Patrick Bissell
Encyclopedia
Walter Patrick Bissell was an American ballet
dancer. He was a leading principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater. On his death at age 30 from a drug overdose, he was described by the artistic director of the American Ballet Theater Mikhail Baryshnikov
as "without a doubt one of the brightest lights in American Ballet Theater's history, or, for that matter, in the entire ballet world". Bissell was noted for his height and athleticism. His most famous rôle was as Solor in La Bayadère
. His death prompted investigations into the alleged widespread drug use
within the American Ballet Theater.
. He was one of the five children of Donald and Patricia Bissell; his siblings included his twin brother William, two sisters Susan and Barbara, and brother Donald. His father was a computer-systems designer with Hiram Walker Inc
. Bissell was a gifted athlete who enjoyed performing feats of daring: at the age of 8 he jumped off a 30 feet (9.1 m)-high diving board, even though he did not know how to swim. He dabbled in many sports— baseball, basketball, football, track, etc. He was introduced to ballet by his sister Susan who paid him to be her ballet partner; thus he was first paid to dance. He was instantly hooked on ballet and decided to make it his life pursuit.
He began training in ballet and jazz dance
and was soon accepted into a company in Toledo, Ohio
. Like many boys who take up ballet, he tried to keep his lessons a secret, but word got out and he was ridiculed and bullied every single day for the rest of his school days. "I was a skinny kid. They could have crushed me in a instant," he stated.
While Bissell showed early promise as a dancer, he also showed signs of being a troubled young man and began taking drugs at the age of 14. He was expelled from his first school for dealing drugs on the premises. He was noticed by the famous American ballet dancer Edward Villella
, who encouraged his parents to send him to a performing arts boarding school. In 1972 he joined the National Academy of Dance in Champaign, Illinois
from which he was dismissed for behavior problems. Bissell then spent a year at the North Carolina School of the Arts
which he left when he was informed that he should pay more attention to his academic studies. He hitch-hiked all the way to New York to pursue a lifelong career in dance— as that's where the company's top schools are. He then won a scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet
, where he was encouraged by Lincoln Kirstein
, its founder, and Stanley Williams
, one of his teachers. Wherever Bissell went, he attracted attention, both from his fiery dancing and his habit of wearing a cowboy hat and boots around New York City--his way of distinguishing he was a true-blue native Texan. He also made his way around the city on a motorcycle.
He danced the lead rôles in three of the four ballets performed by the school in its annual workshop and graduated in 1977. He became a good friend of Mikhail Baryshnikov, who praised his dancing.
male rôle in La Bayadère
. He moved to the Boston Ballet
but returned the following year. In 1978 he was promoted to soloist and to principal dancer in 1979 at the American Ballet Theater due to the shortage of men in the company. For much of his career, however, Bissell was plagued with injuries, and there were reports of drug and alcohol problems. Bissell and Gelsey Kirkland
were dismissed from the American Ballet Theater in 1980 and 1981 on the grounds of chronic lateness and missed rehearsals—in particular for failing to attend a dress rehearsal on the eve of the company's opening at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
on December 9, 1980. Bissell and Kirkland
then appeared as guest artists with the Eglevsky Ballet
in its production of Act II of Giselle
in 1982 at the Hofstra
Playhouse in Hempstead
, Long Island
, New York. Subsequently Bissell rejoined the American Ballet Theater.
His repertory of lead rôles was wide and varied, including Don Jose in Roland Petit
's Carmen
, Franz in Coppélia
, Basil and Espada in Don Quixote
, Albrecht in Giselle
, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet
, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake
, James in La Sylphide
, Prince Desire in Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Sleeping Beauty and lead rôles in George Balanchine
's Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Symphonie Concertante and Theme and Variations
. He created the rôle of the Prince in Mikhail Baryshnikov
's production of Cinderella
, the leading male rôle in Antony Tudor
's The Tiller in the Fields (1978), Glen Tetley
's Contredances (1979), the title rôle of Peter Darrell
's Chéri
(1980) and the lead rôle in Lynne Taylor-Corbett
's Estuary (1983). In 1984, Bissell starred as a guest artist with the Universal Ballet Company
in its first production, Adrienne Dellas's Cinderella
. He was partnered by its leading ballerina and general director, Julia Moon
. He also performed as a guest artist with the National Ballet of Canada
, Scottish Ballet
and Pacific Northwest Ballet
.
, and charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct and pushing a policeman. He was given a 30-day jail sentence, however a plea bargain was made whereby the judge ordered him to arrange to give a performance at Indiana University
with the proceeds to be given to charity. Bissell was also given a $100 fine.
Bissell married Jolinda Menendez, a former American Ballet Theatre ballerina (she danced two rôles in the Baryshnikov Nutcracker
) and principal ballerina with the Pennsylvania Ballet
, on June 26, 1982 at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
. However the marriage ended after a year due to Bissell's many philanderings and erratic behavior. In 1984, company officials from the American Ballet Theater consulted with experts on drug addiction and found a therapist for him. The following year, a condition of his continued employment by the company was that he undergo regular urine tests. The tests were held weekly with results 95 percent negative, however lapses were penalized with fines. In 1987, he spent five weeks at the Betty Ford Clinic in California
for intensive therapy, completing the treatment in August. Prior to entering the clinic he had injured his foot and was thus prevented from going on the American Ballet Theater's fall tour. His family blamed his drug use on the "highly competitive dance world in New York City".
Bissell was found dead in his apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey
on December 29, 1987. At the time of his death , he was engaged to fellow dancer at the American Ballet Theater, Amy Rose, and had planned to rejoin the company in January of the following year. The results of an autopsy showed that he died from an overdose of cocaine, codeine, methadone and other drugs. It never was determined whether Bissell's death was a deliberate suicide. His death prompted charges of extensive drug use in the dance world by Bissell's parents and fellow-dancer Gelsey Kirkland. Kirkland's autobiography Dancing on My Grave mentions Bissell's frequent use of cocaine and, when discussing her own addiction, she alleged that he had introduced her to the drug. Attention was also drawn to the drug therapy program offered by the American Ballet Theater. According to the company's executive director, Charles Dillingham, Bissell had been participating in the therapy program instituted by the company and had "appeared to have been making progress" prior to his death. Gelsey Kirkland alleged that Bissell's death was "an unavoidable tragedy caused at least in part by the failure of the ballet world and American Ballet Theater in particular to acknowledge and deal openly with the drug problem", which contrasted with Dillingham's statement that "his death came as an utterly horrible surprise". The 1988 production of La Bayadère
by the American Ballet Theatre was dedicated to Bissell who had been notable in the rôle of Solor.
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
dancer. He was a leading principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater. On his death at age 30 from a drug overdose, he was described by the artistic director of the American Ballet Theater Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
as "without a doubt one of the brightest lights in American Ballet Theater's history, or, for that matter, in the entire ballet world". Bissell was noted for his height and athleticism. His most famous rôle was as Solor in La Bayadère
La Bayadère
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
. His death prompted investigations into the alleged widespread drug use
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
within the American Ballet Theater.
Early years
Bissell was born on December 1, 1957 in Corpus Christi, TexasCorpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
. He was one of the five children of Donald and Patricia Bissell; his siblings included his twin brother William, two sisters Susan and Barbara, and brother Donald. His father was a computer-systems designer with Hiram Walker Inc
Hiram Walker
Hiram Walker was an American grocer and distiller, and the eponym of the famous distillery in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Walker was born in East Douglas, Massachusetts, and moved to Detroit in the mid-1830s...
. Bissell was a gifted athlete who enjoyed performing feats of daring: at the age of 8 he jumped off a 30 feet (9.1 m)-high diving board, even though he did not know how to swim. He dabbled in many sports— baseball, basketball, football, track, etc. He was introduced to ballet by his sister Susan who paid him to be her ballet partner; thus he was first paid to dance. He was instantly hooked on ballet and decided to make it his life pursuit.
He began training in ballet and jazz dance
Jazz dance
Jazz dance is a classification shared by a broad range of dance styles. Before the 1950s, jazz dance referred to dance styles that originated from African American vernacular dance. In the 1950s, a new genre of jazz dance—modern jazz dance—emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance...
and was soon accepted into a company in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
. Like many boys who take up ballet, he tried to keep his lessons a secret, but word got out and he was ridiculed and bullied every single day for the rest of his school days. "I was a skinny kid. They could have crushed me in a instant," he stated.
While Bissell showed early promise as a dancer, he also showed signs of being a troubled young man and began taking drugs at the age of 14. He was expelled from his first school for dealing drugs on the premises. He was noticed by the famous American ballet dancer Edward Villella
Edward Villella
Edward Villella is an American ballet dancer and choreographer, frequently cited as America's most celebrated male dancer at the time....
, who encouraged his parents to send him to a performing arts boarding school. In 1972 he joined the National Academy of Dance in Champaign, Illinois
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
from which he was dismissed for behavior problems. Bissell then spent a year at the North Carolina School of the Arts
North Carolina School of the Arts
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts , formerly the North Carolina School of the Arts, is a public coeducational arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that grants high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is one of the seventeen constituent campuses of the...
which he left when he was informed that he should pay more attention to his academic studies. He hitch-hiked all the way to New York to pursue a lifelong career in dance— as that's where the company's top schools are. He then won a scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet
School of American Ballet
The School of American Ballet is one of the most famous classical ballet schools in the world and is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a leading international ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the...
, where he was encouraged by Lincoln Kirstein
Lincoln Kirstein
Lincoln Edward Kirstein was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, and cultural figure in New York City...
, its founder, and Stanley Williams
Stanley Williams (ballet)
Stanley Williams was a dancer and, later, a renowned ballet instructor.-Early days:Stanley Williams was born in England but grew up in Copenhagen, and Stanley was enrolled at the Royal Danish School of Ballet...
, one of his teachers. Wherever Bissell went, he attracted attention, both from his fiery dancing and his habit of wearing a cowboy hat and boots around New York City--his way of distinguishing he was a true-blue native Texan. He also made his way around the city on a motorcycle.
He danced the lead rôles in three of the four ballets performed by the school in its annual workshop and graduated in 1977. He became a good friend of Mikhail Baryshnikov, who praised his dancing.
Career
Bissell joined the corps de ballet of the American Ballet Theater in 1977 and, after three months there, he danced the leadmale rôle in La Bayadère
La Bayadère
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
. He moved to the Boston Ballet
Boston Ballet
Boston Ballet, founded in 1963 by E. Virginia Williams, was the first professional repertory ballet company in New England. Boston Ballet’s national and international reputation developed under the leadership of Artistic Directors Violette Verdy , Bruce Marks , and Anna-Marie Holmes...
but returned the following year. In 1978 he was promoted to soloist and to principal dancer in 1979 at the American Ballet Theater due to the shortage of men in the company. For much of his career, however, Bissell was plagued with injuries, and there were reports of drug and alcohol problems. Bissell and Gelsey Kirkland
Gelsey Kirkland
Gelsey Kirkland is an American ballerina. Kirkland joined the New York City Ballet in 1968 at age fifteen, at the invitation of George Balanchine. She was promoted to soloist in 1969 and principal in 1972...
were dismissed from the American Ballet Theater in 1980 and 1981 on the grounds of chronic lateness and missed rehearsals—in particular for failing to attend a dress rehearsal on the eve of the company's opening at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
on December 9, 1980. Bissell and Kirkland
Gelsey Kirkland
Gelsey Kirkland is an American ballerina. Kirkland joined the New York City Ballet in 1968 at age fifteen, at the invitation of George Balanchine. She was promoted to soloist in 1969 and principal in 1972...
then appeared as guest artists with the Eglevsky Ballet
André Eglevsky
André Eglevsky was a Russian-born American ballet dancer and teacher.Eglevsky was born in Moscow, but was taken to live in France when he was eight, his mother having decided that his talent as a dancer demanded that he be properly trained...
in its production of Act II of Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
in 1982 at the Hofstra
Hofstra University
Hofstra University is a private, nonsectarian institution of higher learning located in the Village of Hempstead, New York, United States, about east of New York City: less than an hour away by train or car...
Playhouse in Hempstead
Hempstead (village), New York
Hempstead is a village located in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 53,891 at the 2010 census.Hofstra University is located on the border between Hempstead and Uniondale.-Foundation:...
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York. Subsequently Bissell rejoined the American Ballet Theater.
His repertory of lead rôles was wide and varied, including Don Jose in Roland Petit
Roland Petit
Roland Petit was a French choreographer and dancer born in Villemomble, near Paris, France. He trained at the Paris Opéra Ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets.-Biography:...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, Franz in Coppélia
Coppélia
Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
, Basil and Espada in Don Quixote
Don Quixote (ballet)
Don Quixote is a ballet originally staged in four acts and eight scenes, based on an episode taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and was first presented by the Ballet of the...
, Albrecht in Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
, James in La Sylphide
La Sylphide
La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
, Prince Desire in Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Sleeping Beauty and lead rôles in George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
's Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Symphonie Concertante and Theme and Variations
Theme and Variations (ballet)
Theme and Variations is a ballet by George Balanchine to the final movement of Tschaikovsky's Suite No. 3 for Orchestra in G major, Op. 55 . The premiere took place November 26, 1947, with Ballet Theatre at City Center of Music and Drama. Theme and Variations was conceived specially for Alicia...
. He created the rôle of the Prince in Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
's production of Cinderella
Cinderella (Prokofiev)
Cinderella is a ballet, Op. 87, composed by Sergei Prokofiev to a scenario by Nikolai Volkov. It is one of his most popular and melodious compositions, and has inspired a great many choreographers since its inception. The piece was composed between 1940 and 1944. Part way through writing it he...
, the leading male rôle in Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer.-Biography:Tudor, born William Cook, discovered dance accidentally. He began dancing professionally with Marie Rambert in 1928, becoming general assistant for her Ballet Club the next year...
's The Tiller in the Fields (1978), Glen Tetley
Glen Tetley
Glen Tetley was an American ballet and modern dancer as well as a choreographer who mixed ballet and modern dance to create a new way of looking at dance, and is best known for his piece Pierrot Lunaire.-Biography:Glenford Andrew Tetley, Jr. was born on February 3, 1926 in Cleveland, Ohio...
's Contredances (1979), the title rôle of Peter Darrell
Peter Darrell
Peter Darrell CBE, a ballet choreographer, dancer and founder of the Scottish Ballet, was born Peter Skinner at Richmond, Surrey, on 16 September 1929 and died in Glasgow on 2 December 1987. For almost four decades he had been one of the most productive and imaginative talents in British ballet...
's Chéri
Chéri (novel)
Chéri is a novel by Colette first published in French in 1920. The title character's true name is Fred Peloux, but he is known as Chéri to almost everyone, except, usually, to his wife...
(1980) and the lead rôle in Lynne Taylor-Corbett
Lynne Taylor-Corbett
Lynne Taylor-Corbett is a choreographer, director, lyricist, and composer. She was born in Denver, Colorado.She works in theatre and film, and also choreographs for dance companies, both ballet and modern, and is the principal guest choreographer for Carolina Ballet...
's Estuary (1983). In 1984, Bissell starred as a guest artist with the Universal Ballet Company
Universal Ballet Company
The Universal Ballet was founded in Seoul, South Korea in 1984. One of only four professional ballet companies in South Korea, the company performs a repertory that includes many full length classical story ballets, together with shorter contemporary works and original full-length Korean ballets...
in its first production, Adrienne Dellas's Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
. He was partnered by its leading ballerina and general director, Julia Moon
Julia Moon
Julia H. Moon also known as Hoon Sook Moon is the General Director of Universal Ballet in South Korea, and daughter-in-law of Sun Myung Moon, founder of the ballet company. She was the prima ballerina of the company.-Early life:Julia Moon was born in 1963 in Washington, D.C. as Hoon Sook Pak...
. He also performed as a guest artist with the National Ballet of Canada
National Ballet of Canada
The National Ballet of Canada is Canada's largest ballet troupe. It was founded by Celia Franca in 1951 and is based in Toronto, Ontario. Based upon the unity of Canadian trained dancers in the tradition and style of England's Royal Ballet, The National is regarded as one of the premier classical...
, Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the four leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet...
and Pacific Northwest Ballet
Pacific Northwest Ballet
Pacific Northwest Ballet is a ballet company based in Seattle, Washington in the United States. Founded in 1972 as part of the Seattle Opera and named the Pacific Northwest Dance Association, it broke away from the Opera in 1977 and took its current name in 1978. It is said to have the highest per...
.
Drug use and death
Bissell was arrested in 1981 in Bloomington, IndianaBloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
, and charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct and pushing a policeman. He was given a 30-day jail sentence, however a plea bargain was made whereby the judge ordered him to arrange to give a performance at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
with the proceeds to be given to charity. Bissell was also given a $100 fine.
Bissell married Jolinda Menendez, a former American Ballet Theatre ballerina (she danced two rôles in the Baryshnikov Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
) and principal ballerina with the Pennsylvania Ballet
Pennsylvania Ballet
Founded in 1963 by Balanchine student and protégée Barbara Weisberger, Pennsylvania Ballet is one of the leading ballet companies in the United States. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the company’s annual local season features six programs of classic favorites and new works, including the...
, on June 26, 1982 at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church is a large congregation of the Presbyterian Church . The church was founded in 1808 as the Cedar Street Presbyterian Church and has been located on Fifth Avenue at 55th Street in midtown Manhattan since 1875. It has approximately 3,250 members from a variety...
. However the marriage ended after a year due to Bissell's many philanderings and erratic behavior. In 1984, company officials from the American Ballet Theater consulted with experts on drug addiction and found a therapist for him. The following year, a condition of his continued employment by the company was that he undergo regular urine tests. The tests were held weekly with results 95 percent negative, however lapses were penalized with fines. In 1987, he spent five weeks at the Betty Ford Clinic in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
for intensive therapy, completing the treatment in August. Prior to entering the clinic he had injured his foot and was thus prevented from going on the American Ballet Theater's fall tour. His family blamed his drug use on the "highly competitive dance world in New York City".
Bissell was found dead in his apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
on December 29, 1987. At the time of his death , he was engaged to fellow dancer at the American Ballet Theater, Amy Rose, and had planned to rejoin the company in January of the following year. The results of an autopsy showed that he died from an overdose of cocaine, codeine, methadone and other drugs. It never was determined whether Bissell's death was a deliberate suicide. His death prompted charges of extensive drug use in the dance world by Bissell's parents and fellow-dancer Gelsey Kirkland. Kirkland's autobiography Dancing on My Grave mentions Bissell's frequent use of cocaine and, when discussing her own addiction, she alleged that he had introduced her to the drug. Attention was also drawn to the drug therapy program offered by the American Ballet Theater. According to the company's executive director, Charles Dillingham, Bissell had been participating in the therapy program instituted by the company and had "appeared to have been making progress" prior to his death. Gelsey Kirkland alleged that Bissell's death was "an unavoidable tragedy caused at least in part by the failure of the ballet world and American Ballet Theater in particular to acknowledge and deal openly with the drug problem", which contrasted with Dillingham's statement that "his death came as an utterly horrible surprise". The 1988 production of La Bayadère
La Bayadère
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
by the American Ballet Theatre was dedicated to Bissell who had been notable in the rôle of Solor.