Todd Bolender
Encyclopedia
Todd Bolender was a renowned ballet
dancer, 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 Great Depression
, he studied under George Balanchine
and led the Kansas City Ballet
in Kansas City
, Missouri
, from 1980 to 1995.
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 George Balanchine
arrived in this country.
led Bolender to Hanya Holm
, whom he said later saved him from bad teaching. Social acquaintance with Balanchine, however, made a strong impression. Under Balanchine’s supervision, Bolender studied at the fledgling School of American Ballet
with such Russian teachers as Pierre Vladimiroff
, Felia Dubrovska, Anatole Oboukhoff and Ludmilla Schollar. He also trained with Muriel Stuart and, pursuing a strong interest in modern dance, studied with Louis Horst
and Harald Kreutzberg
. The two greatest influences on his choreography, Bolender was to say later, were Wigman and Uday Shankar
, both of whom he saw perform in New York in the early thirties, along with Kreutzberg. Asked why he became a ballet dancer, Bolender said simply it was the Depression and he needed a job.
As a dancer, Bolender had an unusually long career, lasting from 1936 to 1972 when he performed onstage for the last time in New York City Ballet
’s Stravinsky Festival, for which he also choreographed two pieces, Serenade in A and Piano-Rag-Music
. Not only was he a member of every permutation of the company that became New York City Ballet, he also danced with Littlefield Ballet in the late thirties, performing in Catherine Littlefield
’s Barn Dance
and the first American Sleeping Beauty. He performed with Les Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo for one season (1945-46) and with Ballet Theatre for four months in 1944 before being sidelined with an injury.
Bolender was a versatile dancer, originating roles in the work of Balanchine — most notably Four Temperaments, Renard
, and Agon
— and in much of the choreography of Jerome Robbins
as well. In Eugene Loring
’s work, he originated the State Trooper in Filling Station and Alias in Billy the Kid
. Critic and historian Doris Hering, writing in the International Dictionary of the Ballet calls him “a superb comedian with a penchant for high camp.” Describing him in Jerome Robbins’ The Concert
, she writes: “[he] 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. Walter Mitty
.” Longtime New York City Ballet observer Robert Garis said of him in Agon, “[his] easy wit and charm in the first pas de trois seem unrecapturable” (ibid.)
Mother Goose Suite, 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, American Ballet Theater, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
, San Francisco Ballet
, Pacific Northwest Ballet
, The Joffrey Ballet, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
. His best known works, both of which are still in active repertoire, are Souvenirs and The Still Point
, both made in 1955.
, and Showboat. In Kansas City, he choreographed for many operas, including Samson and Delilah
for which the dancing got a better review than the singing.
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 1966-69 he filled the same role in Frankfurt. With Janet Reed he was a founding director of Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1975 and for three years starting in 1977 he was ballet director in the Ataturk Opera House.
. 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
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 that Balanchine created for him in The Four Temperaments. Bolender who created the role of the Fox in the original 1947 production of Renard, resurrected this piece, which had initially vanished for a half century, in 2001 for Kansas City Ballet. Bolender has built a foundation of quality and grand proportion, scarcely imaginable in 1981 and now can enjoy the fruits of his own continuing creativity.
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 Renard for the Kansas City Ballet in 1998. In 2006, Bolender was awarded the Dance Magazine Award for his lifetime achievement in dance.
Just weeks before he was to receive the award, Bolender died on October 12, 2006 at age 92 from complications related to a stroke.
The Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity
opened on August 26, 2011. The building is the new home for the Kansas City Ballet and the Ballet School.
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, 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 Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, he studied under 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...
and led the Kansas City Ballet
Kansas City Ballet
Founded in 1957, Kansas City Ballet is a 25-member professional ballet company under the direction of Artistic Director William Whitener and Executive Director Jeffrey J. Bentley. Kansas City Ballet performs three mixed repertory seasons per year as well as the ever-popular Nutcracker...
in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, from 1980 to 1995.
Early life
Born in Canton, OhioCanton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
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 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...
arrived in this country.
Early years of dance
Attendance at a concert by Mary WigmanMary Wigman
Mary Wigman was a German dancer, choreographer, and dance instructor.A pioneer of expressionist dance, her work was hailed for bringing the deepest of existential experiences to the stage...
led Bolender to Hanya Holm
Hanya Holm
Hanya Holm is known as one of the “Big Four” founders of American modern dance...
, whom he said later saved him from bad teaching. Social acquaintance with Balanchine, however, made a strong impression. Under Balanchine’s supervision, Bolender studied at the fledgling 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...
with such Russian teachers as Pierre Vladimiroff
Pierre Vladimiroff
Pierre Vladimiroff, or Pyotr Nikolayevich Vladimirov , was a Russian dancer and teacher.Vladimirov graduated from the Imperial Ballet School in 1911 and remained a member of the Imperial Ballet company until 1918. In 1915, he received the title of the first dancer.In 1920, he and his later wife...
, Felia Dubrovska, Anatole Oboukhoff and Ludmilla Schollar. He also trained with Muriel Stuart and, pursuing a strong interest in modern dance, studied with Louis Horst
Louis Horst
Louis Horst was a choreographer, composer, and pianist...
and Harald Kreutzberg
Harald Kreutzberg
Harald Kreutzberg , was a German dancer and choreographer.Kreutzberg was born at Reichenberg/Liberec. Trained at the Dresden Ballet School, he also studied dance with Mary Wigman and Rudolf Laban....
. The two greatest influences on his choreography, Bolender was to say later, were Wigman and Uday Shankar
Uday Shankar
Uday Shankar , the pioneer of modern dance in India, and a world renowned Indian dancer and choreographer, was most known for adapting Western theatrical techniques to traditional Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian classical, folk, and tribal dance, thus laying the roots of...
, both of whom he saw perform in New York in the early thirties, along with Kreutzberg. Asked why he became a ballet dancer, Bolender said simply it was the Depression and he needed a job.
As a dancer, Bolender had an unusually long career, lasting from 1936 to 1972 when he performed onstage for the last time in New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
’s Stravinsky Festival, for which he also choreographed two pieces, Serenade in A and Piano-Rag-Music
Piano-Rag-Music (Bolender)
Piano—Rag Music is a ballet made by Todd Bolender to Stravinsky's eponymous music from 1919. The premiere took place on June 23, 1972, as part of New York City Ballet's Stravinsky Festival at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.- Original cast :...
. Not only was he a member of every permutation of the company that became New York City Ballet, he also danced with Littlefield Ballet in the late thirties, performing in Catherine Littlefield
Catherine Littlefield
Catherine Littlefield was an American ballerina and choreographer, one of the first inductees into the Hall of Fame of the National Museum of Dance.She founded the Philadelphia Ballet Company in 1935....
’s Barn Dance
Barn dance
A barn dance is any kind of dance held in a barn, but usually involves traditional or folk music with traditional dancing. It is a type of dance, originating in America and popular in Britain in the late 19th century and early 20th, derived from Schottische...
and the first American Sleeping Beauty. He performed with Les Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo for one season (1945-46) and with Ballet Theatre for four months in 1944 before being sidelined with an injury.
Bolender was a versatile dancer, originating roles in the work of Balanchine — most notably Four Temperaments, Renard
Renard (Stravinsky)
Renard, Histoire burlesque chantée et jouée is a one-act chamber opera-ballet by Igor Stravinsky, written in 1916. The Russian text by the composer was based on Russian folk tales from the collection by Alexander Afanasyev.The full Russian name of the piece is: Ба́йка про лису́, петуха́, кота́, да...
, and Agon
Agon (ballet)
Agon is a ballet for twelve dancers, with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by George Balanchine. Composition began in December 1953 and concluded in April 1957; the music was first performed on June 17, 1957 in Los Angeles conducted by Robert Craft, while the first stage performance was...
— and in much of the choreography of Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins was an American theater producer, director, and choreographer known primarily for Broadway Theater and Ballet/Dance, but who also occasionally directed films and directed/produced for television. His work has included everything from classical ballet to contemporary musical theater...
as well. In Eugene Loring
Eugene Loring
Eugene Loring American ballet and other dance-forms dancer, choreographer and teacher and administrator.-Biography:...
’s work, he originated the State Trooper in Filling Station and Alias in Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid (ballet)
Billy the Kid is a 1938 ballet written by the American composer Aaron Copland and commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein. It was choreographed by Eugene Loring for Ballet Caravan. Along with Rodeo and Appalachian Spring, it is one of Copland's most popular and widely performed pieces...
. Critic and historian Doris Hering, writing in the International Dictionary of the Ballet calls him “a superb comedian with a penchant for high camp.” Describing him in Jerome Robbins’ The Concert
The Concert (ballet)
The Concert is a ballet made by Jerome Robbins, subsequently New York City Ballet's balletmaster, to Chopin's: *Tanaquil LeClercq*Todd Bolender*Yvonne Mounsey*Robert Barnett*Wilma Curley*John Mandia*Shaun O'Brien...
, she writes: “[he] 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. Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in the New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and in book form in My World and Welcome to It in 1942...
.” Longtime New York City Ballet observer Robert Garis said of him in Agon, “[his] easy wit and charm in the first pas de trois seem unrecapturable” (ibid.)
Mother Goose Suite, 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, American Ballet Theater, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was a ballet company created by members of the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo in 1938 after Léonide Massine and René Blum had a falling-out with the co-founder Wassily de Basil...
, San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet
The San Francisco Ballet is a ballet company, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. SFB is the first professional ballet company in the United States...
, 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...
, The Joffrey Ballet, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is a modern dance company based in New York, New York. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey...
. His best known works, both of which are still in active repertoire, are Souvenirs and The Still Point
The Still Point
The Still Point is a 2010 novel by British author Amy Sackville. The book was Sackville's debut novel, and was the winner of the 2010 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize...
, both made in 1955.
Later career
While the bulk of his choreography was for ballet companies, Bolender also choreographed for musical theater, opera and television, starting in 1952 with Time Remembered for Albi Marre Productions. In 1969, he choreographed The Conquering Hero, followed by Cry for Us All in 1970. In Turkey, where he worked in the seventies, Bolender choreographed My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, Man of La ManchaMan of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...
, and Showboat. In Kansas City, he choreographed for many operas, including Samson and Delilah
Samson and Delilah (opera)
Samson and Delilah , Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire...
for which the dancing got a better review than the singing.
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 1966-69 he filled the same role in Frankfurt. With Janet Reed he was a founding director of Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1975 and for three years starting in 1977 he was ballet director in the Ataturk Opera House.
Career in Kansas City
Todd Bolender’s appointment as Artistic Director in the winter of 1981 opened a new chapter of opportunity for the Kansas City BalletKansas City Ballet
Founded in 1957, Kansas City Ballet is a 25-member professional ballet company under the direction of Artistic Director William Whitener and Executive Director Jeffrey J. Bentley. Kansas City Ballet performs three mixed repertory seasons per year as well as the ever-popular Nutcracker...
. 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
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 that Balanchine created for him in The Four Temperaments. Bolender who created the role of the Fox in the original 1947 production of Renard, resurrected this piece, which had initially vanished for a half century, in 2001 for Kansas City Ballet. Bolender has built a foundation of quality and grand proportion, scarcely imaginable in 1981 and now can enjoy the fruits of his own continuing creativity.
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 Renard for the Kansas City Ballet in 1998. In 2006, Bolender was awarded the Dance Magazine Award for his lifetime achievement in dance.
Just weeks before he was to receive the award, Bolender died on October 12, 2006 at age 92 from complications related to a stroke.
The Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity
Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity
The Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity, named after the late Todd Bolender, is located in what used to be the Union Station Power House in Kansas City, Missouri. It opened on August 26, 2011. Following extensive renovations on the historic building, it became home for the Kansas City...
opened on August 26, 2011. The building is the new home for the Kansas City Ballet and the Ballet School.