{"id":11429,"date":"2021-04-30T21:01:08","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T21:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=11429"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:24","slug":"gary-chryst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/04\/30\/gary-chryst\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Chryst"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Gary Chryst<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Joffrey Ballet (1967-1980)<\/strong>
\nFeld Ballet: Guest (1984)<\/strong>
\nNetherlands Dance Theater III<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"
Photo by Jack Mitchell via Getty Images, 1975.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Born and raised in La Jolla, California, Gary Chryst moved to New York and attended the High School of Performing Arts. He initially studied acting at the school before switching to dance; this attraction to drama resulted in Chryst\u2019s later reputation as a character performer.<\/div>\n
Before graduating, Chryst performed with Norman Walker and was asked to join the Joffrey Ballet, where he danced from 1967 to 1980. His performance as the Old Showman in Petrouchka<\/em> was recorded by PBS\u2019s Great Performances: Dance in America<\/em>.<\/div>\n
He also appeared in the companies of David Parsons, Eliot Feld, Jos\u00e9 Lim\u00f3n, Lar Lubovitch, and Twyla Tharp.<\/div>\n
After he left the Joffrey and tore his Achilles\u2019 tendon, he had difficulty finding work; he was nonetheless cast in productions of A Chorus Line <\/em>and West Side Story<\/em>. He additionally performed in Nureyev<\/em> on Broadway (1977), Dancin\u2019<\/em> on Broadway (1978), Parade<\/em> at the Metropolitan Opera House (1981), and Guys and Dolls<\/em> on Broadway (1992). He served as the dance supervisor for the 1996 Broadway production of Chicago<\/em>.<\/div>\n
In the early to mid 1990s, Chryst danced with Netherlands Dance Theater III, a company founded by Ji\u0159\u00ed Kyli\u00e1n for dancers over the age of 42. Chryst remained with the company for six years, a period that he calls \u201cthe most artistic part of his life so far.\u201d<\/div>\n
His choreography credits include Chicago <\/em>in Austria, West Side Story<\/em> in Brazil, South Pacific<\/em> in the US, and Nikinsky<\/em> in Japan.<\/div>\n
In 2006, Chryst originated the role of one of the Ugly Stepsisters in Frederick Ashton\u2019s Cinderella<\/em> at the Joffrey Ballet.<\/div>\n
\n

The New York Times<\/em> declared that Chryst had \u201cestablished a reputation as one of the finest character or dramatic dancers in American ballet.\u201d Choreographer Martha Clarke once said of Chryst, \u201cHis whole life has been dance. He dances like he\u2019s possessed, even in rehearsal, with such a wonderful combination of rawness and refinement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gary Chryst, Playbill<\/a>
\nNederlands Dance Theater III, Jacob\u2019s Pillow<\/a>
\nGary Chryst: A Dance With a Distinct Difference, The New York Times<\/a>
\nGary Chryst, IMDB<\/a>
\nGary Chryst, Mariinsky Theatre<\/a>
\nGary Chryst reflects on his life\u2019s journey, Windy City Times<\/a>
\nStage Preview: Gary Chryst keeps his foot in the door, from ballet to \u2018Chicago\u2019 tour, The Post-Gazette<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Chryst Joffrey Ballet (1967-1980) Feld Ballet: Guest (1984) Netherlands Dance Theater III Born and raised in La Jolla, California, Gary Chryst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,272],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dancers","category-dancers_done"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11430,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429\/revisions\/11430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}