Jacques d'Amboise

Jacques d'Amboise, born Joseph Jacques Ahearn on July 28, 1934, in Dedham, Massachusetts, was an American ballet dancer, choreographer, and educator. His father, Andrew Ahearn, was of Irish American descent and worked as a personal telegraph operator to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. before later becoming an elevator operator at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. His mother, Georgette D'Amboise, was of French Canadian descent. The family eventually relocated to Washington Heights, Manhattan. D'Amboise was one of four children.

At age seven, d'Amboise began attending his sister's ballet class, and within six months he had enrolled in George Balanchine's School of American Ballet. In 1946, his mother persuaded the family to adopt her surname, d'Amboise, describing it as aristocratic and French, and his name was legally changed to Joseph Jacques d'Amboise. That same year he began performing child roles with Ballet Society. He left high school at fifteen to join the New York City Ballet in 1949, where he was soon cast in lead roles, including the title role in Lew Christensen's Filling Station — a performance that also caught the attention of director Stanley Donen. In 1953, d'Amboise was promoted to principal dancer.

Throughout his tenure with the New York City Ballet, Balanchine created 24 roles specifically for d'Amboise. These included Western Symphony in 1954, Stars and Stripes in 1958, Episodes in 1959, Movements for Piano and Orchestra in 1963, Jewels in 1967, Who Cares in 1970, and Robert Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze in 1980, as well as the company's 1957 revival of Apollo, in which d'Amboise danced the titular role. In addition to performing, he choreographed 17 ballets for the New York City Ballet. He retired from performing with the company in 1984, shortly before his fiftieth birthday.

Alongside his work with the New York City Ballet, d'Amboise pursued a career in film and theater. In 1954, Donen cast him as Ephraim in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. In 1956, he appeared in two films: Carousel, in which he played a Starlight Carnival barker, and The Best Things in Life Are Free. That same year he married Carolyn George, a New York City Ballet dancer who later became a photographer; they had four children, including Christopher, a dancer and choreographer, and Charlotte, also a dancer and actress. Carolyn George died in 2009. In 1957, d'Amboise made his Broadway appearance in the musical Shinbone Alley. In 1978, he was named dean of dance at the State University of New York at Purchase. He appeared in the 1986 Disney film Off Beat, playing a character who teaches dance to New York City police.

In 1976, d'Amboise founded the National Dance Institute with the goal of bringing dance education to children. The program began with 30 boys and had reached 2 million children as of 2021. In 1994, he co-founded the National Dance Institute New Mexico with Catherine Oppenheimer. His work with the National Dance Institute was the subject of Emile Ardolino's documentary He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1983 and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program in 1984.

Among the honors d'Amboise received were the MacArthur Fellowship in 1990, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995, the National Medal of Arts in 1998, and the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards in 2011. He also received the Heinz Award, the New York Governor's Award, and honorary doctorate degrees from Boston College and Montclair State University. D'Amboise died on May 2, 2021, at his home in Manhattan, following complications from a stroke, at the age of 86.