William Forsythe (born December 30, 1949) is an American dancer and choreographer formerly resident in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and now based in Vermont. He is known for his work with the Ballet Frankfurt (1984–2004) and The Forsythe Company (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, 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 From 1971 to 1973 danced with Joffrey Ballet II, often appearing in the parent company's productions. 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, in which dancers weaved through hundreds of suspended pendulums.
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 (New York), and the City of Paris. Forsythe is known to teach at universities and cultural institutions as a guest artist.
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.
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
- 1990 Limb's Theorem
- 1991 The Second Detail
- 1991 Loss of Small Detail
- 1992 Herman Schmerman
- 1992 ALIE/<u>N A(C)TION</u>
- 1995 Self Meant to Govern
- 1995 Eidos:Telos
- 1996 The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude
- 1997 Hypothetical Streams 2
- 1998 Workwithinwork
- 1999 Endless House
- 2000 One Flat Thing, reproduced
- 2000 Kammer/Kammer
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 (2004)
- Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement – Venice (2010)
- Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy (2024)
See also
- List of dancers
- Social choreography