William Forsythe (choreographer)
William Forsythe ( born December 30, 1949 in New York City ) is an American dancer and choreographer. During his tenure as artistic director of the Frankfurt Ballet (1984 - 2004), he established himself as one of the most important contemporary choreographers.
After studying dance at the Joffrey Ballet School and Jacksonville University in Florida, he danced from 1971 for the Joffrey Ballet, John Cranko in 1973 signed him for the Stuttgart Ballet. Even in Stuttgart, he began to choreograph, already in the "pre -Frankfurt- time " his works in Munich, The Hague, London, Basel, Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, New York and San Francisco were listed. With its most classic ballet -oriented, strictly mathematical, but pictorial- sensual dance language, he is one of the most important representatives of contemporary ballet.
Since 2005 he has headed the Forsythe Company with venues in Frankfurt / Main and Dresden.
The choreographer
The later Stuttgart director Klaus Zehelein recognized as chief dramaturge at the City Theatre Frankfurt (1977-1987) that it was a viable exceptional talent at Forsythe and initiated the call to Frankfurt. William Forsythe joined in 1984 his first season as artistic director at. The continued at the beginning of the fifties and sixties conversion of ballet from classical to neo -classical had come to its limits. In the constant search for novelty succeeded Forsythe to break this stagnation and to put a break. The vocabulary of classical ballet added Forsythe by, picked up the mapping of the body, alone, to the spectator back and suddenly had to dance for the side street or even return portal. Was it so far, especially the sternum, which should show to the audience, they were now all limbs and all directions, who had to play an essential role.
This resulted in an infinite movement and space diversity, which until then was the ballet dancer so strange. Freed from distracting the ballet has become so reconstituted. Many ballets by Forsythe contain only sparse set design (eg, Limb's Theorem ), which in itself once more importance was the reason that the dancers. Has rendered outstanding services in the early sixties Wieland Wagner to the dust from the representation in the opera, it was Forsythe, who began to break with conventions in ballet. Sophisticated light offset dancers in an unprecedented silhouette. Part of silhouette- like, partially illuminated side or sometimes with stage work light, he created an as yet unknown perception of bodies danced. The break with the subscription audience, the short Egon Madsen - time (1981-1984), is held at least three years with very strong expressions of displeasure. In the old Stuttgart productions that remained from the Madsen - time in Frankfurt in the repertoire, William Forsythe was discovered one time or another, even as a dancer.
The digital dance Library
Forsythe wants he developed notation system with which a choreography can be reconstructed by means of a score, artists, dance scientists and professionals in the web-based "Motion Bank" - make it accessible - which is still in a testing phase. He is concerned with a " readability of choreography " and to "fundamental principles of organization " of the dance. The Federal Cultural Foundation (Hall ) is initiated by Forsythe dance digital library of 1.4 million euros.