New York City Ballet announced today that Principal Dancer Darci Kistler, who joined the Company in 1980, will retire during NYCB’s 2010 season, which will also mark her 30th anniversary as a dancer with the Company.
Kistler, who began studying at the School of American Ballet summer course in 1976, is the only dancer still performing who was trained, and hired, by George Balanchine, the co-founder of both SAB and NYCB. She is also the fastest-rising dancer in NYCB history, promoted by Balanchine to soloist one year after joining the Company, and to principal dancer the following year.
In making the announcement, NYCB’s Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins said, “Darci’s retirement marks an important milestone in ballet history as she is the last of the Balanchine ballerinas. With the conclusion of her dancing career, the torch will be completely passed to a new generation.”
Born in Riverside, California, the youngest of five children, and the only girl, Kistler began her ballet training at age 5, and at age 12 studied with Irina Kosmovska in Los Angeles. In 1978, after two years at the School of American Ballet’s summer program, Kistler received a scholarship to study at SAB full time. While there, she participated in two SAB Workshops. For the first, in 1979, she danced a principal role in Haydn Concerto, created for her by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, as well as the pas de deux from the opera William Tell, choreographed by August Bournonville, and staged by Stanley Williams. For the 1980 workshop, Kistler danced the principal role in Balanchine’s one-act Swan Lake, for which she studied extensively with the legendary ballerina and teacher Alexandra Danilova.
During her extraordinary career with NYCB she has danced leading roles in most of the Balanchine repertory, including Agon, Apollo, Concerto Barocco, Diamonds from Jewels, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mozartiana, Orpheus, Prodigal Son, Robert Schumann’s “Davidsbündlertänze,” La Sonnabumbula, Symphony in C (second movement), Vienna Waltzes, and Western Symphony. In 1993 she starred as the Sugarplum Fairy in the film version of NYCB’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™.
Jerome Robbins created roles for Kistler in Andantino, Gershwin Concerto, and Piccolo Balletto, and her Robbins repertory also includes leading roles in Afternoon of a Faun, In G Major and In the Night.
Martins has created principal roles for Kistler in numerous works, including Adams Violin Concerto, The Chairman Dances, Guide to Strange Places, Morgen, Stabat Mater, Thou Swell, and Todo Buenos Aires. In 1991 Kistler originated the role of Aurora in Martins’ staging of The Sleeping Beauty, and in 1999 she danced the role of Odette/Odile in the NYCB premiere of Martins’ full-length Swan Lake. In 2007, she created the role of Lady Capulet in Martins’ Romeo + Juliet
In addition to performing, Kistler has been a member of the faculty at the School of American Ballet since 1994, and in 2008 she created a new children’s program at SAB that lowered the starting age for students from 8 to 6 years old. Kistler plans to continue teaching at SAB upon concluding her performing career with NYCB.
