Peter Martins

Peter Martins is a Danish-born ballet dancer and choreographer whose career at New York City Ballet spanned five decades as performer, master, and leader. He first appeared with the company in 1967 as the title character in George Balanchine's *Apollo*, a guest role that led to his appointment as principal dancer in 1970. Martins danced with NYCB until 1983, the year he gave his final performance and transitioned fully to leadership as Ballet Master in Chief.

As a choreographer, Martins created his first ballet, *Calcium Light Night*, in 1977, and went on to create more than 75 works for the stage. His repertory ranges from intimate pas de deux to large-scale ensemble ballets, set to composers including Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, Charles Ives, and Michael Torke. Notable works include *The Chairman Dances*, *Echo*, *The Sleeping Beauty*, *Eight Easy Pieces*, *Piano-Rag Music*, *The Magic Flute*, and *Tango*. Several of his ballets were recorded for PBS's *Dance in America*, bringing his work to audiences beyond the theater.

Martins's body of work demonstrates a distinctive ability to adapt classical ballet structure to radically different musical languages and theatrical scales, from intimate chamber pieces to full-company productions.