Wilhelm "Willy" Burmann (April 3, 1939 – March 30, 2020) was a German dancer, ballet master, and teacher.

Early life

Burmann was born on April 3, 1939, in Oberhausen,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, where he grew up on a farm. He had one sister, Christel Weideman. He began training as a dancer when he was fifteen years old.

Career

Burmann was a

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 ...

for companies including Frankfurt Ballet, Grand Théâtre du Genève, and Stuttgart Ballet. He also danced with companies including

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' ...

Pennsylvania Ballet The Philadelphia Ballet, formerly known as Pennsylvania Ballet until rebranding in 2021, is Philadelphia's largest ballet company. The company's annual local season features six programs of classic favorites, as well as new works, including the Ph ...

, and

New Jersey Ballet The New Jersey Ballet is a ballet company based in Livingston, New Jersey in the United States, founded in 1958 by native New Jerseyan Carolyn Clark and her fellow dancer, George Tomal. History Carolyn Clark's mother established New Jersey Sch ...

. Burmann retired from dancing in 1977. Burmann was a ballet master at the

Washington Ballet The Washington Ballet (TWB) is an ensemble of professional ballet dancers based in Washington DC. It was founded in 1976 by Mary Day, and has been under the artistic directorship of Julie Kent since 2016. Septime Webre was artistic director fo ...

and the Ballet du Nord. He was also known for his professional dance classes at Steps on Broadway in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, which he taught from 1984 until March 20, 2020, when the

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required classes to be suspended. He had also taught at the Melissa Hayden School of Ballet, Harkness Ballet School, and Ballet Arts, and had been a guest member of faculty at companies including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet,

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 ...

, La Scala, Ballet Nacional Sodre, and

The Australian Ballet The Australian Ballet is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur and direc ...

. His teaching style, which was fast-paced and demanding, has been compared to that of George Balanchine, for whom Burmann danced for four years. Burmann was described by ''

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'' in 2004 as "easily the most revered New York ballet teacher of his era". Some of Burmann's students included

Alessandra Ferri Alessandra Ferri OMRI (born 6 May 1963) is an Italian prima ballerina. She danced with the Royal Ballet (1980–1984), American Ballet Theatre (1985–2007) and La Scala Theatre Ballet (1992–2007) and as an international guest artist, before t ...

Julio Bocca Julio Adrián Lojo Bocca (born March 6, 1967) is an Argentine ballet dancer. Bocca spent twenty years as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. From 2010 to 2018 he served as artistic director of the National Ballet of Uruguay, administe ...

Maria Kowroski Maria Kowroski is an American ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet. Early life Kowroski was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She started ballet at the age of five. In 1992, she entered the School of American Ballet ...

, Wendy Whelan, Alexandra Ansanelli, Ángel Corella, and Michele Wiles.

Personal life and death

Burmann's longtime partner was Alfonso Catá, who was also a dancer and had been the artistic director of Ballet du Nord. Catá died in 1990 of a brain tumor. Burmann began to grow ill in 2018, though he did not ease his teaching schedule. He died on March 30, 2020, in

Mount Sinai West Mount Sinai West, opened in 1871 as Roosevelt Hospital, is affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Mount Sinai Health System. The 514-bed facility is located in the Midtown West neighborhood of New York City. The fac ...

hospital from

renal failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

, after

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

complicated his treatment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burmann, Wilhelm 1939 births 2020 deaths Ballet masters Deaths from kidney failure Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state) German expatriates in the United States Gay dancers New York City Ballet dancers People from Südliche Weinstraße Principal dancers German LGBT entertainers 20th-century German ballet dancers