KEVIN McKENZIE

Kevin McKenzie is Artistic Director of American Ballet Theatre, a position he has held since October 1992. Trained at the Washington Ballet School, he won a Silver medal at the Sixth International Competition in Varna, Bulgaria, in 1972. Mr. McKenzie went on to dance with the National Ballet of Washington and The Joffrey Ballet until March 1979, when he joined American Ballet Theatre as a soloist. He was promoted to the rank of principal dancer in December of that same year. During his 12 years as a dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Mr. McKenzie performed leading roles in numerous ballets, including Solor in La Bayadère, Don Jose in Carmen, Albrecht in Giselle, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, and James in La Sylphide. He also created leading roles in Martine Van Hamel's Amnon V'Tamar and Clark Tippet's S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. Mr. McKenzie also appeared as a guest artist with leading ballet companies such as the London Festival Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, the National Ballet of Cuba, and the Universal Ballet in Seoul. In September 1989, he became a permanent guest artist with The Washington Ballet and was appointed Artistic Associate in 1991. Among Mr. McKenzie's choreographic works are Groupo Zamboria (1984) and Transcendental Études (originally Liszt Études, 1991) for Martine Van Hamel's New Amsterdam Ballet; Lucy and the Count (1992) for The Washington Ballet, and The Nutcracker (1993), Don Quixote (a collaboration with Susan Jones, 1995) and Swan Lake, all for American Ballet Theatre.