(50) Part II: Edward Villella, Balanchine Dancer and Miami City Ballet Founding Artistic Director

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Welcome to our second installment with Edward Villella, Balanchine Dancer and founding Artistic Director of Miami City Ballet.  Edward was hired into the New York City Ballet by George Balanchine in 1957 and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1970.  Balanchine created many famous roles on Edward including Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Rubies section of Jewels, Tarentella, and many others, which we discuss today.  Edward became quite famous, not only for his dancing, but his innumerable TV appearances during his career including “The Ed Sullivan Show” and an appearance on “The Odd Couple.”  After his dancing career, Villella founded the Miami City Ballet in 1985 and would remain at the helm for 27 years, developing it into a world renowned company (which we will discuss with him in Episode Three.)  Today Edward talks about working with George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins and he tells us how he saw it as an important role to share ballet with the American Public, and how he still does.

To catch up on our first installment with Edward, tune into episode 47.