Charles Maple received a Ford Foundation scholarship to the School of American Ballet. At the age of nineteen he joined American Ballet Theater and rapidly rose through the ranks to become a featured soloist and, in 1983, he became a principal dancer with the Basel Ballet of Switzerland. Over the course of his 20-year career as a dancer, Mr. Maple has worked with such choreographers as George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Agnes De Mille, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Jirí Kylián, Mikhail Baryshnikov, William Forsythe, Natalia Makarova, Erik Bruhn, and Nacho Duato.
He has made numerous television appearances with ABT in the Dance in America and Live from Lincoln Center T.V. series as well as figuring prominently with Baryshnikov in the 1983 BBC movie, Dancer and the Dance. In 1982, Mr. Maple was selected by Jerome Robbins to perform with Baryshnikov in Fancy Free and Opus Jazz at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. He also joined Helgi Tomasson and Violet Verdy and the Stars of American Ballet for tours to South Africa and Belgium in 1976 and 1978 and he has appeared as a frequent guest artist with dance companies throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Mr. Maple has been an active advocate for Regional Dance America. He has served as an adjudicator as well as a faculty member at numerous RDA Festivals. Mr. Maple has acted as the artistic coordinator for the American Ballet Theatre summer intensive programs in Alabama and California. Mr. Maple is a certified American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum teacher in all levels.
Over the span of 20 years, Mr. Maple has earned a well-deserved reputation for cultivating and nurturing talented young dancers through his comprehensive and rigorous training principles that are designed to teach dancers the techniques and discipline necessary to hone and apply their natural talents. Students Mr. Maple has trained or coached have gone on to successful careers in many of the world's major companies. He has been a ballet professor in the dance department at Chapman University for the past twelve years. His curriculum there focuses on advanced ballet pedagogy and the underpinning of classical ballet.
