William
Forsythe

Benois de la Danse laureate

Benois de la Danse nominee

William Forsythe was born in New York City in 1949. He studied ballet at Jacksonville University, Florida, and later at the Joffrey Ballet School.

In 1973 Mr. Forsythe joined the Stuttgart Ballet as a dancer, and then began choreographing his own works for the company. Over the next seven years Mr. Forsythe made more than 20 ballets for the Stuttgart Ballet and other leading companies, including the Basel Ballet, the Munich Ballet, the Deutsche Oper Ballet in Berlin, the Joffrey Ballet and the Netherlands Dans Theatre.

In 1984 William Forsythe became the Director of Ballett Frankfurt and a year later created «Gдnge» his full-length work for the company. With his new company he set out to create original challenging works removed from conventional ballet and intended for a new audience. Since this time, Mr. Forsythe has developed a unique ballet aesthetic, which without denying traditional ballet, challenging its lexicon by constructing a new de constructed technique.

Mr. Forsythe's the main works over the past 17 years are: “Artifact” (1984), “Impressing the Czar” (1988), “Limb's Theorem” (1991), “The Loss of a Small Detail” (1991), A L I E/NA ©TION (1992), “Eidos: Telos” (1995), “Endless House” (1999) and “Kammer/Kammer” (2000).

William Forsyth continues to work a choreographer in many companies around the globe: at the New York City Ballet, the San-Francisco Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, the Royal Swedish Ballet among others. His company, Ballett Frankfurt gives performances in opera and drama theatres.

Since October 1999 the company also performs at the Bockenheimer Depot (TAT). Having converted tramway depot in a space for dances, Mr. Forsythe continues to develop new expression in dance.

In January 1999 William Forsythe became Director of both companies — Ballett Frankfurt and TAT. 

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