A former principal dancer with the company, McKenzie is a direct link to the founders of Ballet Theater, which was formed in 1939 by Richard Pleasant, and partially financed by a dancer, Lucia Chase. McKenzie remained a prominent presence at Ballet Theater until 1991 (the critic Arlene Croce once called him “the Jeremy Irons of ballet”), when he became artistic associate of the Washington Ballet. It was a short apprenticeship; in 1992, he was offered the job of artistic director by a beleaguered Ballet Theater, deeply in debt and without a director. It’s counterintuitive, but the company is in a healthy state.”McKenzie will leave a different company than the one he inherited. In recent years, he has moved away from Ballet Theater’s historic reliance on international ballet stars.

Source: International New York Times March 25, 2021 19:07 UTC