Dance Theatre of Harlem Oregon Ballet Theatre California Ballet: Guest (1986)
Photo by Jack Mitchell.
Joseph Wyatt, from the West Indies, trained in part in the dance department of State University of New York at Brockport. As a member of Dance Theatre of Harlem, he was in the original DTH casts of Louis Johnson’s Wings (1974), Walter Raines’ After Corinth (1975), William Dollar’s Mendelssohn Concerto (1975), Marius Petipa’s Paquita (1980), and Domy Reiter-Soffer’s Equus: The Ballet (1982). He also performed leading roles in William Dollar’s The Combat and Michel Fokine’s Scheherazade. In 1975, The Chicago Tribune called Wyatt “a sleek, elegant man with great cheek bones [sic] and carriage” and The Daily Herald (Chicago) said that “Throughout the evening Joseph Wyatt kept a delicate lightness to his footwork which gave special grace to his performance.” Wyatt reached the rank of soloist with DTH, where he remained until 1982.
He then moved to Oregon with wife Elena Carter. The pair danced with Oregon Ballet and its earlier iterations—Ballet Oregon and Pacific Ballet Theatre—and taught at Jefferson High School of the Performing Arts while raising their daughter (Jessica Wyatt, who would go on to dance with Ballet Hispanico).
In 1986, Wyatt performed as a guest artist with California Ballet in Sleeping Beauty and George Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco.
Later in his career, Wyatt became the director of the Pacific Ballet Theater School and then the Oregon Ballet Theatre School, where he is still on the faculty.
