Douglas Becker
Douglas Becker is a choreographer and teacher working in many idioms, including ballet, contemporary dance, and improvisation throughout Europe and the United States. A founding member and principal dancer of the Frankfurt Ballet under the direction of acclaimed choreographer William Forsythe, he played a pivotal role in the creation of many of the choreographer’s early signature pieces and is one of a number of individuals around the world with the authority to remount his repertory. In the making of his own creations, Becker's choreography has been hailed as "innovative and energetic, very graphic and with purity of movement" (Swiss newspaper "24 Heures") and praised for its "delicate, intricate partnering and fleet movements" (The New York Times). Becker's collaborative process of choreographic development improvises upon and utilizes dancers' individual talents and characteristics.
Spanning three decades of choreographic investigation, Becker has received commissions from, among others Belgium’s Royal Flemish Theatre, Switzerland's Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Frances’ CCN Ballet de Lorraine. His improvisation installation, The Third Eye was constructed for the Musée de Grenoble. As a Flemish Government Arts Commission grant recipient, Becker directed and performed in the stage work, Brutal Elves in the Woods, for Brussels' arts laboratory Nadine. Becker has a broad resume in education working as guest faculty at P.A.R.T.S. School Brussels, The National Conservatories of Paris and Lyon, New York University, and the University of California Irvine among others. Douglas Becker, between 2007 and 2011, founded and curated the Hollins University/American Dance Festival Masters of Fine Arts international extended studies program, under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield; introducing dance artists to new ways of imagining their research, advancing their abilities to realize their work in a larger context, and supporting their participation in dialogues that move across geographies as well as disciplines. In 2011/12 Douglas Becker began as artist-in- residence/visiting master lecturer at The University of the Arts Philadelphia. In 2012/13 is Douglas Becker artist-in-residence at University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Ballet training for Becker began in Texas under Nathalia Krassovska and Stanley Hall, and continued in New York City with David Howard, Maggie Black and Marjorie Mussman. In 1978, he joined the Joffrey Ballet and worked with choreographic masters including Agnes de Mille, Choo San Goh and Jerome Robbins, after which he joined the National Ballet of Canada under the direction of Alexander Grant. He toured extensively with the company, performing with guest artists Rudolf Nureyev and Erik Bruhn. Joining the Dallas Ballet under Danish choreographer Fleming Flindt, Becker was then invited by William Forsythe to join the Frankfurt Ballet, where he also worked with Amanda Miller, Stephen Petronio, Susan Marshall and Jan Fabre. A native of Dallas, Texas, he makes his home in Brussels, Belgium.
Forsythe reconstruction
During his career as a performer/Principal Dancer in the Frankfurt Ballet, he either danced, acted, improvised, spoke, or sang in the following works created by William Forsythe: LDC, Artifact (I, II, III, IV), France/Dance, Steptext, Behind The China Dogs, Big White Baby Dog, Die Befragung des Robert Scott, Enemy in the Figure, Herman Schmerman, Impressing the Czar, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Isabelle's Dance, Limbs Theorem, Love Songs, New Sleep, Same Old Story, Say Bye Bye, Skinny, Slingerland, Steptext, The Loss of Small Detail, The Second Detail, The Vile Parody of Address.
Of these works, to date, he has reconstructed Steptext,[1] Artifact II, New Sleep Full length and pas de deux, The Vile Parody of Address, and Die Befragung des Robert Scott.