Choreographer named new A.D. White Professor-at-Large

Choreographer William Forsythe is a new A.D. White Professor-at-Large, appointed to a six-year term through June 2015.

Forsythe is best known for reorienting ballet toward a more physical and theatrical art form. His interest in the principles of organization has led him to create a wide range of projects, from installations to films.

His newest project, "Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced," is an interactive Web site that is both a research tool for exploring the structures of a dance -- such as one dancer's cues to another -- and a way of transforming those structures into three-dimensional animated objects. With media specialists and educators, Forsythe has also developed a computer application, Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye, used as a teaching tool by dance companies, conservatories and universities worldwide. Universities and cultural institutions regularly invite Forsythe to lecture and give workshops.

Raised in New York City, Forsythe danced with the Joffrey Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was resident choreographer for seven years. In 1984 he began a 20-year tenure as director of the Ballet Frankfurt. He founded his own ensemble, The Forsythe Company, in 2004, based in Germany.

Forsythe's earlier pieces are regularly performed by such major companies as the Kirov Ballet, the New York City Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, England's Royal Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet. His performance works and films have been shown at New York City's Whitney Biennial, the Venice Biennale and the Louvre, and he's made architectural and performance installations for architect Daniel Libeskind and the city of Paris, among others.

Currently, 17 professors-at-large invigorate Cornell's intellectual and cultural life. They visit campus three or four times during their term to present public programs and engage in intellectual exchange with faculty and students in classroom, laboratory and informal settings. Past appointees include filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, primatologist Jane Goodall, novelists Toni Morrison and Eudora Welty, poets Octavio Paz and Adrienne Rich, physician Oliver Sacks and actor John Cleese.

Media Contact

Claudia Wheatley