Lar Lubovitch

Lar Lubovitch (b. 1943, Chicago) is an internationally acclaimed choreographer celebrated for his musicality, humanity, and rhapsodic style. He began his dance education at The Juilliard School in New York in 1962, studying with Martha Graham, José Limón, Anthony Tudor, and Donald McKayle, with whom he later began his professional career.

In 1968, after performing with numerous modern, ballet, and jazz companies, Lubovitch founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, now in its fifth decade. For his company, he has created more than 100 works that have toured across nearly every state in the United States and internationally. He has received multiple National Endowment for the Arts awards, including “masterpiece grants” for the reconstruction of seminal works. Variety has called him “a national treasure,” and The New York Times named him “one of the ten best choreographers.”

His dances are performed worldwide by leading companies including American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, and the Martha Graham Dance Company. His Othello, A Dance in Three Acts (1997), a co-production of ABT and San Francisco Ballet, was broadcast on PBS Great Performances and nominated for an Emmy Award. His other works for film and television include Fandango (International Emmy Award) and My Funny Valentine for Robert Altman’s The Company (American Choreography Award).

Lubovitch has also made significant contributions to ice dancing, creating works for Olympic champions John Curry, Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Paul Wylie, Brian Orser, and others. He choreographed The Sleeping Beauty for Anglia Television, later broadcast on PBS, and The Planets for A&E, which earned nominations for an International Emmy, a CableACE Award, and a Grammy. In 2004, the Ice Theatre of New York honored him for advancing the art of ice dance.

On Broadway, he received a Tony Award nomination for Into the Woods (1987), the Astaire Award for The Red Shoes (1993), and created dances for The King and I (1996 revival) and Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin (2002).

In 2007, Lubovitch co-founded the Chicago Dancing Festival with the City of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art. At its height, the five-day festival featured leading American dance companies, reached audiences of 15,000 annually, and was presented free to the public. That same year, he was named Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, followed in 2008 by Chicago Magazine.

Lubovitch’s many honors include being named a Ford Fellow by United States Artists (2011), receiving the Dance/USA Honors Award (2011), the Prix Benois de la Danse for outstanding choreography at the Bolshoi Theatre (2012), the American Dance Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (2013), an honorary doctorate from Juilliard (2014), and the American Dance Festival/Scripps Award for Lifetime Achievement (2016). In May 2016, he premiered The Bronze Horseman with the Mikhailovsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia.