William Forsythe (The Forsythe Company) (D/USA)

Raised in New York and initially trained in Florida with Nolan Dingman and Christa Long, Forsythe danced with the Joffrey Ballet and later the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was appointed Resident Choreographer in 1976. In 1984, he began a 20-year tenure as director of the Ballet Frankfurt, where he created works such as “Artifact” (1984), “Impressing the Czar“ (1988), “Limb’s Theorem“ (1990), “The Loss of Small Detail“ (1991, in collaboration with composer Thom Willems and designer Issey Miyake), “A L I E / N A(C)TION (1992), “Eidos:Telos” (1995), “Endless House” (1999), “Kammer/Kammer” (2000) and “Decreation” (2003).
After the closure of the Ballet Frankfurt in 2004, Forsythe established a new, more independent ensemble. The Forsythe Company is based in Dresden and Frankfurt am Main and maintains an extensive international touring schedule. Works produced by the new ensemble include “Three Atmospheric Studies” (2005), “You made me a monster” (2005), “Human Writes” (2005), “Heterotopia” (2006), “The Defenders” (2007), “Yes we can’t” (2008), and “I Don’t Believe in Outer Space” (2008). Forsythe’s most recent works are developed and 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.
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’s installations and film works have been presented in numerous museums and exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial (New York), the Venice Biennale. In collaboration with media specialists and educators, Forsythe has developed new approaches to dance documentation, research, and education (“Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye”, CD-Rom 1994). Forsythe currently co-directs and teaches in the Dance Apprentice Network aCross Europe (D.A.N.C.E.) program in Dresden and is Honorary Fellow at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London and holds an honorary doctorate from the Juilliard School in New York.

www.theforsythecompany.com