138:, on February 27, 1914, Bolender grew up in a family in which the arts, music and theater in particular, were an important part of life. The extremely lively child—one of four—was early on dubbed the dancer of the family and his physical energy channeled in lessons in acrobatic tap. In 1931, when he was 17, Bolender went to New York, which he said in an interview in 2002 seemed to him like a "kind of heaven", to study theatrical dance. In 1933 he moved to New York for good, taking up full-time residence there at about the same time
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Bolender became
Artistic Director Emeritus in 1996 when he retired from Kansas City Ballet and William Whitener took over as artistic director. In the fall of 1997, Bolender was invited to New York by the George Balanchine Foundation to officially document for videotape the choreography of the solo
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Bolender taught throughout his career in New York and as a guest teacher all over the United States as well as in Turkey, Japan, Austria, and
Germany. From 1963 to 1966, he was ballet director for the Cologne Opera House and from 1966 to 1969 he filled the same role in Frankfurt. With
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423:. Confident that a broader community support for classical ballet might be found, Bolender had a vision to build a company, a repertoire, and a school in the nation's heartland. Bolender did all three and at an age when most people have retired
318:, made in 1943, was the first of some three dozen ballets Bolender made in the course of his long career, eleven of them for New York City Ballet. Bolender's choreography is in the repertoires of Kansas City Ballet, New York City Ballet,
106:, teacher, choreographer, and director. He was an instrumental figure in the creation and dissemination of classical dance and ballet as an American art form. A child of the American Midwest during the
298:, she writes: " was a henpecked husband who constantly escaped into daydreams of sexual conquest. Clad in a vest and long underwear and chewing on a huge cigar, he was the prototype of ... J.
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Todd
Bolender's illustrious career allotted him the opportunity to work and cultivate relationships with Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and Samuel Barber.
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He was active in the preservation of
Balanchine's work, coaching dancers in his roles in the repertoire for the Balanchine Foundation's Film Archive and reconstructing
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for the Kansas City Ballet in 1998 as part of the
Stravinsky Festival. In 2006, Bolender was awarded the Dance Magazine Award for his lifetime achievement in dance.
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While the bulk of his choreography was for ballet companies, Bolender also choreographed for musical theater, opera and television, starting in 1952 with
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After 34 successful years, Kansas City Ballet performed its final
Nutcracker featuring choreography by Todd Bolender during the 2014 winter season.
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that
Balanchine created for him in The Four Temperaments. Bolender who created the role of the Fox in the original 1947 production of
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Just weeks before he was to receive the award, Bolender died on
October 12, 2006, at age 92 from complications related to a stroke.
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he was a founding director of
Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1975 and for three years starting in 1977 he was ballet director in the
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As a dancer, Bolender had an unusually long career, lasting from 1936 to 1972 when he performed onstage for the last time in
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Bolender's appointment as artistic director in the winter of 1981 opened a new chapter of opportunity for the
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opened on August 26, 2011. The building is the new home for the Kansas City Ballet and the Ballet School.
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calls him "a superb comedian with a penchant for high camp." Describing him in Jerome Robbins'
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Bolender was a versatile dancer, originating roles in the work of Balanchine — most notably
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in 1970. In Turkey, where he worked in the seventies, Bolender choreographed
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https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/arts/dance/16bolender.html?fta=y&_r=0
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Archival footage of Emily Frankel and Mark Ryder performing Todd Bolender's
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for four months in 1944 before being sidelined with an injury.
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and, pursuing a strong interest in modern dance, studied with
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for which the dancing got a better review than the singing.
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for Albi Marre Productions. In 1969, he choreographed
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74:Learn how and when to remove this message
563:Choreographers of New York City Ballet
469:The Kansas City Ballet (official site)
289:International Dictionary of the Ballet
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