Lubovitch danced in numerous modern, ballet, jazz and ethnic companies before forming the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. His works are included in the repertories of companies throughout the world, including the
New York City Ballet,
American Ballet Theatre,
Paris Opera Ballet,
Royal Danish Ballet,
Stuttgart Ballet,
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater,
Baryshnikov's
White Oak Dance Project and
Netherlands Dance Theater. His work is renowned for its musicality, rhapsodic style and sophisticated formal structures. His radiant, highly technical choreography and deeply humanistic voice have been acclaimed throughout the world. In 1972, Lubovitch won a
Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography. Lubovitch made his
Broadway debut in 1987 with the musical staging for the
Stephen Sondheim/
James Lapine musical,
Into the Woods, for which he received a
Tony Award nomination. In 1993 he choreographed the highly praised dance sequences for the Broadway show
The Red Shoes. The final ballet from that show joined the repertories of American Ballet Theatre and the
National Ballet of Canada. For his work on that show, he received the 1993-94 Astaire Award from the Theater Development Fund. Starting in 1995, the company began focusing on creating dances in New York and teaching throughout the world. A prolific choreographer, Lubovitch created three new dances during the 2004–05 season. The first,
Love Stories, was a collaboration between the Lubovitch company and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (it premiered in Chicago in March 2005), the second,
Do You Be, was created solely with the Lubovitch company in honor of
Meredith Monk and premiered in NYC in November 2004). The third,
Elemental Brubeck, is a collaboration between the Lubovitch company and the
San Francisco Ballet (premiered in Paris in July 2005). Also in 2005 the Lubovitch company collaborated with the Limón Dance Company in the creation of another new dance, and staged its annual New York City season at the 850-seat
Skirball Center on
Washington Square in November. In 1996 he created the musical staging (and two new dances) for the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of
The King and I. Most recently he devised the musical staging for
Walt Disney's stage version of
The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin. In 2004 he was honored with the
Elan Award for his outstanding choreography.
United States Artists named him a 2011 Fellow. Recent projects (as of 2005) have included: the Lubovitch company's world premiere of
My Funny Valentine as part of the company's 2001 season in New York at
City Center, and (the year before that) staging the world premiere of its acclaimed hit ''Men's Stories'' as part of the company's 2000 season in New York at the
Orensanz Center for the Arts. Recent projects also include the creation of a full-evening-length
(3-act) ballet composed by
Elliot Goldenthal based on
Othello in an unprecedented collaboration between the Lubovitch company and American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet.
Othello was broadcast nationwide on PBS's
Great Performances and nominated for an
Emmy Award for its music. In addition to his work for stage, screen and television, Lubovitch has also made a notable contribution to the advancement of choreography in the field of
ice dancing. He has created dances for Olympic gold medalists
John Curry,
Peggy Fleming and
Dorothy Hamill and has choreographed a full-length ice-dancing version of
The Sleeping Beauty, starring Olympic medalists
Robin Cousins and
Rosalynn Sumners. The ballet was broadcast throughout Great Britain and America. He also choreographed a TV project with
Isabelle and
Paul Duchesnay, who won the silver medal for France at the
1992 Olympics. The show, based on
The Planets by
Gustav Holst, was broadcast by the
A&E television network in June 1995 and was nominated for an International Emmy Award, a
Cable ACE Award and a
Grammy Award. Most recently he created two new ice dances for
Paul Wylie, a duet for
Renée Roca and
Gorsha Sur, and an ensemble piece for the
Ice Theatre of New York. ==Significant works==