Robert Fairchild is Leaving New York City Ballet

September 10, 2017

The day we’ve been dreading for a while now has come: Robert Fairchild has officially announced that he is leaving New York City Ballet, the company where he’s been a principal since 2009.

Fairchild has been spending more and more time away from the company in recent years, starring in An American in Paris in three cities and taking on a variety of other musical theater projects. In the meantime, he’s established himself as a bonafide triple threat, earning a Tony nomination for his role in AAIP and landing gigs like playing Ted Shawn in the upcoming PBS film, The Chaperone.

The move also comes shortly after changes in his personal life: Fairchild and his frequent NYCB partner and wife Tiler Peck recently announced that they’re parting ways.

New Yorkers will still be seeing plenty of the star in the upcoming season: He’ll appear in the concert version of Brigadoon at New York City Center this November, and in December he’ll choreograph and star in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein off-Broadway at the Pershing Square Signature Theater Center.

“I remember a moment when, after an ‘American in Paris’ show, my parents called me to say they had found an essay I wrote in fourth grade about Gene Kelly, and how I wanted to be like him and dance on Broadway,” Fairchild told the New York Times. “I had been in a ballet company for so long, I had forgotten that was my original dream.”

His final performances will be October 14 and 15 in Balanchine’s Duo Concertant.