Ballet choreographer William Forsythe was born on December 30, 1949, in New York, USA. In 1976, he became the choreographer for the Stuttgart Ballet. He subsequently presented his works around the world, touring cities such as Munich, The Hague, London, Paris, and New York. In 1984, he became the artistic director of the Frankfurt Ballet, and in 1991, he presented his new work, "The Loss of Small Detail." Issey Miyake designed the costumes for this work, and Miyake's work on knit pleating at the time led to the creation of the "PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE" line. The Frankfurt Ballet disbanded in 2004, after which Forsythe founded his own ballet company, The Forsythe Company.

Meanwhile, in 1994, in collaboration with the Media Technology Center, he produced "Improvisations Technologies," a teaching material for interactively learning dance movement. In 1999, he released a CD version of this, "Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye." Furthermore, in 2009, in collaboration with Ohio University, he released "Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced," a digital version of his signature work, "One flat thing reproduced," in an effort to spread his choreographic method to the world.

In recognition of these achievements, Forsythe has won the New York Dance and Performance Award four times, the Laurence Olivier Award three times, and in 1999 was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.