John Barker

John Barker was an American dancer, ballet teacher and translator. He was a leading authority in the West on the Soviet method of teaching classical dance, and the first American to be allowed to teach the method in Russia. He was the official translator, into English, of the textbook of the Leningrad Choreographic School (the Vaganova Academy).

Career John Barker was a dancer with the Page-Stone Camryn Company, the Chicago Opera Ballet, and the Jose Limon Company. From 1955 to 1956, he danced with the Juilliard Dance Theater. He also danced with the American Ballet Theatre, in numerous summer stock performances of musicals.

Barker ended his career in dance after suffering from several injuries. With the advice from a friend, he started teaching. When he first started teaching, Barker felt that what he was doing was "primitive" and felt that "there must be some better way" of teaching ballet. Barker learned from Anatole Chujoy, a renowned dance critic and historian, that this method of teaching ballet was only to be found in Russia, and that there were books on teaching the method but that they were all in Russian.

After closing his school, Barker was a consultant and a guest teacher worldwide. He was a guest teacher at the Su Jee Ballet School in Taiwan and the Irish National Ballet.

Early life Barker was born November 20, 1929, in Oak Park, Illinois. His parents were Charles Munting Barker and Frances Banthin. He had three siblings, Charles, Bruce, and Cathy.

Barker graduated from the Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park Illinois in 1948. He studied ballet as a scholarship student at the Stone-Camryn School in Chicago. He later studied ballet at the School of American Ballet in New York.

He began to study anthropology in the fall of 1954 at the University of Chicago, but discontinued his studies after completing the Spring semester, 1955, in order to join the Chicago Opera Ballet, and begin his career in dance. He was a PFC in the US ARMY/KOREA.

Death Barker died April 7, 2020, of undisclosed causes in New York. He is buried at the Calverton National Cemetery, in Calverton, New York.

Students John Barker taught ballet pedagogy to teachers, as well as teaching students ballet. Some of his pedagogical students include: Janet L. Springer, Willard Hall, Peggy Willis-Aarnio, Sharon Dante, Howard Epstein, Cathy Longinotti, Lynda Gooding Nelson, Gretchen Warren Ward, and John White.

Some of his ballet students include, Kevin Martin, who Barker took to the Moscow Ballet Competition in 1981, Jeff Szuhay, and Linda Williams.