View of dancer and choreographer Eliot Feld during a rehearsal with his company, Feld Ballet, August 1970. (Photo by Jack Mitchell)
Eliot Feld (1942- ) is a notable Jewish-American choreographer who has made a truly impressive 149 ballets and founded the prestigious ballet academy/academic public school Ballet Tech in NYC.
Born to a middle-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, Feld studied at the School of American Ballet and the High School of Performing Arts in NYC. His early career in ballet was spent as a dancer, where he danced small roles with NYCB, on Broadway (including in Fiddler on the Roof), and in Donald McKaye and Pearl Lang’s companies. He also danced with ABT, which is where, in 1967, he debuted as a choreographer at age 25 with At Midnight.
At Midnight was an enormous success, and ABT and other companies commissioned several more well-regarded works. In 1969, he left ABT to found his first company of his own, the American Company Ballet, which lasted only two years before foundering. Afterwards, he returned to dance and choreography at the Joffrey and other companies. In 1974, however, he founded the Eliot Feld Ballet, which saw a great deal more success. It was named company in residence at the Newman Theater, part of the New York Shakespeare Festival, and danced mainly Feld’s own works. The Eliot Feld Ballet transitioned to a school and foundation known as Ballet Tech in 1978, and continues in this form today. Ballet Tech runs the tuition-free New York City Public School for Dance, as well as other programs for young dancers. Feld served as its artistic director until June 2021.
The Ballet Tech foundation has a large physical impact on American ballet as well. Through the foundation, Feld and Cora Cahan renovated the well-known Joyce Theater for use by small- and medium-sized dance companies; today, the Joyce is a vital part of the NYC dance ecosystem. Moreover, Feld collaborated with ABT and Alvin Ailey to rescue 890 Broadway from commercial development and turn the space into the Lawrence A. Wien Center for Dance and Theatre. The Wien Center now houses ABT, Ballet Tech, and a number of other, smaller dance companies.
Feld’s choreography, which is held in the repertories of Ballet Tech, American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and The Royal Swedish Ballet, among others, is a blend of ballet and contemporary dance, almost always abstract and plotless. Feld frequently set dance to American composers working contemporaneously. Feld was also known for incorporating folk dances from various ethnic traditions into his work. Two of these works, “Sephardic Song” and “Tzaddik,” both from 1974, explicitly deal with Jewish themes.
Further reading: About Ballet Tech, Feld Video Archive, the Eliot Feld Ballet’s current iteration, American Jewish Biographies entry from 1982, NYT review for “At Midnight,” NYT feature on Ballet Tech, Feld announces his retirement in 2021
