John Meehan (born 1950) is an Australian ballet director, choreographer, professor, and retired ballet dancer.

Biography

He was educated at the

Anglican Church Grammar School The Anglican Church Grammar School (ACGS), formerly the Church of England Grammar School and commonly referred to as Churchie, is an independent, Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican, Day school, day and boarding school for boys, located in ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

and studied at the

Australian Ballet School The Australian Ballet School is the premier ballet training facility in Australia, located in Melbourne. History The Australian Ballet School was founded in 1964 as the primary training facility for The Australian Ballet by Dame Margaret Scot ...

. Meehan joined the

Australian Ballet The Australian Ballet (TAB) is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur an ...

in 1970 and was promoted to

principal dancer A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. A principal may be either gender. The position is similar to that of ''Soloist (ballet), solois ...

in 1974, creating roles in new works by Glen Tetley, John Butler, Garth Welch, Sir Robert Helpmann and Gillian Lynne as well as the role of Count Danilo in Ronald Hynd's ''

The Merry Widow ''The Merry Widow'' ( ) is an operetta by the Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The Libretto, librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein (writer), Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's ...

''. In 1977, he performed as Guest Artist with

American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) in the spr ...

(ABT) joining the company as Principal Dancer in the fall of that year. He also danced as guest artist with the Boston Ballet, the

National Ballet of Canada The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca, the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 ...

and 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 ...

. While in Australia, Meehan's teachers included Patricia MacDonald, Martin Rubinstein, Vera Volkova, Dame Margaret Scott and Dame Peggy Van Praagh and in New York, Maggie Black, David Howard and Stanley Williams. He worked closely with the choreographers Anthony Tudor and Glen Tetley as well as Sir Frederick Ashton and Sir Robert Helpmann. During his dancing career, he partnered many of the world's leading ballerinas including, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Merrill Ashley, Gelsey Kirkland, Cynthia Gregory, Martine Van Hamel, Natalia Makarova, Eva Evdokimova, Karen Kain and the Australian ballet stars Marilyn Rowe and Marilyn Jones. He can also been seen partnering Karen Kain in the National Ballet of Canada's production of Hynd's The Merry Widow. On television, John performed on the Merv Griffin Show, the 1978 Academy Awards Presentation and in the episode Come Dance with Me on the Love Boat. In 1983, Meehan was cast in the lead role of Andrew Lloyd Webber's

Song and Dance ''Song and Dance'' is a musical comprising two acts, one told entirely in "Song" and one entirely in "Dance", tied together by a unifying love story. The "Song" act is '' Tell Me on a Sunday'', with lyrics by Don Black and music by Andrew Ll ...

which he performed in London opposite Liz Robertson, in Australia opposite Gaye MacFarlane and on Broadway opposite Bernadette Peters and later Betty Buckley. He also was seen in the US tour of the same show opposite Melissa Manchester. Meehan retired from the stage in 1989, and in 1990, was appointed as the

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 ...

of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. In 1997, he became Artistic Director of the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, training among others, MIsty Copeland, Isabella Boylston, Hee Seo, Michelle Wiles, Ashley Ellis, Yuriko Kajiha, Allison Miller, Erica Cornejo, Herman Cornejo, David Hallberg, Matthew Golding, Tom Forster, Cory Stearns, Roman Zhurbin and Craig Salstein. He was the artistic director of Hong Kong Ballet between July 2006 to 2009 before joining the faculty of

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

as Professor of Dance on the Frances Daly Fergusson Chair in the Humanities. Meehan's choreography is in the repertoire of the

(ABT), The Washington Ballet, the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

, the Hong Kong Ballet and 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 ...

. Meehan has served as a juror of the

Prix de Lausanne The Prix de Lausanne () is an international dance competition held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland. The competition is for young dancers seeking to pursue a professional career in classical ballet, and many former prize winners of the competition ...

, twice as the president of the jury (2004 and 2006) and is currently President of the USA International Ballet Competition. He was juror at the Moscow International Ballet Competition in 2017, and regularly invited as a judge for the Youth America Grand Prix.

References

External links

* ''

department of dance'' * ''Indianapolis City Ballet''
Archival footage of Balanchine's ''Agon'' in 1986 performed by John Meehan and Merrill Ashley at Jacob's Pillow

''Ballet Magazine'', November 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Meehan, John 1950 births Australian male ballet dancers Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School faculty Living people Australian Ballet School alumni People educated at Anglican Church Grammar School