From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia George de la Peña born December 9 1955 is an American ballet dancer musical theatre performer choreographer actor and teacher He was born in New York City New York US Originally trained as a concert pianist de la Peña switched to ballet while studying at the High School for the Performing Arts in New York City He graduated from George Balanchines School of American Ballet He joined American Ballet Theatre in the 1970s rapidly rising to soloist While at ABT de la Peña danced in works choreographed by Mikhail Baryshnikov Agnes de Mille Kenneth MacMillan and Jerome Robbins among others By 1985 de la Peña and his thenwife Rebecca Wright had both left ABT and relocated to California De la Peña and Wright had two children before they separated He and Ms Wright can both be seen in Baryshnikovs production of The Nutcracker on television and on DVD De la Peña began acting when he was cast as Vaslav Nijinsky in Herbert Rosss film Nijinsky 1980 and for some time thereafter he was typecast in Russian roles In a 1983 interview in the New York Times an exasperated de la Peña who is of mixed Russian and Argentinian descent pointed out that producers thought he was not a native English speaker He appeared on Broadway in Woman of the Year the revival of On Your Toes the notorious flop The Red Shoes Drama Desk Award nomination and Chronicle of a Death Foretold Drama League Award While living in Los Angeles during the 1980s he performed in Cats and various regional productions His film and television credits include Personal Best 1982 The Flamingo Kid 1989 Brain Donors 1992 Mighty Aphrodite 1995 and guest appearances on shows such as LA Law and Star Trek The Next Generation He was last seen in the film The Dust Factory with Hayden Panettiere and Armin MuellerStahl De la Peña has taught at universities across the country including CalArts Connecticut College and the University of Iowa He continues to teach for ABT A director and choreographer for both theatrical works and concert dance he assisted figure skater Debi Thomas with her routine for the Olympics He frequently collaborates with the choreographer Martha Clarke George is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Laboratory Description above from the Wikipedia article George de la Peña licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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