April 26, 2015
As a member of the New York City Ballet, Mr. Fleming danced principal roles in works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Peter Martins. He headed a group of soloists and principals from New York City Ballet, which toured Europe with his choreography as well as that of George Balanchine. With Mr. Balanchine’s encouragement he embarked on a career as a choreographer and received a fellowship from the National Choreographic Institute under the Direction of Barbara Weisberger.
Mr. Fleming served as the Artistic Director of the Compañia Colombiana de Ballet at the Teatro Colon in Bogota, Colombia from 1985 to 1990. He was named Artistic Director of Bay Ballet Theatre in Tampa, Florida in 1993. For ten years he served as Assistant Director and Resident Choreographer for The Rock School for Dance Education. He has choreographed a broad variety of works appearing in the repertoire of a number of different companies. Included are traditional full-length works such as The Nutcracker (four different productions) and Romeo and Juliet (on three different companies) as well as original full-length works Gaspar and Dracula, among others.
Among his works are are:
2000 – Created the acclaimed rock and roll ballet Janis & Joe for The Dayton Ballet. He was commissioned by the Anton Dvorak Opera House in Czech Republic to choreograph a major work celebrating the life and work of Anton Dvorak. Additionally, he created two new works for Russia’s St. Petersburg Male Ballet.
2001 – Created Edge of Assurances for The Ohio Ballet with a percussion score. He was co commissioned by The Dayton Ballet and The Ohio Ballet to create the critically acclaimed humorous baseball themed ballet Play Ball! – A Ballet in Nine Innings.
2002 – Created the special dance / theatre work The Awakening for the Grand Opening of International Artist, Jean Claude Gaugy’s new museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
2003 – Created and choreographed ABC television special Degas and the Dance in collaboration with The Degas exhibition touring the United States. He choreographed three Operas for The Sarasota Opera as well as Aida (2004) and Porgy and Bess (2005) for The Delaware Opera.
His choreographic awards include Silver Medals at the Festival Des Arts Des St. Sauveur in Quebec, Canada, Silver Medal from the International Competition in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the Special Choreographic Award from the Youth American Grand Prix. His work has been featured by the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal Winners at the Youth America Grand Prix, the Cuban National Ballet Competition, the Moscow International Ballet Competition, the NY International Ballet Competition and the USA International Ballet Competition.
Mr. Fleming, starred in and choreographed for MTV’s hit program MADE. The program received the highest rating in MTV’s history. He has also choreographed for the award- winning Television Show, Rescue Me.
In 2006/2007, Mr Fleming choreographed and directed, to critical acclaim a new and unique version of The Who’s Classic Rock Album, TOMMY. From 2007 thru 2010 he created no less than 4 new works including a new full-length production of A. Dumas’ Classic Tale of The 3 Musketeers, Strings, and Far Rockaway.
