Albert Pierce Evans (December 29, 1968 – June 22, 2015) was an American ballet dancer and choreographer. He joined the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's fir ...

in 1988, became a principal dancer in 1995, making him the second African American dancer to hold this position, and had pursue choreography. He retired from performing in 2010, then served as a

ballet master A ballet master (also balletmaster, ballet mistress, ''premier maître de ballet'' or ''premier maître de ballet en chef'') is an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company. In mo ...

until his death.

Early life

Evans was born in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. He started training in ballet and modern dance after watching ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

'' on television. In 1986, he entered the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the age of six, with professional voc ...

on full scholarship.

Career

In 1988, Evans joined the

. He was soon given lead roles by choreographers

Eliot Feld Eliot Feld (born July 5, 1942) is an American modern ballet choreographer, performer, teacher, and director. Feld works in contemporary ballet. His company and schools, including the Feld Ballet and Ballet Tech, are involved in dance and dance ed ...

and William Forsythe, both for NYCB's American Music Festival. He was also cast in other lead roles while being a corps de ballet member. He was promoted to soloist in 1991 and principal dancer in 1995. He was the second African American principal dancer in the company, after Arthur Mitchell, and the sole one during his career. Though he had never worked with

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...

, he was known for performing his works. Choreographers he had created roles for includes

Alexei Ratmansky Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky (, born August 27, 1968) is a Russian-Ukrainian-American choreographer and former ballet dancer. From 2004 to 2008 he was the director of the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet. He left Russia in 2008. In 2009 he was appointed the ar ...

Christopher Wheeldon Christopher Peter Wheeldon (born 22 March 1973) is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet. Early life Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dancer at th ...

and

Susan Stroman Susan P. Stroman (born October 17, 1954) is an American theatre director, choreographer, and performer. Her notable theater productions include ''Oklahoma!'', ''The Music Man'', ''Crazy for You (musical), Crazy for You'', ''Contact (musical), Co ...

. While he was still performing, he started pursuing choreography, his works include ''Haiku'', ''Broken Promises'', both for NYCB, and ''Seego'' for

The Washington Ballet The Washington Ballet (TWB) is an ensemble of professional ballet dancers based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1976 by Mary Day and has been directed by Edwaard Liang since 2024. The Mary Day years (1976–99) Mary Day ''(née'' Mary H ...

. In June 2010, Evans retired after performing the third (Phlegmatic) variation from Balanchine's ''

The Four Temperaments ''The Four Temperaments'' or Theme and Four Variations (''The Four Temperaments'') is an orchestral work and ballet by Paul Hindemith. Although it was originally conceived as a ballet for Léonide Massine, the score was ultimately completed a ...

'' and Forsythe's ''Herman Schmerman'' pas de deux, partnering

Wendy Whelan Wendy Whelan (; born May 7, 1967) is an American ballet dancer. She was principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and performed with the company for 30 years, and toured in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Whelan has also been an influential gue ...

. He then served as a

with the company. He also became an assistant to resident choreographer

Justin Peck Justin Peck (born September 8, 1987) is an American choreographer, director, and dancer associated with New York City Ballet, of which he was appointed Resident Choreographer in July 2014, being the second person in the history of the instituti ...

, and appeared in the documentary ''Ballet 422'', which follows the creation process of Peck's '' Paz de la Jolla''.

Death

On June 22, 2015, Evans died at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City following a short illness.

References

External links

New York City Ballet biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Albert 1968 births 2015 deaths Entertainers from Atlanta African-American male ballet dancers New York City Ballet principal dancers New York City Ballet balletmasters School of American Ballet alumni American ballet choreographers African-American choreographers New York City Ballet Diamond Project choreographers 21st-century American ballet dancers Dancers from Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century American ballet dancers