HORVATH, IAN (ERNIE) (3 June 1943-5 Jan. 1990), a dancer and choreographer of national repute, was a co-founder of CLEVELAND BALLET. Born in LAKEWOOD, he grew up in MAPLE HTS. and made his local television debut at 5 dancing on the Gene Carroll Show. While attending Chanel High School, he also danced during the summers at MUSICARNIVAL. After a semester at Butler Univ. in Indianapolis, Horvath left in 1962 for New York, where by 1964 he was dancing in such Broadway musicals as Fade Out, Fade In and Funny Girl. He also made television appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Bell Telephone Hour, and several BOB HOPE specials. In 1965 he joined the Joffrey Ballet, where he performed as soloist and met Dennis Nahat. He and Nahat moved to the American Ballet Theater in 1967, where Horvath was a principal dancer in ballets choreographed by Geo. Ballanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Agnes DeMille. In 1972 Horvath became artistic director of the Cleveland Dance Center, a school which he had bought in association with Nahat and his former teacher, Chas. Nicoll. With the school as nucleus, Horvath returned to Cleveland with Nahat and launched Cleveland Ballet in 1976. Horvath served as soloist and artistic director and also choreographed such pieces as Ozone Hour and Piano Man. Horvath and Nahat were co-winners of a Cleveland Arts Prize in 1981. Horvath left Cleveland Ballet in 1984, returning to New York as a free-lance choreographer and producing director of the Jose Limon Dance Company from 1987-90. He choreographed his final work, No Dominion, before dying of AIDS.
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