself could be applied to other fields. After the success of ''Synchronous Objects'' came Forsythe's ''Motion Bank''. Motion Bank is a research platform with a focus on creating and researching online digital scores in collaboration with guest choreographers.


Awards

*"Bessie" Award (1988, 1998, 2004, 2007) *Laurence Olivier Award (1992, 1999) *Government of France – Commandeur des Arts et Lettres (1999) *Service Cross – Germany (1997) *Wexner Prize (2002) *
Deutscher Tanzpreis The Deutscher Tanzpreis (German Dance Prize) is a prestigious prize for artistic dance in Germany. It has been awarded annually since 1983. The ''Deutscher Berufsverband für Tanzpädagogik'' awarded the prize until 2012. From 2013 to 2017, it wa ...
(2004) *Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement – Venice (2010)


References


External links


The Forsythe Company
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Forsythe, William 1949 births Living people Jacksonville University alumni Contemporary dance choreographers Bessie Award winners Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin