Eliot Feld

Eliot Feld was born in Brooklyn, New York, and studied dance at the School of American Ballet, the New Dance Group, the High School of Performing Arts, and with Richard Thomas. At age 11 he danced with the New York City Ballet as the "Child Prince" in Balanchine's original production of The Nutcracker as well as with the companies of Donald McKayle, Pearl Lang, Sophie Maslow and Mary Anthony. At 16 he joined the Broadway cast of West Side Story and appeared as Baby John in the movie version, and later danced on Broadway in "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" and "Fiddler on the Roof." Mr. Feld danced with the American Ballet Theatre, the American Ballet Company and Feld Ballets/NY. He has choreographed 145 ballets since 1967, creating dances for the American Ballet Theatre, the American Ballet Company, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, the John Curry Skating Company, The Juilliard School, The National Ballet of Canada, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the London Festival Ballet, the Boston Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, the Atlanta Ballet, the Richmond Ballet, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, and the Ballet Tech, among others.

Inspired by the notion that all children with talent and desire should have access to classical dance training, Mr. Feld, together with Cora Cahan, founded the tuition-free Ballet Tech School in 1978. Today Ballet Tech auditions 30,000 children in more than 200 elementary public schools throughout New York City and provides intensive dance training and rigorous academic education at Ballet Tech, aka the NYC Public School for Dance, at its headquarters at 890 Broadway in Manhattan.