Benjamin Harkarvy (16 December 1930, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

– 30 March 2002, in New York City) was an American dance teacher,

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

, and

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

. He earned an international reputation for his eclectic approach to dance education (particularly seen in his directorship of the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

Dance Division), as well as through his leadership of a number of prominent

dance companies This is a list of notable Dance troupe, dance and Ballet company, ballet companies. Notes References See also

*List of folk dance performance groups *List of ballet companies in the United States *List of dancers {{Dance Dance compa ...

Biography

Early training

Harkarvy began to study dance at the age of thirteen, already focused on the goal of teaching. Among his principal teachers were two highly regarded Russian expatriates: Edward Caton and Elizabeth Anderson-Ivantzova. Harkarvy studied primarily at 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 ...

. He had only a brief performing career, making his debut with the Brooklyn Lyric Opera at the age of eighteen and appearing in summer stock productions.

Career

From 1951 to 1955, he taught at

Michel Fokine Michael Fokine ( – 22 August 1942) was a Russian choreographer and dancer. Career Early years Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant and at the age of 9 was accepted into the Saint Petersburg Imperial Ballet Sch ...

's school in New York City, and, in 1955, he opened his own school. Harkarvy's first post with a dance company came in 1957 with the

Royal Winnipeg Ballet The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada's oldest ballet company and the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America. History It was founded in 1939 as the "Winnipeg Ballet Club" by Gweneth Lloyd and Betty Farrally (who also fou ...

. The following year he was named ballet master of the

Dutch National Ballet The Dutch National Ballet ( Dutch: Het Nationale Ballet) is the official and largest ballet company in the Netherlands. Its forerunners were Ballet Der Lage Landen, Ballet of the Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam Ballet, and Netherlands Ballet (Nederl ...

. Unhappy over problems with that company, he and a number of the dancers broke away and formed

Nederlands Dans Theater Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT; literal translation Netherlands Dance Theatre) is a Dutch contemporary dance dance company, company. NDT is headquartered at the ''Amare'' building in The Hague. NDT also performs at other venues in the Netherlands ...

in 1959. Harkarvy and

Hans van Manen Hans Arthur Gerard van Manen (; born 11 July 1932) is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer and photographer. He studied under Sonia Gaskell and Françoise Adret. Van Manen wrote many ballets. He worked for the Dutch National Ballet from 1973 to ...

co-directed this new company, which combined ballet and modern dance in its repertory, for a decade. In 1969, Harkarvy became co-director, with

Lawrence Rhodes Lawrence Rhodes (November 24, 1939 – March 27, 2019) was an American premier dancer, dance teacher and director of ballet companies and the dance divisions of New York University and the Juilliard School. Early life Lawrence Rhodes was born in ...

, of the

Harkness Ballet The Harkness Ballet (1964–1975) was a New ballet company named after its founder Rebekah Harkness. Harkness inherited her husband's fortune in Standard Oil holdings, and was a dance lover. Harkness funded Joffrey Ballet, but when they refused ...

, which was disbanded the following year. He then returned to the

for a year, but, from 1972 to 1982, he was affiliated with the

Pennsylvania Ballet Philadelphia Ballet (formerly known as Pennsylvania Ballet until its rebranding in 2021) is the largest ballet company in Philadelphia. The company's annual local season features six programs of classic pieces, such as George Balanchine's ''The ...

. For Pennsylvania Ballet he taught daily and re-staged several of his well-known ballets-Madrigalesco, Recital for Cello and 8 Dancers, Grand Pas Espagnol plus created several new works including Quartet, Time Passed Summer, Continuum, Four Men Waiting, From Gentle Circles, Signatures and Poems of Love and the Seasons. He also brought in choreographers including Hans van Manen, Charles Czarny, Margo Sappington, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Rodney Griffin, Choo San Goh, to create works for the company. During this period, Harkarvy helped to raise the profile of the Philadelphia-based troupe, but he left in 1982 after the company began to experience severe financial difficulties.

Teaching

He subsequently held a variety of teaching positions before joining the Juilliard faculty in 1990. As director of the Juilliard's Dance Division from 1992, Harkarvy expanded existing programs and created innovative new ones, remaining with the school until the time of his death.

External links

Benjamin Harkarvy Papers - Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

The Juilliard Journal Online - Benjamin Harkarvy, Director of the Dance Division, Dies at 71

"Benjamin Harkarvy"
''Encyclopædia Britannica'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Harkarvy, Benjamin 1930 births 2002 deaths American choreographers Artists from New York City Juilliard School faculty Dance in the Netherlands Educators from New York City