David Howard (June 14, 1937 - August 11, 2013) is a ballet dancer and an English teacher, teaching internationally at institutions such as the Royal Ballet, Theater American Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and Canada National Ballet. Howard opened his popular dance studio in New York City, David Howard's Ballet School (later David Howard Dance Center) in 1977, before being closed in 1995. The dance center welcomes all students including children, adult beginners and professionals from Broadway Musical and ballet. In addition to his teaching, Howard is an expert in the history of pointe shoes worn by ballet dancers, and pioneers in their design.
As a boy, Howard learned to dance and won the Royal Academy of Dance's Adeline GenÃÆ'Â © e Silver Medal 16 years old. When he signed up with the union of English artist, Equity, he discovered that David Edwards was a member, and he had to call himself David Howard. Howard later became a dancer in the London Palladium choir, appearing in a show featuring Julie Andrews, Marlene Dietrich and Danny Kaye. Howard is a soloist at Ballet Theater Wells Sadler, the pioneer of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. From Royal Ballet he briefly joined the National Ballet of Canada, and returned to london in the early 1960s. Howard appeared in the musical in London before his back injury ended his show career, and began practicing as a hairdresser, who further injured his back.
Howard continued to teach dance and in 1966 Howard was contacted by the heiress of Rebekah Harkness, who was looking for a teacher for his ballet school, the Harkness Ballet in New York City. Howard went to teach at his school in Manhattan, where he lived for the rest of his life. His move to the United States, Howard, said that he "... came as a new person and eventually became part of the American dream." Howard then taught at two dance schools in Manhattan, Steps on Broadway, and the Broadway Dance Center. He also taught internationally and created 125 CDs and DVDs of instructional dance.
His teaching style is described by The New York Times as "... a kinesthetic approach, in which dancers are taught to rely less on external feedback from mirrors and more on internal signals that telegraph head positions , limbs and bodies in space ". Howard said of the dance that "Out of that feeling comes in the form of... Ninety percent of the time students are taught the first form, and then they are expected, through some act of God, to gain feelings." Howard's students include Gelsey Kirkland, Patricia McBride and Mikhail Baryshnikov. McBride paid tribute to Howard who described him as "... one of the great teachers of our time, over the years," and Baryshnikov told Howard that "He is a father figure for people like me and like Gelsey."
Video David Howard (ballet teacher)
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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