Peter Martins, Doctor of Fine Arts
Imagine following Shakespeare as playwright at the Globe. That’s almost what you faced succeeding the father of twentieth-century ballet, George Balanchine, as Master in Chief of the New York City Ballet. Your career with the company began in 1967 in the role you developed into the iconic interpretation of Apollo. For decades your dancing was known for its powerful “insight, musicality, and technical mastery.” Encouraged by your mentor, you began also to choreograph, eventually creating more than 75 ballets cited for their brilliant clarity. Then, at the peak of your performing career, you laid it aside to lead “one of the world’s most prestigious and creative performing arts organizations,” choreographing in a different way the day-to-day movements of more than 90 dancers and assorted staff with an active repertory of more than 150 ballets. You have succeeded by treating the legacy of your prodigious predecessor not as a shadow to emerge from but as a gift to embrace and develop, and by maintaining the primacy of the classical vocabulary made modern with creativity and intelligence. Few can name Shakespeare’s successor. But all know who has brought the New York City Ballet gloriously into the twenty-first century.
I hereby declare you recipient of the honorary degree Doctor of Fine Arts, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.
June 4, 2006