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| Lisa de Ribère A native of York, Pennsylvania, Lisa de Ribère studied ballet with Marcia Dale Weary in Carlisle, PA and also received much of her training at the Pennsylvania Ballet School, under Barbara Weisberger. At age thirteen, she entered the School of American Ballet on a Ford Foundation scholarship. At sixteen, Ms. de Ribère accepted George Balanchine's invitation to join the New York City Ballet. She appeared with the company in New York and on tours of the soviet Union, Poland, and Germany, as well as Paris, London and Copenhagen. In 1979, Lisa joined American Ballet Theatre where, as a soloist under the direction of Lucia Chase and Mikhail Baryshnikov, she performed roles in the works of Tudor, Robbins, Petipa, Cunningham, Tharp, Baryshnikov and Makarova. She also appeared in concert, partnered by Alexander Godunov, in the U.S., Puerto Rico — with the Israel Ballet — and Europe in 1981 and 1983. Television credits include Dance in America, and three Live From the Lincoln Center performances. Ms. de Ribère's choreographic talents have received public and critical acclaim since 1984, when she left American Ballet Theatre and a performing career to devote her full attention to choreography. Her works at that time included The Haydn Variations for the prestigious Aspen Dance Festival in 1984 and Papillon for Mikhail Baryshnikov's summer concert tour in 1985. She was also chosen as the first fellowship recipient of Barbara Weisberger's Carlisle Project. Since then, her works — which now number close to eighty — have entered the repertoires of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Nashville Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet and San Francisco Ballet for whom she created Harvest Moon, a celebration of the 1940's and the Glen Miller Band, in 1990. She has also had the honor of creating two works for the School of American Ballet Choreographic Workshop, as well as Mishima, for IL Teatro Communale in Florence. Her work, The Mighty Casey, based on the Ernest L. Thayer poem, Casey at the Bat, and originally commissioned by Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, was an instant hit enjoyed by children, adults, the press, and ballet and baseball fans equally. Sports Illustrated featured Casey and Ms. de Ribère — as did CBS Sunday Morning and ESPN — illustrating the wide appeal of a dancing baseball hero. Lisa has choreographed the Berkshire Theater Festival's production of Kiss Me Kate, her first foray into musical theater. Recent collaborations on the Dance Technology Project in Atlanta have gained international recognition by way of CNN's Futurewatch, which profiled de Ribère's work, Non Sequitur, in 1994. After creating nine works for St. Paul's School Ballet Company,
she returned recently to set a new Snow Scene and Flower Dance for
SPSBC's annual Nutcracker. Lisa has been the recipient of three individual fellowships from the Pennsylvania Arts Council which has also funded many of her works commissioned by Pennsylvania companies, and four consecutive fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is married to Jay Larkin, Senior Vice-President and Executive Producer of Sports and Events Programming for Showtime Networks, Inc. They reside in New York City with their two children.
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