biography
| name: |
Christensen, Willam
|
| |
originally William Farr Christensen
|
pronunciation:
[kristensen]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1902–2001)
|
| biography:
| Dancer, choreographer, and founder of the San Francisco Ballet, born in Brigham City, Utah, USA. He trained with Michel Fokine, danced in vaudeville, and in 1932 opened a ballet school in Portland, OR, from which emerged the Portland Ballet. With his brothers, Harold (1904–89) and Lew (1909–84), he founded the San Francisco Ballet Company in 1937, the same year that he joined the San Francisco Opera Ballet as ballet master and choreographer. In 1952 he established the Utah Ballet, which since 1968 has been called Ballet West. |
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