<<  -- 3 --  Tess Crebbin    JOHN NEUMEIER

Neumeier has also directed operas and musicals. At the Bavarian State Opera he directed Verdi's Othello, at the Hamburg State Opera Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice and Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story and On the Town. In 1978, the American founded The Ballet School of The Hamburg State Opera. In the autumn of 1989 the school, together with the company, moved into its own 'Ballettzentrum' provided by the city of Hamburg. Its facilities include nine studios and a boarding school for over thirty students.

Neumeier holds numerous awards, such as the prestigious Order of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1983 he received the Dance Magazine Award. In 1987 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in the Fine Arts by Marquette University in Milwaukee, and was granted the title of Professor by the Senate of the Hanseatic Town of Hamburg. In 1988 he was awarded the German Dance Prize and the Prix Diaghilev. In 1989 he received in Denmark the Medal of the Knight's Cross of the 'Danebrog'. In 1991 at the instigation of the French Minister of Culture he was admitted as Knight to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1992 he received the Benois de la Danse in Moscow. In 1994 he was awarded the Medal of Honor for the city of Tokyo, the Carina-Ari-Goldmedal (Sweden's highest dance award), and the Hamburg Bürgerpreis. In 1996 he received the Nijinsky Medaille of the Polish Minister of Culture. In 1997 he received in Tokyo the Min-On International Award for Arts.

An upcoming feature will consist of an in-depth interview with Neumeier about the problems involved in adapting orchestral works for the ballet stage.