Eliot Feld - ballet and modern dance choreographer and founder of Ballet Tech formerly Eliot Feld Ballet - Brief Article

Dance Magazine, August, 1999

Feld credits a random subway ride with the idea to start the Ballet Tech school. I was on the train, coming down to the studio on 19th Street from 79th Street, and I heard this group of children making a lot of noise and who couldn't sit still. They were on their way to some field trip. And I just thought, there's a resource here--all we have to do is find those New York City school children who have a talent for dance. And that's how it began."

The Brooklyn-born Feld, who started dancing at School of American Ballet, went on to New York's High of Performing Arts, where he discovered modern dance. He made his professional debut off-Broadway, and eventually won a role--at age 16--in the original cast of West Side Story. He also danced for modern companies and appeared as Baby John in the movie version of West Side Story.

He was in the original productions of I Can Get It for You Wholesale and Fiddler on the Roof, and danced and choreographed for American Ballet Theatre.

He founded Eliot Feld Ballet in 1974, which, after a couple of name changes, eventually became Ballet Tech.