Robyn Gardenhire is a Los Angeles native who began her dance training with former Los Angeles Jr. Ballet Director, Irina Kovsmoska. Gardenhire continued her studies throughout her teenage years in New York at the American Ballet Theater School, the New York City Ballet School of American Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet School. At age 16, Gardenhire accepted a contract with the Joffrey II Ballet Company where she danced at City Center and the famed Jacobs Pillow. She then accepted a contract with the Cleveland Ballet under the direction of Dennis Nahat and performed such principal roles as: Choleric in the Four Temperaments, Arabian Princess in the Nutcracker and Russian Girl in Serenade.
During her time at the Cleveland Ballet, Gardenhire had original works developed for her while studying under such auspicious choreographers as Louis Falco, Lar Lubivitch, and Murry Lewis. A move back to New York introduced her to the avant-garde choreographer Karol Armitage who asked Gardenhire to join her company and tour Europe. After completing her tour with Armitage’s company, Gardenhire, under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov, accepted an invitation from the American Ballet Theater in New York to join its’ 50th anniversary season tour of the United States. Gardenhire was the catalyst that established the American Ballet Theater’s Diversity Committee, an organization that brings ballet to inner city youths and their communities and she remains an active board member today. In 1992, Gardenhire continued her unity with Baryshnikov in his White Oak Project with Lubivitch and Mark Morris. Gardenhire returned to her hometown of Los Angeles where she currently resides, and has been researching and developing a ballet company for Los Angeles while teaching and choreographing throughout the Untied States and abroad. As Artistic Director, her vision of the City Ballet of Los Angeles is to create a classical, contemporary, and cutting-edge ballet company that entertains as well as educates.
