Laszlo Berdo

Laszlo Berdo was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he began dancing at the age of five. At age 11, his mother gave him a pair of tights and threw him into an audition for a local Nutcracker production. Initial resistance turned into a life-long passion as Berdo performed onstage for the first time.

Berdo later intensified his studies at the National Academy of Arts in Champaign, Illinois. Upon graduation he first joined Ballet Austin and then the Louisville Ballet under Alun Jones and Helen Starr. He was later hired by Ivan Nagy first as a guest artist then later as a soloist with the Cincinnati Ballet. Berdo joined the Boston Ballet in 1990 as a corps de ballet member under Bruce Marks. He was promoted to soloist in 1993 and became a principal dancer in 1995. As a principal, he has danced numerous roles in ballets by Cranko, McMillan, Balanchine, Bournonville, Hynd and Stevenson. Berdo also excelled in contemporary works by Tharp, Taylor, Feld, Butler and York. Berdo is honored to be the first to perform the lead role in Cranko’s Eugene Onegin in the United States.

He began choreographing in 1993, creating the pas de deux Eternal Being which later was performed for a Boston Ballet gala. In 1997, Berdo was commissioned to create a new work for Boston Ballet. Four Hands premiered in March of 1998 and was performed in many venues such as the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, and at a summer festival in Biarritz, France. In 1999 Berdo created Below Down Under which premiered at the Schubert Theatre in February 1999. In March of 2001 he created Sanctuary for the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo. He choreographed Bass Elements for the Boston Conservatory and participated in ChoreoPlan 2001 in which he created Concertante for the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.

Berdo staged Four Hands for the Finnish National Ballet in Helsinki which premiered in October 2002. From 2000 to 2003 he was a faculty member for the Boston Conservatory and Harvard University. In 2003 he joined the faculty of CPYB full time. In 2008 Berdo choreographed Snow White, premiered Peter Pan in 2009, restaged Swan Lake in 2011, and premiered Carnival of the Animals in 2011. He was commissioned to present The Nutcracker for the Eglevsky Ballet, which premiered in December 2010. Berdo teaches in the United States and Europe for ballet companies, summer intensives and colleges.