American dancer, member of the New York City Ballet, 1970, and known for coming closest to personifying the variety of the Balanchine dancer with her extraordinary versatility. She can play her roles meltingly soft, angular and hard-edged, or infectiously funny. In 1982, she was named head of the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance.
The second of four children of an aerospace engineer father and a journalist mother, she was raised in Chatsworth on the outskirts of Los Angeles. From her early life she dreamed of becoming an actress but began ballet instead at the age of ten. Sheila Rozann, a disciple of George Balanchine and director of the New York City Ballet was one of her early dance teachers.
When the City Ballet arrived in Los Angeles for a brief performance in 1964, Watts auditioned for a company production and was chosen to play a small role. It was then that she decided that she wanted to be a dancer with the New York City Ballet. A few months later, Watts was selected for a Ford Foundation scholarship grant, having been observed by a principal dancer with the City Ballet. Watts’ talents continued to be observed and recognized, and she continued her training at the School of American Ballet in New York City.
In the summer of 1967, she went to New York for three months of intensive study at the School of American Ballet. Though her teachers wanted her to remain at the school full-time, Watts’ parents felt she was too young, so she reluctantly returned to the local public high school in Chatsworth. Her parts gradually increased with her skills, strength and stamina, in spite of her fragile appearance. In 1968, she won her parents’ permission and moved to New York to attend the School of American Ballet as a Ford Foundation Scholarship student. In addition to her daily ballet instruction, she took correspondence courses to complete her high school education, having become bored with her academic studies. Though she continued ballet training, she was uncooperative and undisciplined, and in 1970, Balanchine had to intervene with her instructors to get her into the class from which young dancers usually go on to the City Ballet.
Watts was invited to join the New York City Ballet’s corps de ballet, but for two years was rarely given the opportunity to dance. In the mid-1970s, Balanchine assigned her leading roles in diverse works. Her most exciting role in the late 1970s was in “Calcium Light Night.” Promoted to soloist in May 1979, Watts added to her growing personal repertory, with ballets tailored to her special talent. In October 1979, she was elevated to principal dancer for the New York City Ballet’s winter season.
In the fall of 1980, when Balanchine selected her to originate one of the four ballerina roles in Schumann’s “Davidbundlertanze,” a chamber ballet based on the life of the composer, it was a turning point in her career. New York critics had been divided over Watts’ merits as a dancer in general and as a Balanchine dancer in particular, but by the end of the 1981-1982 season, she was viewed as a ballerina of top international rank. She has also appeared in TV commercials.
Link to Wikipedia biography