Lisa de Ribere

A native of York, Pennsylvania, Lisa de Ribere studied ballet with Marcia Dale Weary in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and at the Pennsylvania Ballet School directed by Barbara Weisberger before enrolling at the School of American Ballet at age thirteen on a Ford Foundation scholarship.

At sixteen, Ms. de Ribere accepted George Balanchine’s invitation to join the New York City Ballet. She appeared with the company for nine years as a corps de ballet member, performing choreography by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and others at Lincoln Center, and on tour with NYCB in the former Soviet Union, Poland, Germany, Paris, London and Copenhagen.

In 1979, Ms. de Ribere joined American Ballet Theatre, where, as a soloist under the direction of Lucia Chase and Mikhail Baryshnikov, she performed roles in the works of Tudor, Robbins, Petipa, Cunningham, Tharp, Baryshnikov, and Makarova.

Ms. de Ribere retired from performing in 1984 and turned her full attention to choreography. She has created nearly 80 works for companies in the United States and Europe, most notably The Mighty Casey for Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Harvest Moon for San Francisco Ballet, Papillion for Baryshnikov and Friends, and The Nutcracker for Milwaukee Ballet. She has received four choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ms. de Ribere graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University in 2002 with a B.A. in Communications and Media Studies. She has written articles for Dance Magazine, Pointe magazine, Dance Teacher magazine, and Lifestyles Magazine.