George de la Peña

George de la Peña, born December 9, 1955, in New York City, is an American ballet dancer, musical theatre performer, choreographer, actor, and teacher whose career has spanned concert dance, Broadway, film, television, and academia.

De la Peña's early training began not in dance but at the piano, and he originally pursued studies as a concert pianist before shifting to ballet during his time at the High School for the Performing Arts in New York City. He subsequently trained at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet and went on to join American Ballet Theatre in the 1970s, advancing quickly to the rank of soloist. During his tenure at ABT, he performed in works choreographed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Agnes de Mille, Kenneth MacMillan, and Jerome Robbins. He and his then-wife, ballerina Rebecca Wright, whom he married in 1984, both departed ABT by 1985 and relocated to California. The two appeared together in Baryshnikov's televised production of The Nutcracker, which is also available on DVD. Wright died of cancer in 2006; the couple had two children together and had been married until that year.

De la Peña's acting career began when Herbert Ross cast him as Vaslav Nijinsky in the 1980 film Nijinsky. The role led to a period of typecasting in Russian parts, a situation de la Peña addressed in a 1983 New York Times interview, noting with frustration that producers assumed he was not a native English speaker despite his mixed Russian and Argentinian descent. His Broadway career ran from 1981 to 1995 and included appearances in Woman of the Year, the revival of On Your Toes, The Red Shoes, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and Cats. His performance in The Red Shoes earned him a 1994 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical, and his work in Chronicle of a Death Foretold brought him a Drama League Award. During the 1980s, while based in Los Angeles, he also appeared in various regional productions.

His screen credits include Personal Best (1982), Kuffs (1992), Brain Donors (1992), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), One Last Dance (2003), and The Dust Factory, the last featuring Hayden Panettiere and Armin Mueller-Stahl. A 1989 television pilot based on The Flamingo Kid, in which he appeared, was not picked up. He also made guest appearances on L.A. Law and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Beyond performing, de la Peña has worked extensively as a director and choreographer for both theatrical productions and concert dance, and he has collaborated frequently with choreographer Martha Clarke. He assisted figure skater Debi Thomas in preparing her Olympic routine. His teaching career has included positions at the California Institute of the Arts, Connecticut College, and the University of Iowa, where he has served as chair of the Department of Dance. He has continued to teach for ABT and holds membership in the Lincoln Center Theater Director's Laboratory.