Suki Schorer is an
American ballet dancer, ballet mistress,
teacher, and writer. She danced with George
Balanchine's New York City Ballet from 1959 to
1972. Suki Schorer teaches at the School
of American Ballet,
the official school of the New York City Ballet
and is a Balanchine Trust répétiteur.
Suki Schorer received her early professional
training at the San Francisco Ballet School
and joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1956. She
continued her ballet studies with Lew
Christensen as a member of the Company and also
attended the University
of California
at Berkeley.
In 1959, at the invitation of George Balanchine,
she joined the New York City Ballet where she
took his daily classes for over a decade. In
1968, she was made a principal dancer. Her
repertory included principal roles in Apollo,
Serenade, Concerto Barocco, Symphony
in C, Ivesiana, Stars and
Stripes, Tarantella and Jewels
among others. Balanchine made solo roles on her
in Don Quixote, Raymonda Variations,
Harlequinade, and A Midsummer Night's
Dream.
Almost from the beginning of her tenure at the
New York City Ballet, she began to teach at the
School
of American Ballet
and she occasionally taught company class.
Later, Mr. B asked her to teach a "newcomers"
class for dancers joining the company. At his
request, she toured the US as a talent
scout for the School of American Ballet
and assisted him in seminars for ballet teachers
that were organized with support from the Ford
Foundation.
On her retirement from the Company in 1972, Mr.
B organized a new class of advanced girls at SAB
of which she was to be the principal teacher. In
1998, she was appointed to the Brown Foundation
Senior Faculty Chair at the School, which
remains her principal commitment. In addition to
teaching, she has staged a ballet annually for
SAB's Workshop and excerpts for appearances in
other venues by SAB students.
Suki Schorer lectures on Balanchine aesthetics
and guest teaches widely in the United States
and abroad (School of Bolshoi).
In Europe, Suki Schorer taught at Scuola di
Ballo del Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Ecole de Danse
de l'Opéra National de Paris.