Person
Biography
Ivan Allen partnered the established American Ballet Theatre ballerina Ruth Ann Koesun at Jacob’s Pillow in 1961. Allen was born in Detroit where he received his early training at the Severo School of Ballet. In the 1961 Pillow program, Ted Shawn described him as an “up from the ranks success, for having begun in the corps de ballet, he has danced solo roles in the repertory of American Ballet Theatre, and just within the past few months has been officially given the rank of Premier Danseur.” Allen traveled with ABT throughout the world, performing at the Bolshoi Theater and in the capitals of South America. Three years after his Pillow engagement, he joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and went on to dance hundreds of performances at the Met before retiring from the stage in 1978. He died in May 2012 in Florida at the age of 81.
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