Biography
Ronald Bates, New York City Ballet's Production Stage Manager for many years, first began working with that company in 1957.
Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Mr. Bates studied scenic design at Los Angeles City College after completing a tour of duty in the Navy. While at college he worked as a stage manager and built scenery
to earn money.
After two years of stage managing in California, he came to New York and worked as a stage manager on operas produced by Lincoln Kirstein, General Director of the New York City Ballet. After working
at the Mozart Festival and the Shakespeare Festival, both in Stratford, Connecticut, and for the NBC Opera Company in New York City, Mr. Bates came to the New York City Ballet at Mr. Kirstein's
invitation. He was Production Stage Manager with City Ballet for over 20 years.
Mr. Bates' duties as Production Stage Manager included planning and directing the many technical asp ects of getting all the ballets in which the dancers of the New York City Ballet appeared onto the
stage of the New York State Theater (where he also held the position of Technical Director of the Theater). As Resident Lighting Designer for the New York City Ballet, Mr. Bates worked closely with
George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins from the inception of a new ballet.
Mr. Bates was considered an authority on dance floors and stage floor construction. He developed the "Balanchine basket-weave floor", a particularly resilient surface that helped reduce injuries to
dancers. The floor design is in wide use in theatres throughout the United States and abroad. The wooden floor used by the New York City Ballet on tour was developed in 1981 by Mr. Bates, Balanchine
and Perry Silvey. He worked with the Palm Beach Festival in West Palm Beach, Florida on renovating and redesigning the stage of the Palm Beach Auditorium.
Mr. Bates often travelled abroad to help direct technical production and reproduce his lighting designs for New York City Ballet works that were staged by other companies. He was a familiar figure in
Switzerland where he worked with the former New York City Ballet dancer Patricia Neary, former Artistic Director of the Zurich Ballet. Mr. Bates also worked with the Dance Theater of Harlem, the San
Francisco Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet.
American Ballet Theatre used Mr. Bates' lighting for the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux when the Company first performed this work in 1970.
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