June 29, 2002 Contact: Janet Kessin

Joseph W. Polisi, President of The Juilliard School, announced today that ballet master, artistic director, and master teacher Lawrence Rhodes has been appointed Artistic Director of Juilliard’s Dance Division, succeeding longtime division head Benjamin Harkarvy, who died in March. Mr. Rhodes, who has had a distinguished career at numerous dance companies worldwide, and at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, becomes Juilliard’s Dance Division head effective July 1, 2002.

In a varied and long career, Mr. Rhodes has danced most of the classical ballets including Giselle, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker; and the works of Bournonville, Balanchine, Limón, Tudor, and Béjart, among others. He has been part of the creation of dances by numerous choreographers such as Ailey, Arpino, Joffrey, Macdonald, van Dantzig, Lubovitch, Harkarvy, Neumeier, Cole, and Butler, to name just a few. Since September 1999, Mr. Rhodes has been a freelance master ballet teacher to New York City dance institutions such as the American Ballet Theatre, Steps Studio, and Peridance; important companies in Europe such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballett Frankfurt, Ballets de Monte Carlo, Compaa Nacional de Danza in Madrid, and Le Ballet de l’pera National de Lyon; as well as companies in Canada, Mexico, and other parts of the United States. For ten years prior (1989 - 1999) he was artistic director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal. Mr. Rhodes was chair of the dance department at NYU’s Tisch School from 1981 to 1989, having been a respected master teacher there since 1978. He brought many important changes to that school’s curriculum and faculty, in addition to a unique expertise in classical ballet technique, contemporary dance, and first-hand work with a range of outstanding choreographers.

A search committee comprised of Juilliard’s senior administrators, faculty, and students made the final and unanimous recommendation to President Polisi, who in announcing the appointment commented, "Lawrence Rhodes brings to Juilliard the professional and educational experience and vision which will allow the Dance Division to continue to flourish in the years ahead. His extraordinary accomplishments as a performer, teacher, and artistic director, along with an aesthetic that embraces the most important elements of contemporary dance, make him the perfect individual to lead our dance faculty and students into the 21^st century."

With his appointment to Juilliard, Mr. Rhodes once again becomes a full-time resident of New York City, where he and his wife, former dancer Lone Isaksen, have maintained a home despite extraordinary worldwide commitments. In remarking on his return to the city and a role in dance education he said, "I’m honored to be chosen to head the Dance Division at Juilliard. The training of a dancer is one of the fundamentals of dance that I most enjoy. The development of human potential is most rewarding. My position at Juilliard will enable me to use all the areas of expertise I’ve collected during 46 years as a dance professional."

Lawrence Rhodes was born in West Virginia in 1939. Two years later, his family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he first studied tap dance beginning at age nine, and discovered ballet at the age of fourteen. He began his professional career dancing 19th- and 20th-century repertoire in New York with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo from 1958 - 1960, having studied at the Ballet Russe School. Subsequently he was principal dancer from 1960 - 1964 with Joffrey Ballet, where he was praised for his dramatic and disciplined performances in many new dances, such as Gerald Arpino’s very first works for the Joffrey, Partita for Four and Ropes, and Brian Macdonald’s Time Out of Mind, a work demonstrating Mr. Rhodes’ developing dramatic range. In 1964, Mr. Rhodes became principal dancer with the newly formed Harkness Ballet, where he was voted artistic director by company members in 1968, while still dancing. It was at the Harkness that Mr. Rhodes became known as an outstanding dramatic presence in such landmark ballets created for him as John Butler’s Sebastian, and in After Eden, which was created for Mr. Rhodes and his wife, Lone Isaksen, in Stuart Hodes’ The Abyss, and in the Harkness’ famed revival of Rudi van Dantzig’s Monument to a Dead Boy. To help deal with the overwhelming responsibilities of being both performer and director, Mr. Rhodes asked Benjamin Harkarvy to join him as co-artistic director of Harkness Ballet in 1969, prior to the disbanding of the company by Rebekah Harkness in 1970. It was just the first of several times that Mr. Rhodes career path would intersect with Mr. Harkarvy’s. Both Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Harkarvy subsequently went to Amsterdam in 1970, joining the Het Nationale Ballet, where Mr. Rhodes became a permanent guest artist the following season, before returning to the United States. From 1971 - 1973, Mr. Rhodes was co-director of the Milwaukee Ballet. Beginning in 1972, Mr. Rhodes was guest artist and then principal dancer with The Pennsylvania Ballet, where he remained until 1978, and was instrumental in bringing Benjamin Harkarvy to that company as artistic director. Mr. Rhodes also was a principal dancer with the Eliot Feld Ballet during that same period, while additionally pursuing freelance appearances, most notably with Carla Fracci in Italy.

After his first non-performance role as teacher and chairman of the dance department at NYU, Mr. Rhodes spent an outstanding decade as artistic director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, where he introduced the company and Canada to works by Jiř Kylin, Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, and Ohad Naharin, as well as the works of Balanchine, Tudor, Limón, and Jooss, and commissioned works by Mark Morris, James Kudelka, Mark Godden, Ib Andersen, and douard Lock, among others. Mr. Rhodes re-established the international footprint of the company by touring outside Canada every year, adding to the company’s annual Canadian tour. He also strengthened the artistic uniqueness of Les Grands Ballet Canadiens as a top company with contemporary repertoire, debuting works by sought-after European choreographers in Canada and introducing the works of Canadian choreographers to audiences in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

In 2001, the Juilliard Dance Division celebrated its 50th anniversary as a groundbreaking conservatory dance-training program whose faculty and alumni have changed the face of dance in America and around the world. Established in 1951 by William Schuman during his tenure as president of The Juilliard School, and with the guidance of founding director Martha Hill, The Juilliard School Dance Division became the first major teaching institution to combine equal dance instruction in both modern and ballet techniques, an idea that was considered heretical in its day. Rather, it was a forecast of the future of dance in America, where ballet and modern dance companies routinely cross into one another’s territory. Among the early faculty members were renowned dance figures such as Alfredo Corvino, Doris Humphrey, José Limón, Anna Sokolow, Antony Tudor, and Hector Zaraspe. Ms. Hill became Artistic Director Emeritus with the appointment of Muriel Topaz as Director in 1985, and remained active at Juilliard almost until her death in 1995 at the age of ninety-four. In 1992, choreographer and artistic director Benjamin Harkarvy was appointed head of the division. In the decade he gave to Juilliard prior to his death earlier this year, Mr. Harkarvy strengthened discipline and technique training while expanding opportunities in choreography, and created a Summer Dance Intensive for high school-age artists.

Graduates of the division have gone on to dance with virtually every established modern and ballet company in the United States and abroad, and they also are among the directors and administrators of respected companies worldwide. Alumni include noted directors and choreographers such as Robert Battle, Pina Bausch, Martha Clarke, Mercedes Ellington, Robert Garland, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Saeko Ichinohe, Lar Lubovitch, Bruce Marks, Susan Marshall, Ohad Naharin, and Paul Taylor.

The Dance Division’s four-year course of study offers students the choice of pursuing a bachelor of fine arts degree or a diploma. The core curriculum requires intensive technical study and performance in classical ballet and modern dance, and includes courses in repertory, pas de deux, pointe or men’s class, dance composition, anatomy, dance history, stagecraft, production, and music theory. The dancers work in an enormous variety of repertory styles and techniques. Electives such as acting, voice, and tap also are offered, as well as jazz, and elements of performing. All dancers are introduced to the techniques of creating new works in beginning choreography classes. For those who wish to explore further, there are advanced choreography classes and the opportunity for all to work with established choreographers and in premiere dances. Dance facilities at Juilliard include five class and rehearsal studios, as well as the 933-seat Juilliard Theater and other smaller performance venues. The Juilliard Dance Division also presents programs in Lincoln Center’s Clark Theater, and in venues throughout the metropolitan region, including New York City public schools. Next March, Juilliard dancers travel south to perform new works by alumni choreographers Charlotte Griffin and Adam Hougland in the Juilliard Dance Ensemble’s debut at Sarasota Ballet of Florida, in the ballet’s subscription series Sarasota Ballet Presents.