Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Bryan Pitts began his professional training at the age of fourteen at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Majoring in classical guitar Pitts was required to take ballet as a replacement for the physical education program which the school didn’t have. After three short months he fell in love with ballet and returned to the school the following year as a dance major.
Within six short months, Pitts found himself on scholarship to the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet. At the age of seventeen he was taken into the company.
Pitts has enjoyed a successful and varied career dancing principal and soloists roles with the New York City Ballet, Metropolitan Opera, Zurich Opera Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, Dallas Ballet and Ballet Oklahoma. He also has several television credits to his name performing on the “Merv Griffin Show” and with Edward Villella in the “Dancing Athletes” for NBC.
He has created 36 ballets during his career and added over 52 ballets to the Ballet Oklahoma repertoire. His full-length works include, DRACULA, THE NUTCRACKER, ROMEO AND JULIET, ZORRO, SVENGALI, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and THE THREE MUSKETEERS. He has collaborated with Stewart Copeland, Grammy winning composer and founder/drummer of the rock group THE POLICE on the ballet PREY and with Denny Dent, performance artist, on SYMPHONY IN DENT, a ballet in which Dent paints on canvas, onstage, while dancers perform, creating an ever-changing backdrop for the ballet.
Pitts has studied with many celebrated teachers and ballet masters including George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, John Taras, Stanley Williams, Alexandra Danilova, Alexander Minz, Peter Martins, Andre Eglevsky, Flemming Flindt, Maggie Black, Robert Lindgren, Sonya Tyven and Duncan Noble just to name a few.
He has dance throughout the world. From New York City to Berlin, Moscow to Saudi Arabia and Soeul to Los Angeles and all places in between.
Bryan has danced in ballets choreographed by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Jiri Kylian, John Cranko, Flemming Flindt, Peter Martins, John Clifford, Peter Anastos and Choo San Goh as well as most of the classics, just to name a few.
In 1976 Pitts married New York City Ballet dancer Laura Flagg. They have two children, Christian age 24 and Kallen age 19.
He has also served on the National Endowment for the Arts Dance Panel to review grants and award funds to the dance field and is a graduate of Stanford University’s Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders – Arts (EPNL-A) program as well as the recipient of the Governors’ Arts Award for Arts Education in Oklahoma.
