Rest in Peace Dr. William Hamilton

[Helene]

New York City Ballet posted to Facebook:

We mourn the loss of Dr. William Hamilton, invited in 1972 by Balanchine to become NYCB’s orthopedist. His kindness, humor, and willingness to help anyone in need will be missed by the generations of dancers that he worked with. Our thoughts go out to his family.

My condolences to his family.

There's a memorial page on Facebook, too:

https://www.facebook.com/Dr-William-Hamilton-Memorial-100715582609149/

[sandik]

Damn -- he had a long a full life.  I saw him professionally once, and he was fantastic.

[balletgirl22sk]

I went to him in the 70's to decide between him and ABT's orthopedist for my first knee surgery. I should have gone with Dr. Hamilton since the other did not do a good job......4 knee surgeries later including a replacement.

[dirac]

RIP.

A nice interview from 2016:

Quote

 

Hamilton, who will turn 85 next year, knows his career has an end in sight, but isn’t ready to retire just yet. He’s still giving talks about dance medicine (he’ll be in Canada to do a TED-style talk this month) and practicing orthopedics in New York.

“I would have retired a long time ago if it wasn’t for the dancers,” he says. “It’s still such a privilege to play a part in what goes on in the theater. To see a [previously] injured dancer onstage that you took care of — to see them up on stage and dancing and performing — it’s very rewarding because they love what they do. They just want to dance, they wouldn’t want to do anything else.”