Suzanne Farrell
| Suzanne Farrell | |
|---|---|
Farrell in 1965
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|
| Born |
Roberta Sue Ficker August 16, 1945 Cincinnati, Ohio, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | School of American Ballet |
| Occupation | Ballerina; dance teacher |
| Years active | 1960–1989 |
| Known for | Dance career |
| Honours |
Kennedy Center Honors (2005) Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005) |
Kennedy Center Honors (2005)
Suzanne Farrell (born August 16, 1945) is an American ballerina and the founder of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Farrell began her ballet training at the age of eight. In 1960, she received a scholarship to the renowned School of American Ballet. Her first leading roles in ballets came in the early 1960s. A muse of George Balanchine, she severed ties with him in the early 1970s, moving to Brussels and dancing with the Ballet of the XXth Century.
In 1975, Farrell moved back to the United States, where she collaborated with Balanchine until his death in 1983; she retired from ballet six years later after a hip surgery she had due to arthritis. Farrell had an unusually long career as a ballet performer, and since her retirement in 1989 has acted as a teacher in numerous prestigious ballet schools. She held a teaching position with the New York Ballet until 1993, and has been a professor of dance at Florida State University since 2000; the same year, she founded her own company, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, which announced in 2016 that it would be disbanding at the end of 2017.
The recipient of several honorary degrees, Farrell remains well-known and respected in the world of ballet and has been recognized for her influence on dance with several awards and honors, including Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the latter being the highest civilian honor in the United States.
Farrell was born Roberta Sue Ficker in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 16, 1945. She received her early training at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. She took multiple forms of dance, preferring tap to ballet as she liked to "hear her own movements." She was the tallest by far in her ballet classes and always played the male roles (leads, but never a female part). She also never got to wear the "lovely dresses, skirts, gowns and tutus." This led to her having animosity towards ballet at first. She started pointe late as her feet grew so long, it took a while for her to find shoes that fit. Her left foot was crushed and permanently damaged as a child from being stomped on by a horse. In 1960 she was selected to study at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet with a Ford Foundation scholarship. In 1961, she joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became Balanchine's muse for many of his choreographed dances. Farrell has danced in more than 2,000 performances and is the founder of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet Company at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
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