Terborgh, Bert

Bert Terborgh (1945-1996) was a Dutch ballet and modern dancer who performed throughout Europe and Australia before joining the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1976. Born Bartholomeus Maria Cornelius Zwetsloot, Terborgh studied ballet and jazz dance at the Kennemer Ballet School in Haarlem, the Netherlands, from 1966 to 1968. During the late-1960s and 1970s, he trained and performed with a variety of companies, including the Netherlands Dance Theatre, Holland's Scapino Ballet, the Australian Dance Theater, the Rotterdam Dance Center, and the Bat Dor Dance Company of Israel. Over the course of his career, he worked with a number of noted choreographers, including Alvin Ailey, Paul Sanasardo, Pearl Lang, Mary Anthony, and Peter Sparling.

After studying the Martha Graham Technique with Yuriko Kikuchi and Mary Hinkson, he joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1976, where he danced in performances of Diversion of Angels, Appalachian Spring, Night Journey, Owl and the Pussycat, and Clytemnestra (which was filmed for the PBS series Great Performances in 1979). In 1982, he became a rehearsal director and teacher with the Martha Graham Company, teaching master classes at companies and schools throughout Europe and the United States. Additionally, while living in New York City, he served as a faculty member at the State University of New York at Purchase's dance conservatory and a rehearsal director for the Purchase Dance Corps. Terborgh died of AIDS on June 21, 1996, in Manhattan.