Lawrence Pech

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Lawrence Pech (known as "Larry" to friends and co-workers) is a dancer/choreographer currently living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the founder and co-artistic director of the Lawrence Pech Dance Company.

Originally from Denver, he received his early classical music training in piano and voice. His first choreographic effort was in the fourth grade, to the Beatles’ "Something..." He began studying ballet at age 14 with the Colorado Concert Ballet. At 16, he won First Prize in the Colorado Council for the Arts Choreography Competition with a piece set to Pink Floyd’s "Have a Cigar". The following year (1977), he received full scholarships to the Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre schools, the School of American Ballet (New York City Ballet), and Mudra (Maurice Bejart’s Ballet of the 20th Century in Brussels).

Mr. Pech accepted a contract from ABT in 1980 directly from the artistic director, Mikhail Baryshnikov. For the next seven years, Lawrence worked with and was choreographed upon by such masters as George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Anthony Tudor, Agnes DeMille, Jerome Robbins (touring with him to the Spoleto Festival in 1982), Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Jiri Kylian, Karole Armitage, David Gordon, Eric Bruhn, Natalia Makarova, Mark Morris, and others. He danced opposite such greats as Mr. Baryshnikov, Ms. Makarova, Ivan Nagy, Cynthia Gregory, Fernando Bujones, Gelsey Kirkland, Cynthia Harvey, Martine Van Hamel, Kevin McKenzie, and others. He has appeared in numerous "Live From Lincoln Center" telecasts, and figured prominently with Baryshnikov in the movie "Dancer and the Dance" (BBC).

In 1986, Helgi Tomasson invited Lawrence to join the San Francisco Ballet, where he was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1990. There, he was choreographed upon by James Kudelka, David Bintley, Val Caniparoli, Mr. Tomasson, and Lisa deRibere, as well performing principal roles in ballets by Balanchine and others. In 1991, Mr. Pech was the subject of a KQED special entitled "Blue Lair", a ballet about his victory over cancer. It was awarded a 1991 Emmy Award for Best Choreography. In 1993, Lawrence became co-founder and Artistic Director of the Diablo Ballet, a position from which he resigned in 1995.

Mr. Pech has choreographed numerous ballets and has produced, directed and performed in three separate programs of original creations for The Florence Gould Theater at the Palace of the Legion of Honor’s Summer Arts Series, The Neptune Society at the Columbarium, and the CalArts Summer Program (Valencia). He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has written seven musical scores, including a three-movement piano suite, a song cycle for 16 a capella voices, and various chamber works. He has choreographed and performed in numerous musicals around the San Francisco Bay Area (such as Mountain Play’s "Oklahoma!", which garnered him the Bay Area Theater Critic’s Circle Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical as Will Parker and Best Choreography, 1992). He continues to choreograph for the Belasco Children’s Theater, and teaches ongoing master classes for Pacific Ballet Academy and the San Francisco Dance Center.

Mr. Pech is currently serving as Ballet Master and Resident Choreographer for the San Francisco Opera. In 2003, Larry and his co-artistic director, Wendy Van Dyck, founded the Napa Valley International Festival of Dance.

[edit] External Links

Lawrence Pech Dance Company Napa Valley International Festival of Dance