Peter Martins (born October 27, 1946) is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. He was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and with New York City Ballet, where he joined George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and John Taras as balletmaster in 1981, retired from dancing in 1983 at which time he became co-balletmaster in chief with Robbins, and since 1990 has borne sole responsibility for artistic leadership of City Ballet.
Born and raised in Denmark, Martins studied at the School of the Royal Danish Ballet and danced with the company from 1965 to 1969. He was already an international star when he joined NYCB in 1970 as a principal dancer at the invitation of company co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine. Martins danced a wide variety of roles, although he may be most famous for Apollo and the Cavalier in Balanchine's Nutcracker. He danced frequently with Suzanne Farrell, although they parted acrimoniously when she retired in 1989. Martins was Balanchine's choice to run the company, and he was made balletmaster in 1981. He retired from dancing in 1983 and assumed the job of balletmaster in chief in 1990.
Martins regularly choreographs new works for both companies. His first piece was Calcium Light Night set to music by Charles Ives and premiered in 1977. His more recent pieces include Octet, Friandises and the full-length ballets The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Romeo † Juliet. He also did the choreography for the Barbie movies Barbie in the Nutcracker and Barbie of Swan Lake.
He was nominated for the 1986 Tony Award for Best Choreographer for Song & Dance. Martins is a champion of contemporary music, working often with composer John Luther Adams. His autobiography, Far From Denmark was published in 1982, and his exercise regimen, NYCB Workout, first appeared in book form in 1997, with a DVD and a second series produced later.
His son, Nilas Martins (son of former ballerina and former Royal Danish Ballet associate director Lise la Cour), is a principal dancer at NYCB. Peter Martins had a long relationship with former NYCB ballerina Heather Watts. In 1991 he married NYCB principal dancer Darci Kistler. Their daughter, Talicia, was born in 1996.
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