William Forsythe

For over 50 years, William Forsythe has influenced the perception of choreographic practice through his visionary concepts and productions. The award-winning U.S. choreographer is now transferring his extensive archive to the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, which will ensure the long-term preservation of the audiovisual media and documents and make them accessible to the public.

William Forsythe (*1949, New York) has been active in the field of choreography for over 50 years. His work is acknowledged for reorienting the practice of ballet from its identification with classical repertoire to a dynamic 21st century art form. Forsythe’s deep interest in the fundamental principles of organization of choreography has led him to produce a wide range of projects including installations, films, and web-based knowledge creation.

The holdings of the archive cover William Forsythe’s creative period since the 1970s in its entirety: from his time at the Stuttgart Ballet beginning in 1976, at the Ballet Frankfurt (1984–2004), and The Forsythe Company (2005–2015) to the present. It contains an extensive collection of archival video recordings of rehearsals, performances and installations, as well as programs, posters, reviews, photographs, publications, correspondence, awards, and other documents. In the long term, William Forsythe’s personal production notes will also be added to the archive.

By handing over the archive to the ZKM and making it available to the public and researchers, there is now the opportunity to explore Forsythe’s revolutionary collective collaborations rendering it useful for future artistic research.

The long-term preservation of the valuable video holdings of the William Forsythe Archive is ensured by the ZKM’s proven expertise in the field of audiovisual media as well as by the acclaimed work of the ZKM’s Laboratory for Antiquated Video Systems.