Patrick Bissell

Walter Patrick Bissell (December 1, 1957 – December 29, 1987) was an American danseur.

He was a leading principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre.

On his death at age 30 from a drug overdose, he was described by the artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre and personal ballet eminence Mikhail Baryshnikov as "without a doubt one of the brightest lights in American Ballet Theater's history, or, for that matter, in the entire ballet world".

Bissell was noted for his height and athleticism.

His most famous role was as Solor in La Bayadère.

His death prompted investigations into the alleged widespread drug use within the American Ballet Theatre.

Bissell was born on December 1, 1957, in Corpus Christi, Texas.

He was one of the five children of Donald and Patricia Bissell; his siblings included his twin brother William, two sisters Susan and Barbara, and brother Donald.

The family lived in Palos Park, Illinois for several years.

His father was a computer-systems designer with Hiram Walker Inc.

Bissell was an athlete who enjoyed performing feats of daring: at the age of 8 he jumped off a 30 ft-high diving board, even though he did not know how to swim.

He dabbled in many sports— baseball, basketball, football, track, etc. He was the pitcher on the baseball team, the center on the basketball team.

The coaches gave him an option—either quit sports or quit dance.

He gave up athletics in favor of ballet.

He was introduced to ballet at age ten by his older sister Susan, who practiced it before he did.

She paid him to be her ballet partner; thus he was first paid to dance.

While she went on to be a sail-maker and live on a boat, he went on to pursue ballet professionally.

He found a home and sanctuary in the passion of ballet and decided to make it his life pursuit.

He began training in ballet and jazz dance and was soon accepted into a company in Toledo, Ohio.

Like many boys who take up ballet, he tried to keep his lessons a secret, but word got out and he was ridiculed and bullied every single day for the rest of his school days.

"I was a skinny kid. They could have crushed me in an instant," he stated.

While Bissell showed early promise as a dancer, he also showed signs of being a troubled young man and began alcoholic behavior by age 10 and taking drugs at the age of 14.

He was expelled from his first school for dealing drugs on the premises.

He was noticed by the American ballet dancer Edward Villella, who encouraged his parents to send him to a performing arts boarding school.

In 1972 he joined the National Academy of Dance in Champaign, Illinois, from which he was dismissed for behavior problems.

Bissell then spent a year at the North Carolina School of the Arts which he left when he was informed that he should pay more attention to his academic studies.

He hitch-hiked all the way to New York to pursue a lifelong career in dance— as that's where the company's top schools are.

He then won a scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet, where he was encouraged by Lincoln Kirstein, its founder, and Stanley Williams, one of his teachers.

He was invited to join Balanchine's New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre.

He decided to join ABT and became a member of the corps.

Though he quickly rose through the ranks due to the shortage of men in the company.

Wherever Bissell went, he attracted attention, both from his fiery dancing and his habit of wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots around New York City-—his way of distinguishing he was a true-blue native Texan.

He also made his way around the city on a motorcycle.

He danced the lead roles in three of the four ballets performed by the school in its annual workshop and graduated in 1977.

He became a good friend of Mikhail Baryshnikov, who praised his dancing.

Bissell joined the corps de ballet of the American Ballet Theatre in 1977, and after three months there, he danced the lead male role in La Bayadère.

He moved to the Boston Ballet but returned the following year.

In 1978, he was promoted to soloist and to principal dancer in 1979 at the American Ballet Theatre due to the shortage of men in the company—even making the cover of Dance Magazine.

The ballerinas nicknamed him "Tarzan," as he was a huge, hulking juggernaut of a man who could carry some of the biggest and tallest girls in the company.

For much of his career, however, Bissell was plagued with injuries, and there were reports of drug and alcohol problems.