Lawrence Pech (known as "Larry" to friends and co-workers) is a dancer,
choreographer
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...
and teacher currently living and working in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
.
Early years
Pech was born in 1959 in
Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...
.
He received his early
classical music training in piano and voice. His first choreographic effort was in the fourth grade, to the
Beatles’ "
Something
Something may refer to:
Philosophy and language
*Something (concept)
*Something, an English indefinite pronoun
Music
Albums
* ''Something'' (Chairlift album), 2012
* ''Something'' (Shirley Bassey album), 1970
* ''Something'' (Shirley Scott ...
..."
Pech began studying ballet at the age of 14 with the Colorado Concert Ballet. At 16, he won First Prize in the
Colorado Council on the Arts
The Colorado Council on the Arts was an agency of the state government of Colorado, responsible for the promotion of the arts. In July 2010, the Council on the Arts and Art in Public Places programs merged to become Colorado's Creative Industries D ...
Choreography Competition with a piece set to
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...
's "Have a Cigar". The following year (1977), he received full scholarships to the
Joffrey Ballet
The Joffrey Ballet is one of the premier dance companies and training institutions in the world today. Located in Chicago, Illinois, the Joffrey regularly performs classical and contemporary ballets during its annual performance season at Lyric ...
and
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, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual ei ...
schools,
the School of American Ballet (
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' ...
), and Mudra (
Maurice Béjart
Maurice Béjart (; 1 January 1927 – 22 November 2007) was a French-born dancer, choreographer and opera director who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He developed a popular expressionistic form of modern ballet, talking vast ...
's Ballet of the 20th century in Brussels).
New York, early 1980s
Pech accepted a contract from ABT in 1980 directly from the artistic director,
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; lv, Mihails Barišņikovs; born January 28, 1948) is a Soviet Latvian-born Russian-American dancer, choreograp ...
.
For the next seven years, he worked with and was choreographed upon by such masters as
George Balanchine
George Balanchine (;
Various sources:
*
*
*
* born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...
,
Martha Graham
Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide.
Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She ...
,
Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor (born William Cook; 4 April 1908 – 19 April 1987) was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer. He founded the London Ballet, and later the Philadelphia Ballet Guild in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., in the mid-195 ...
,
Agnes de Mille
Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an American dancer and choreographer.
Early years
Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMi ...
,
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Among his nu ...
(touring with him to the
Spoleto
Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome.
History
Sp ...
Festival in 1982),
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp (; born July 1, 1941) is an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1966 she formed the company Twyla Tharp Dance. Her work often uses classical music, jazz, and contemporary pop music.
Fr ...
,
Paul Taylor,
Jiri Kylian
Jiri ( ne, जिरी) is a municipality in Dolakha District in the Bagmati Province of central Nepal. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census it had a population of 13,638 people..
Jiri, which lies about 190 kilometers from Kathmandu, is the ma ...
,
Karole Armitage
Karole Armitage (born March 3, 1954) is an American dancer and choreographer currently based in New York City. She is artistic director of Armitage Gone! Dance, a contemporary dance company that performs several times annually in New York City as ...
, David Gordon, Eric Bruhn,
Natalia Makarova
Natalia Romanovna Makarova (russian: Ната́лия Рома́новна Мака́рова, born 21 November 1940) is a Russian prima ballerina and choreographer. ''The History of Dance'', published in 1981, notes that "her performances se ...
,
Mark Morris, and others. He danced opposite such greats as Mr. Baryshnikov, Ms. Makarova, Ivan Nagy,
Cynthia Gregory
Cynthia Kathleen Gregory (born July 8, 1946) is an American former prima ballerina.
Career
Born in Los Angeles, Gregory took up dancing when she was five, with the encouragement of her parents, who hoped exercise would stem her history of childho ...
,
Fernando Bujones
Fernando Bujones (March 9, 1955 – November 10, 2005) was an American dancer.
Born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents, Bujones is regarded as one of the finest male dancers of the 20th century and hailed as one of the greatest American male dan ...
,
Gelsey Kirkland
Gelsey Kirkland (born December 29, 1952) is an American ballerina. She received early ballet training at the School of American Ballet. Kirkland joined the New York City Ballet in 1968 at age 15, at the invitation of George Balanchine. She was p ...
, Cynthia Harvey,
Martine van Hamel
Martine van Hamel (born 16 November 1945) is a Dutch choreographer, director, teacher, retired ballerina and former Principal dancer at the National Ballet of Canada and American Ballet Theatre (ABT). She was a gold medalist at the biennial Varn ...
, Kevin McKenzie, and others. He appeared in numerous ''
Live from Lincoln Center
''Live from Lincoln Center'' is a seventeen-time Emmy Award-winning series that has broadcast notable performances from the Lincoln Center in New York City on PBS since 1976. The program airs between six and nine times per season. Episodes of '' ...
'' telecasts, and figured prominently with Baryshnikov in the movie ''Dancer and the Dance'' (
BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
).
The move to San Francisco
In 1986,
Helgi Tomasson invited Pech to join the
San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Fran ...
, and he 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 male or female. The position is similar to that of '' soloist''; however, ...
in 1990. There, he was choreographed by
James Kudelka
James Kudelka, OC (born September 10, 1955 at Newmarket, Ontario), is a Canadian choreographer, dancer, and director. He was the artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 1996 to 2005, now serving as the National Ballet's artist in r ...
,
David Bintley
Sir David Julian Bintley (born 17 September 1957) is an English former ballet dancer, the artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and co-artistic director of the New National Theatre Tokyo ballet company.
Early life
Bintley was born ...
, Val Caniparoli, Mr. Tomasson, and Lisa deRibere, as well performing principal roles in ballets by Balanchine and others. In 1991, Pech was the subject of a
KQED-TV
KQED (channel 9) is a PBS member television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by KQED Inc., alongside fellow PBS station KQEH (channel 54) and NPR member KQED ...
special entitled "Blue Lair", a ballet about his victory over cancer. It was awarded a 1991
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
for Best Choreography. In 1993, he became co-founder and Artistic Director of the Diablo Ballet, but resigned in 1995.
Other associations
Pech produced, directed, and performed in three separate programs of original creations for The Florence Gould Theater at the
California Palace of the Legion of Honor
The Legion of Honor, formally known as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, is an art museum in San Francisco, California. Located in Lincoln Park, the Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which also ...
's Summer Arts Series, The Neptune Society at the
Columbarium of San Francisco, and the
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of bo ...
Summer Program (
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
). He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) is a private music conservatory
A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of mus ...
. He has written seven musical scores, including a three-movement piano suite, a song cycle for 16 a capella voices, and various chamber works. Pech choreographed as well as performed in numerous musicals around the San Francisco Bay Area (such as
Mountain Play
The Mountain Play Association is a 501(c)3 organization responsible for the production of theatrical events at the Sidney B. Cushing Amphitheater on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. The stone amphitheater, named for the owner of the ...
's ''
Oklahoma!
''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of Claremore, Indian Territory, in 1906, it tells ...
'', which garnered him the Bay Area Theater Critics' Circle Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical as Will Parker and Best Choreography, 1992). He continues to choreograph for the Belasco Children's Theater, and teaches ongoing master classes for Pacific Ballet Academy, the San Francisco Dance Center, and other companies throughout the U.S.
Lawrence Pech has been Ballet Master for the San Francisco Opera for the past several years. He continues to choreograph
and compose.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pech, Lawrence
American male dancers
American choreographers
Living people
People from Denver
1959 births