Trivia

The recipient of numerous awards, including the 38th annual Capezio Dance Award; the Frances Holleman Breathitt Award for Excellence, for his outstanding contribution to the arts and to the education of young people; the National Society of Arts & Letters Award for Lifetime Achievement (becoming only the fourth dance personality to receive the Gold Medal); the Dance Magazine Award (1964); the Cultural Service Award from the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts (1998), and the George C. Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts, presented by the South Florida Critics Association (1997). He has been awarded honorary degrees by the State University of New York, University of South Carolina, St. Thomas University, Siena College, Fordham University, Skidmore College, Nazareth College, Florida Atlantic University where he actually serves as Artist in Residence and Union College, which established the Edward Villella Fellowship in 1991, with the first Fellowship awarded in May, 1996.

He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1997 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.

He first began ballet as one day when he was playing baseball with his friends in the park and his friend pitched a fast hardball to him and it struck him, knocking him out completely. His friends left him unconscious on his doorstep. His mother was upset so she dragged him to his sister's ballet class to watch for his personal safety. The instructor said he could not be there if he wasn't taking class, so he was made to join against his will. But he fell in love with the craft and decided to pursue a life in ballet.

One of the most famous former dancers of the New York City Ballet.

Founder and Artistic Director of The Miami City Ballet (January 2006)

Father of Roddy Villella.

Both he and his sister took ballet as children at their mother's insistence. Although his sister wanted to give it up professionally, he continued. Both of them studied at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet.