Francis Patrelle, a ballet teacher and choreographer who built a tightly knit community in New York around his classes at Ballet Academy East and his company, Dances Patrelle, died on Dec. 27 in Pensacola, Fla. He was 78.
His death in a hospital, from complications of a fall, was confirmed by his brother, Joseph.
In a career that spanned over five decades, Mr. Patrelle was a mainstay of the New York ballet scene, both as a teacher of children and adults and as the choreographer of chamber ballets.
In 1986, he presented an evening of his own dances in New York. The following year, he founded Dances Patrelle, for which he created over 50 works, blending dancers from his ensemble with guest performers from prominent companies like the American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet and Dance Theater of Harlem.
Mr. Patrelle was a champion of the story ballet — and of classical ballet steps — at a time when tastes in ballet had leaned toward abstraction and movement innovation. (Story ballets have since made a comeback.)
His dances often dealt with historical figures, such as the pianist and composer Clara Schumann, Lucrezia Borgia and Vincent van Gogh.
“He loved research and had a room full of books” Justin Allen, his longtime collaborator and the managing director of Dances Patrelle, said in an interview.
His 1992 ballet “Clara,” about Ms. Schumann, was made for the Ballet Theater star Cynthia Gregory, who became an early champion of Mr. Patrelle’s work.
“Francis loved dancers,” Ms. Gregory wrote in an email, “and he was able to clearly portray emotions, desires and characters in movement.”
Other works were inspired by Shakespeare’s plays, including “Macbeth,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “Romeo and Juliet.” In a 1998 revival of “Romeo,” the role of Juliet was performed by Jenifer Ringer, soon after her City Ballet contract had not been renewed amid her struggle with an eating disorder.
“I was completely shunned by the ballet world,” Ms. Ringer said in an interview. “Francis said, ‘Look, you’re heavier right now than a ballet dancer usually is, but I still see you, and I think you would be a beautiful Juliet.’”
Ms. Ringer said the experience helped pave the way for her return to dance — and to City Ballet.
In other works, Mr. Patrelle drew inspiration from the American songbook, creating ballets to recordings by Peggy Lee, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby, as well as to the music of Duke Ellington and Gershwin. His semi-autobiographical 1994 work “Anyone Can…!” was about a young man struggling with his sexual identity as he seeks to become an artist, and was set to Stephen Sondheim songs.
“Francis often used his own life as a creative starting point,” Alan Hineline, who danced the central role, said in an email.
Mr. Patrelle, who was gay, had experienced bullying in his youth. But that did not deter him from dressing — often in pearls — and behaving as he liked.
“He was so authentically himself,” the dancer James Fayette said in an interview. As a result, Mr. Fayette added, “you felt you could be yourself.”
In the 1980s, Mr. Patrelle staged two operas for Santa Fe Opera. He collaborated with the director Harold Prince on Carlisle Floyd’s “Willie Stark” for the Houston Grand Opera and Puccini’s “Turandot” for the Vienna State Opera. In 2011, using a libretto by Mr. Allen, he created a ballet pastiche of three Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
Despite his popularity among dancers, Mr. Patrelle’s ballets tended to receive mixed reviews. Jack Anderson described the choreography of his “Firebird” as “uneven” in The New York Times, while praising his ability to “draw strong performances from dancers.” The Times critic Gia Kourlas called his “Romeo and Juliet” “long-winded.”
His most popular creation was his “Yorkville Nutcracker,” a version of the evergreen Christmas ballet, which he set in 1895 New York. The opening party scene takes place at Gracie Mansion; the heroine is Mary Strong, the real-life daughter of the city’s mayor at the time, William Lafayette Strong.
One of the ballet’s most striking sequences is its snow scene, set in Central Park. The performers are not dancing snowflakes, but rather ice skaters in long dresses, their hands tucked into muffs. (The costumes were by Rita B. Watson, a frequent collaborator.)
Francis Joel Patrelle was born on May 10, 1947, in Croydon, Pa. His father, Guido Joseph Patrelle, was a mechanic, and his mother, Elvira Rose (Recupio) Patrelle, was an accountant.
Mr. Patrelle quickly developed an interest in dancing. At first he studied tap, then ballroom dancing. He and a girl from his neighborhood formed a duo that performed at church events and sock hops, and eventually appeared on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand.”
He did not begin his ballet training until high school. His first classes were in Philadelphia, and he later studied at the School of Pennsylvania Ballet with Barbara Weisberger, the company’s founder, who eventually turned him away, saying he was too short to become a ballet dancer.
Mr. Patrelle moved on to the Germantown Dance Theater and its owner, Jean Williams, who taught him, he told Lynn Garafola for a 1996 profile in Dance Magazine, “to push the walls away with my dancing.”
In 1965, he entered La Salle University to study history. But after two years he quit and enrolled at the Juilliard School, graduating in 1970. While there he studied under the choreographer Antony Tudor, whose dramatic ballets had a profound effect on him.
After briefly dancing for the choreographer John Butler and at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, he spent a year and a half with the touring show “Disney on Parade,” in which he danced the role of Mickey Mouse.
“It was the only time being small helped him,” Joseph Patrelle said.
After that, Mr. Patrelle began to focus on teaching and choreography. By 1971 he was working at the Fokine Ballet School in New York, where he met Julia Dubno, who would go on to found her Ballet Academy East on the Upper East Side in 1979.
He taught at Ballet Academy East for 40 years. For over two decades, he taught movement for singers at the Manhattan School of Music, and taught dance briefly at Barnard College in the late 1990s.
After years of suffering from mobility problems, he retired from teaching in 2019 and moved to Navarre, Fla., close to his brother, who survives him.
Mr. Patrelle’s most notable quality may have been how he made dancers feel.
“You could see your success in his response to what you were doing,” said Peter Boal, now the director of Pacific Northwest Ballet. “It gave you confidence.”
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