Lar Lubovitch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lar Lubovitch (born April 9, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois) is a choreographer and founded his own dance company, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. Based in New York City, he and the company have toured worldwide. He has been noted as one of the most important contributors to twentieth-century ballet.[1]
In addition to the company, Lar has also done creative work in ballet, ice-skating venues, and musical theater notably "Into the Woods". He has played a key role in raising funds to fight AIDS.
One of America’s most versatile, popular and widely seen choreographers, Lar Lubovitch founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968 and at the time of writing (2005) has choreographed more than 100 dances for the company. Based in New York City, the company has performed in virtually all 50 American states as well as in more than 30 countries.
Starting in 1995, the company began focusing on creating dances in New York and teaching throughout the world. A prolific choreographer, during the recent 2004-05 year, Lubovitch created three new dances. The first, Love Stories, was a collaboration between the Lubovitch company and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (it premiered in Chicago in March 2005), the second, Do You Be, was created solely with the Lubovitch company in honor of Meredith Monk and premiered in NYC in November 2004). The third, Elemental Brubeck, is a collaboration between the Lubovitch company and the San Francisco Ballet (premiered in Paris in July 2005). Also in 2005 the Lubovitch company is collaborating with the Limon Dance Company in the creation of another new dance, and in early November the Lubovitch company stages its annual New York City season at the 850-seat Skirball Center on Washington Square, in New York City.
Recent projects (as of 2005) have included: the Lubovitch company’s world premiere of My Funny Valentine as part of the company’s 2001 season in New York at City Center, and (the year before that) staging the world premiere of its acclaimed hit Men's Stories as part of the company’s 2000 season in New York at the Orensanz Center for the Arts. Recent projects also include the creation of a full-evening-length (3-act) ballet composed by Elliot Goldenthal based on Othello in an unprecedented collaboration between the Lubovitch company and American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet. Othello was broadcast nationwide on PBS’s Great Performances and nominated for an Emmy Award.
Lubovitch works are included in the repertories of companies throughout the world, including (among others) the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project and Netherlands Dance Theater.
Lubovitch made his Broadway debut in 1987 with the musical staging for the Stephen Sondheim/ James Lapine musical, Into the Woods, for which he received a Tony Award nomination. In 1993 he choreographed the highly praised dance sequences for the Broadway show The Red Shoes. The final ballet from that show joined the repertories of American Ballet Theatre and the National Ballet of Canada. For his work on that show, he received the 1993-94 Astaire Award from the Theater Development Fund. In 1996 he created the musical staging (and two new dances) for the Tony-Award-winning Broadway revival of The King and I. Most recently he devised the musical staging for Walt Disney’s stage version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin. In 2004 he was honored with the Elan Award for his outstanding choreography.
In addition to his work for stage, screen and television, Lubovitch has also made a notable contribution to the advancement of choreography in the field of ice dancing. He has created dances for Olympic gold medalists John Curry, Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill and has choreographed a full-length ice-dancing version of The Sleeping Beauty, starring Olympic medalists Robin Cousins and Rosalynn Sumners. The ballet was broadcast throughout Great Britain and America. He also choreographed a TV project with Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay, who won the silver medal for France at the 1992 Olympics. The show, based on The Planets by Gustav Holst, was broadcast by the A&E TV-network in June 1995 and was nominated for an International Emmy Award, a Cable ACE Award and a Grammy Award. Most recently he created two new ice dances for Paul Wylie, a duet for Renee Roca & Gorsha Sur, and an ensemble piece for the Ice Theatre of New York.
Born in Chicago, Lubovitch was educated at the University of Iowa and the Juilliard School in New York. His teachers at Juilliard included Antony Tudor, Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow and Martha Graham. He danced in numerous modern, ballet, jazz and ethnic companies before forming the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968.
Lubovitch’s work is renowned for its musicality, rhapsodic style and sophisticated formal structures. His radiant, highly technical choreography and deeply humanistic voice have been acclaimed throughout the world.
