An internationally renowned teacher and ballet master, Alfredo Corvino has been an enduring influence on generations of world-famous ballet and modern dancers. A noted authority on classical dance technique, Corvino has taught at prestigious institutions around the globe during a career that spans more than half a century.

Corvino was born in the capital city of Montevideo in southern Uruguay. He studied ballet there under Alberto Poujanne as a scholarship student at the Uruguay National Ballet School. Once he completed the program, he went on to dance with the Uruguay National Ballet Company.

He made his first break from his homeland as a performer. Corvino toured internationally as a member of the Jooss Ballet, the renowned troupe founded by German-born expressionist choreographer Kurt Jooss. His next stop was as a soloist with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Early in his performing career, his favorite roles included Spectre de la Rose, Bluebird, and Carnaval. Corvino credits his teachers for his exceptional training. Anatole Vilzak, Edward Caton, Boris Romanoff, Alexander Gavrilov, Margaret Craske, and Antony Tudor all took part in Corvino's early dance instruction.

Alfredo Corvino Photo by F. Suels

He would later move to New York and join the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, where he became ballet master. It was while serving in this capacity that Corvino was invited by Antony Tudor, a founding faculty member of Juilliard's Dance Division, to join the faculty in the early 1950s just as the division was getting off the ground.

Corvino joined the stellar faculty that included many of the great dance teachers and choreographers of the last century, among them director of the Dance Division Martha Hill, ballet great Hector Zaraspe, and modern dance pioneers José Limón and Martha Graham. It was a unique opportunity for Corvino to be a part of the first major teaching institution to combine equal dance instruction in both modern and ballet techniques.

In the years since, Corvino has amassed staggering teaching credits. He served on the faculty of The Juilliard School for 42 years and also taught at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School for almost 20 years. He then founded and directed his own school in New York City, The Dance Circle, in 1968. His school was truly a family affair, with his two daughters, dance teachers Andra and Ernesta Corvino, serving as co-directors of the school for the next 25 years until it closed in 1993. When Corvino retired from Juilliard in 1995, Andra Corvino was hired to teach the same ballet classes.

Though he made his name in New York City, Corvino has taught students worldwide. Other teaching credits include the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen (Germany), Bellas Artes in Caracas (Venezuela), Rotterdamse Dansacademie (Holland), the Theatre Contemporain de la Danse (Paris), the Cloudgate Theatre (Taiwan), and the International Festival of Dance Academies (Hong Kong). As a choreographer, Corvino has been associated with the Roxy Theater, the Amato Opera, the Princeton Ballet, the Maryland Ballet, and the New Jersey Dance Theater Guild, which he directed for 10 years.

Corvino has been very active in retirement from Juilliard, recently serving as a panelist to the New York State Council on the Arts and currently serving as ballet master for Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal. Bausch, who attended Juilliard from 1959 to 1962, was an early student of Corvino. When in New York, Corvino teaches master ballet classes at the Wein Center for Dance and Theater. He is also the recipient of many awards, including the 2002 Martha Hill Award for Leadership in Dance, presented annually for demonstrated leadership and merit in dance.

For his extraordinary contributions to dance instruction, his work as a performer and choreographer, and his four-decade commitment to Juilliard, the School will award Corvino an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree at its 98th commencement ceremonies on May 23.

—Josh Jacobson