Robert lafosse biography

This autobiography of one of ballet's most talented stars tells Robert La Fosse's story from his beginning as a corps dancer in 1977.
In 1987 he wrote his autobiography entitled “Nothing to Hide.” He currently teaches at American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School.
Robert La Fosse was born in Beaumont, Texas, and received his ballet training at the Marsha Woody Academy of Dance.

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Nothing to Hide: A Dancer's Life

September 12, 2013

This memoir from dancer Robert La Fosse covers his early years and his years with ABT and NYCB. I found it very interesting, because as a dance aficionado, I learned more about his approach to character, what it's like to work with different choreographers and different partners. He worked with such luminaries as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova, Gelsey Kirkland, Cynthia Gregory, Marianna Tcherkassky, Leslie Browne, the list goes on and on ... I was lucky enough to see a performance by ABT in the early 1980's and I realized after finding the program recently that I saw this author in performance of Billy The Kid. The book also had interesting stories about Studio 54 in it's heyday and what it was like, including the drugs that almost killed one of his close friends. Another sad note during that era was the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and how people didn't admit to their illness. It sounds a little dated, but it's still an interesting book and gives a good portrayal of ballet in that era. There are a lot of pictures

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Robert La Fosse performed with American Ballet Theatre as a principal dancer for six years. In 1986, he was invited by Jerome Robbins to join the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer. Through out his career he has danced leading roles in many of the full-length classical ballets, including the U.S. premiere of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet. He has performed in works created by many choreographers including George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Anthony Tudor, Merce Cunningham, Sir Kenneth MacMillian, Sir Frederick Ashton, Twyla Tharp, and Paul Taylor. Mr. La Fosse has also starred in the Broadway productions of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ and in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor. Some of his television appearances include: ‘American Ballet Theatre in San Francisco’, Twyla Tharp’s Push Comes to Shove, and the ‘Live From Lincoln Center’ telecast of ‘Ray Charles in concert with the New York City Ballet’. He appeared as Dr. Stahlbaum in the film version o

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About the Past, the Artist, HIV, Death, being Gay, Representation.

„That is right. Although „here and there" there are some gay Stories told on Stage like Lifar and his lover in Eifman's „Giselle Rouge" but that is too little, I agree, and not representative at all"

"I think this generation thinks that by putting two Men dancing together on stage, it is a big movement forward. It's not. We were doing this in the 70s already. We have put two men together dancing but we haven't put two men together kissing, loving, having intimate affairs on stage and also two women"

„But would the „Sponsors", the people who finance the companies with their own money, be willing to give money to another kind of Dance Narrative so different when compared to the Ballets they are used to?" I ask ironically.

„I don't think so. The Artistic directors take this kind of decision, not the public. But, you made a good point. In America, we show Ballets which we think will sell tickets. We put on „Peter Pan", „Alice in Wonderland", titles that are known to the public. We are not educating. We are not pu