Fort Wayne Ballet will celebrate the life and works of former leading Joffrey Ballet dancer Edward Stierle when it presents Dancer’s Legacy: An Evening of Stierle, May 19-20 at Arts United Center. 

Stierle died in 1991 at the age of 22 but left behind a compelling list of choreography that still resonates today. 

PBS Fort Wayne will be on hand to film both shows, as well as a dress rehearsal, as the ballet presents “Concerto con Brio,” “Lacrymosa,” “Empyrean Dances,” and the three works featured in Dancer’s Legacy. 

A prodigy from the age of 4, Stierle became only the second American to win the gold medal at the Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition when he was just 16. Following another win at the International Ballet Competition a few years later, Robert Joffrey offered him a contract with Joffrey Ballet.