Mark Goldweber, Former Joffrey Dancer Dies

It’s always sad when someone as talented and as young as Mark Goldweber, former leading Joffrey dancer dies. He lost his battle to cancer on December 9, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was 53.

Mark was an incredible dancer in the 70′s and 80′s, mostly known for his role in Frederick Ashton’s ”Les Pantineurs” as the Blue Skater.

Mark Goldweber Former Joffrey Dancer Dies

Mr. Goldweber established himself in his late teens as an impressive performer whose dancing was rooted in pure classical ballet form and style and informed by it. His compact body was not that of the ideal elegant male classical dancer, but he brought to ballet a vivid intelligence and a gift for seemingly effortless razzle-dazzle technical feats.

Before his untimely death, he was ballet master at Salt Lake City’s Ballet West.

Mr. Goldweber was celebrated above all for his dancing of the Blue Skater, also known as the boy in blue, the lead role in Ashton’s “Patineurs” (“Skaters”). The work, a giddy, snowy holiday greeting card of a ballet, was in reality a demanding test of virtuoso classical dancing. Mr. Goldweber first danced the role in 1977, his first year with the Joffrey after two years with the company’s junior troupe. He was only 19, but his future was clear.

Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times dance critic would write about Mark Goldweber’s performance in ”Skaters,” nine years later:

“No degree of virtuosity could faze him — the changes in direction, the multiple turns, the butterfly jumps were all superb.”

He had an early retirement at age 30.

He retired from performing in 1988 but remained in the Joffrey family, moving on to become a founding ballet master with the Oregon Ballet Theater, whose artistic director was James Canfield, a former Joffrey dancer. Mr. Goldweber returned to the Joffrey in 1996 to become a ballet master and the director of the company’s junior troupe.

He joined Ballet West, whose staff was largely drawn from the Joffrey, in 2007.

For more on Jenniffer Dunning’s article from The New York Times click here.

What a loss for the ballet world. Mark Goldweber came to my attention by Toba Singer, author of First Position: A Century of Ballet Artists, when she announced his passing. I began to look Mr. Goldweber up online and I was delighted with what I found!

Watch him dancing the role of the Blue Skater. He’s everything Toba Singer and Anna Kisselgoff have written about and more. His butterfly jumps and multiple pirouettes are truly explosive.

Mark Goldweber will be terribly missed. May he rest in peace.

Did you enjoy watching young Goldweber performing in the video above? Tell us what you think and if you enjoyed reading about him, please click on Like below and Share with your friends. Let’s share this amazing dancer’s artistry with the rest of the world!

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