Eliot Feld Places His Ballets In The Public Domain; Feld And Ballet Tech Donate Archive To NYPL

Ballet Tech has revealed the fate of the 149 ballets that Eliot Feld, its founder and former Artistic Director and President, created over the course of his 50-year choreographic career (1967-2018).

The organization, which introduces New York City public school children to the beauty and rigor of classical dance, has launched a new online archive of the dances, most of which, as part of a highly unusual legacy plan, Feld has decided to place in the public domain. In addition to Feld entering the dances into the public domain, he and Ballet Tech have donated the collected archival materials to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, where it will be accessible to researchers, artists, and dance-lovers for generations to come.

The Eliot Feld and Ballet Tech archive will be accessible to anyone with a library card at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the Library for the Performing Arts. This new acquisition places Feld and Ballet Tech among other dance greats such as Jerome Robbins, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, and the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company.

Eliot Feld's body of work is extraordinary in size and scope, with ballets created for esteemed companies including American Ballet Theatre, American Ballet Company, Royal Danish Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, John Curry Skating Company, The Juilliard School, The National Ballet of Canada, Royal Swedish Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, London Festival Ballet, Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Richmond Ballet, New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, and Ballet Tech, among others. But Feld's choreography represents just one portion of his singular contribution to the national dance landscape. He established the Ballet Tech school in 1978 to serve the countless New York City kids with an aptitude for dance and no opportunity to receive early training. In 1996, in a novel cooperative venture between a public entity, the NYC Department of Education, and a private foundation, the Ballet Tech Foundation, Ballet Tech became a freestanding public school, the NYC Public School for Dance. Through the new initiative Ballet Tech Across New York, Ballet Tech provides dance enrichment to elementary schools across New York City. The organization identifies students who demonstrate interest and promise in these classes and invites them to enroll in Ballet Tech's Introduction to Ballet program. The organization has shared the magic of dance with more than 943,000 children over Ballet Tech's existence to date.

Feld's vast legacy also includes the establishment, with Cora Cahan, of both The Joyce Theater and Lawrence A. Wien Center for Dance and Theatre at 890 Broadway.

What Feld has done with the rights to his ballets builds upon his long-standing effort to make classical dance radically accessible. Of the 149 dances, 71 are in the public domain effective immediately, and 67 will be in the public domain as of July 5, 2042. The remaining 11 ballets—choreographed on Ballet Tech students, for young dancers—are now controlled by the Ballet Tech Foundation.

Of his decision to put so many of his ballets in the public domain, Feld said, “It seemed like the right thing to do.”

It's a novel approach to a question that has long confronted choreographers, and especially since dances became copyrightable in the U.S., in 1978: Who will be allowed to perform their work, and under what circumstances, when they die? After Martha Graham's death in 1991, a bitter battle ensued between Graham's company and her heir over whether her company would be able to continue to perform her work. In the final years of his life, Merce Cunningham devised a Legacy Plan that called for the disbanding of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company following a two-year tour after his death in 2009; the Merce Cunningham Trust now licenses his works to companies and individual artists from a wide range of backgrounds and practices. Mark Morris has begun choreographing works for his company to premiere after he dies. Feld's public domain designation offers yet another option.

“We're so honored to receive Eliot Feld's archive to make it accessible to the general public. Feld is a spectacular choreographer, who not only has changed the face of ballet and dance today, but has introduced generations and generations of young performers to the world of dance through his innovative dance school. We are proud to steward his archive for these future dancers,” said Linda Murray, the Anne H. Bass Curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Dionne Figgins, Artistic Director of Ballet Tech, remarked, “Among the many accomplishments in his prolific career as a choreographer, Eliot Feld developed an invaluable repertory of dances expressly for young dancers. These ballets continue to provide students with dynamic choreography through which to hone and expand their craft—such as in our upcoming annual Kids Dance performances at The Joyce Theater, which will include his 1999 work Apple Pie—and will do so for generations to come.”

Ballet Tech Executive Director Maggie Christ said, “Aside from creating an extraordinarily rich body of choreographic work, Eliot Feld has had a profound impact on the field through his founding and longtime artistic direction of Ballet Tech, which has made dance education accessible to generations of New York City public school children. We are thrilled to see his legacy of accessibility realized yet again as his dances and archive become available to other artists and the public.” 

About Eliot Feld

Eliot Feld was born in Borough Park, Brooklyn on July 5, 1942. His academic schooling began at Yeshiva and continued at public school beginning in the 4th grade. Feld's first dance training was at age 8, with Ronne Aul, a distinguished African American modern dancer. In 1954, at age 11, he was accepted at the School of American Ballet. Months later, Feld danced the role of the Child Prince in the premiere season of George Balanchine's Nutcracker at the New York City Ballet. His early dance training was enhanced by study with many distinguished dance teachers and choreographers, including: Pearl Lang, Donald McKayle, Sophie Maslow, Bill Bales, Mary Anthony, Antonina Tumkovsky, Ruthanna Boris, Bella Malinka, and Nina Popova. Feld attended the storied High School of Performing Arts.

At 16, Feld joined the Broadway cast of West Side Story as a Shark, and was soon promoted to the role of Baby John, two years later portraying that role in the movie version of the musical. He danced as well in the Broadway productions of I Can Get It for You Wholesale and Fiddler on the Roof. Feld credits Richard Thomas, a remarkable ballet teacher, mentor and friend for the indispensable ballet training and encouragement without which, he believes, his future accomplishments would have been unthinkable.

In 1963, Feld joined the corps de ballet of American Ballet Theater (promoted to soloist in 1966 and principal dancer in 1968), where in 1967 he choreographed his first two ballets, Harbinger and At Midnight.

In 1969, he formed the American Ballet Company, resident at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where he choreographed 10 ballets over two and a half years, before the company was disbanded in 1971 due to lack of funds.

In 1974, with the support of Howard Klein at the Rockefeller Foundation, Feld formed the Eliot Feld Ballet, resident at the New York Shakespeare Festival, produced and directed by Joe Papp and Associate Producer Bernard Gersten. This also began a vibrant creative association with Cora Cahan as Executive Director of the Eliot Feld Ballet, which became the Original Ballets Foundation and, eventually, the Ballet Tech Foundation. Their collaborative accomplishments between 1974 and 1991, when Cahan left to lead the revival of 42nd St, are legendary. These include the discovery of 890 Broadway, a building with a rare architectural feature—column-free space—and that building's transformation into a dance and theater rehearsal hub. They are also responsible for conceiving and creating The Joyce Theater, and for founding the New Ballet School, now the Ballet Tech School.

Feld choregraphed many ballets under the aegis of Ballet Tech, 14 of which were for Ballet Tech School students. Feld also choreographed two works for the New York City Ballet: The Unanswered Question (1988) and Organon (2001), and was honored by NYCB in 2006 with two evenings devoted entirely to his work, an honor he shares with George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. In 2005, Feld choreographed a full evening ballet, Sir Isaac's Apples, utilizing the entire Juilliard Dance Department, as part of Juilliard's centennial celebration.

About Ballet Tech

The idea for Ballet Tech was years ahead of its time when it first came to Eliot Feld in 1977. Sharing a subway car at rush hour with a group of giddy public school children on a field trip—kids going somewhere fun and different—Feld had an aha! moment. Surely, sprinkled among the tens of thousands of elementary public school children in NYC there were countless kids with an aptitude for dance, and who had had little or no opportunity to receive the early training necessary to grow into the dancers they might be one day. When he emerged from the train and arrived at the Feld Ballet studios at 890 Broadway, he and Cora Cahan, founding Executive Director (1974- 1991) of the Feld Ballet Company and of soon-to-be-created New Ballet School, conceived the first incarnation of the Ballet Tech School. Just six months later, with the approval of the NYC Department of Education, auditions were being held at elementary schools throughout the city. Soon children with physical potential and enthusiasm for dancing were being bused by the DOE to Feld's studios on lower Broadway to begin their dance education—in genres ranging from ballet to modern dance—tuition-free. Talent, passion, a love to dance, and being a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade student at a NYC public school were the only criteria for admission.

In 1996, in cooperation with innovative educator and District 2 Superintendent Anthony Alvarado, and with the blessing of the NYC Department of Education, Ballet Tech became a freestanding public school, the NYC Public School for Dance. There the DOE provides a rigorous academic curriculum, grades 4-8, and the Foundation provides intensive ballet training augmented with modern dance, tap, jazz, theater dance, and choreographic repertory. The student population includes children from all five boroughs and mirrors the diversity of the city's public school system.

Since Ballet Tech's founding, Ballet Tech has grown exponentially. Over the course of its history, nearly 27,000 children have been invited to participate in Ballet Tech's Introduction to Ballet classes. The students with physical aptitude and enthusiasm for classical dance and the rigors of requisite early training are invited to Ballet Tech's full-time school.

Each year, Kids Dance performs at The Joyce Theater, in works choreographed for them by Feld and other celebrated choreographers. The New York Times has called Kids Dance “a New York City treasure.” Ballet Tech alumni have gone on to dance with acclaimed companies such as Alvin Ailey, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Ballet Hispanico, Charlotte Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Martha Graham, New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and on Broadway.

But Ballet Tech prepares children for future success in any number of fields—not just dance. Academically, the student body ranks in the top percentiles on NYS standardized tests. They go on to study at colleges and universities including Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Juilliard, Duke, Brandeis, and NYU, and to pursue a wide range of careers.

For more information about Ballet Tech, please visit www.ballettech.org.