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Damian Woetzel
Photo © Paul Kolnik
Background |
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Damian Woetzel began taking dance lessons at age four at a local school in Newton, Massachusetts. At the age of seven, he enrolled at the Boston Ballet School, and he appeared frequently in the Boston Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. In 1983, at age 15, he moved with his family to Los Angeles, where he joined the Los Angeles Ballet and graduated from high school the same year. In December 1984 Mr. Woetzel became a student at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, and less than six months later joined New York City Ballet's corps de ballet. In early 1989 he was promoted to the rank of soloist, and later that same year, he was promoted to the rank of principal dancer.
In September 2006, Mr. Woetzel was named Director of the Vail International Dance Festival, which takes place annually in August. Woetzel's inaugural festival in 2007 was widely acclaimed for its innovation and growth as a nationally recognized summer showcase for dance.
Mr. Woetzel holds a Master in Public Administration Degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In the fall of 2007, Harvard President Drew Faust appointed Woetzel to the new Harvard Task Force on the Arts. Mr. Woetzel is a charter member of the National Committee on U.S. China Relations' Young Leaders Forum, dedicated to forming bonds between future business and cultural leaders from the United States and China. Since 2004, Mr. Woetzel has been a member of the Artists Committee of the Kennedy Center Honors. He has been named the 2008 Harman-Eisner Artist-in-Residence at the Aspen Institute.
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Featured Roles Since Joining NYCB |
Mr. Woetzel has danced more than 50 featured roles in the Company's repertory, including: George Balanchine's: - Agon
- Coppelia (Frantz)
- Prodigal Son
- Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
- Stars and Stripes
- Swan Lake
and Jerome Robbins': - Afternoon of a Faun
- Fancy Free
- Dances at a Gathering
- Suite of Dances
- West Side Story Suite (the singing/dancing role of Riff)
He originated featured roles in: - Eliot Feld's The Unanswered Question and Organon
- Peter Martins' Jeu de Cartes and The Sleeping Beauty
- Mr. Robbins' Ives, Songs and Quiet City
- Susan Stroman's "The Blue Necklace" (Billy Randolph) from Double Feature
- Twyla Tharp's The Beethoven Seventh
- Christopher Wheeldon's An American in Paris, Carousel (A Dance), Evenfall, Morphoses, and Variations Sérieuses
He also originated roles in ballets by Kevin O'Day, Richard Tanner, and Lynne Taylor-Corbett, among others. |
Other Performances |
Mr. Woetzel performs frequently as a guest artist around the world and, in addition to his New York City Ballet repertoire, he has danced principal roles in classics such as Don Quixote, Giselle, and La Bayadere, among others. He has starred with many of the world's great ballet companies, including the Maryinsky Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and the Hamburg Ballet. Mr. Woetzel made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in the winter of 2002 as the harlequin in their production of John Dexter's "Parade."
He appeared in Dance in America's presentation of "Dinner with Balanchine," dancing Union Jack and Stars and Stripes. In October 1998, Mr. Woetzel appeared as one of the stars of the Cole Porter musical Jubilee in a special benefit performance at Carnegie Hall, during which he sang as well as danced. In May 1999, he starred as Prince Siegfried in Mr. Martins' Swan Lake on the PBS national telecast Live from Lincoln Center. Mr. Woetzel also appeared in the 2002 nationally televised Live from Lincoln Center broadcast "New York City Ballet's Diamond Project: Ten Years of New Choreography" on PBS, dancing in Jeu de Cartes and in the May 2004 Live from Lincoln Center broadcast of "Lincoln Center Celebrates Balanchine 100," dancing in Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet. |
Honors |
In the spring of 2001, Mr. Woetzel received the prestigious Dance Magazine Award. |
Film Credits |
Mr. Woetzel starred as the Cavalier in the film version of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker™, released in the winter of 1993. |
Choreography |
In addition to dancing, Mr. Woetzel has choreographed a number of ballets. For New York City Ballet, he choreographed Ebony Concerto to Stravinsky and Glazounov Pas de Deux, set to the composer's Les Ruses d'Amour. In the spring of 2002, Mr. Woetzel choreographed a ballet for the Carolina Ballet, and he also choreographed a ballet for the Vail Valley Festival in the summer of 2002. He choreographed the "Polovetsian Dances" for New York City Opera's production of Prince Igor, and in 1998, he choreographed and starred in a new version of "An American in Paris" ballet for Marvin Hamlisch's Gershwin Centennial Gala. Mr. Woetzel has been the director of the ballet program at the New York State Summer School for the Arts since 1994, and he is a member of the guest faculty at the School of American Ballet. Mr. Woetzel choreographed Copland Portrait to Copland piano pieces for SAB's spring 2002 Annual workshop performances. |
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