John Clifford

John Clifford is a Los Angeles–based dancer, choreographer, artistic director, and master of classical ballet repertory. He spent eight years with George Balanchine's New York City Ballet, where he danced leading roles in more than 45 ballets and choreographed eight new works. During that period, he established himself as both a performer in the Balanchine classical tradition and a creator of original ballet.

Clifford founded and directed the original Los Angeles Ballet and later Ballet of Los Angeles, institutions that reflected his commitment to building dance in his native region. Beyond his work in classical ballet, his early career encompassed jazz, television, and theatrical performance—a range that would define his approach to choreography across multiple genres.

As a choreographer and staging artist, Clifford has worked extensively with the George Balanchine Trust as a répétiteur and ballet master, responsible for preserving and transmitting Balanchine's works to new generations and companies. He has also received commissions from San Francisco Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Deutsche Oper Ballet, and numerous other companies internationally. His work extends to musical theatre, rock, film adaptation, and commercial dance for television and screen.

Clifford's practice spans the full arc of a dance professional: repertory performance, new ballet creation, company direction, international staging, and teaching. He produced *The Art of the Classical Pas de Deux* for film and television, documenting and sharing a cornerstone of classical technique. His career demonstrates how a dancer trained in the Balanchine tradition can expand into choreography, institutional leadership, and the diverse forms that contemporary dance work demands.