Cinderella Harlequinade Three Preludes |
Ben Stevenson, a native of
Portsmouth, England, received
his dance training at the Arts
Educational School in London.
Upon his graduation, Mr.
Stevenson was awarded the
prestigious Adeline Genee Gold
Medal, the highest award give
to a dancer by the Royal
Academy of Dancing. At the age
of eighteen, Mr. Stevenson
performed with Alicia Markova
in Where the Rainbow
Ends, and soon after was
invited to join the Sadler's
Wells Royal Ballet by Dame
Ninette de Valois, where he
worked with Sir Frederick
Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan,
and John Cranko. A few years
later, Sir Anton Dolin invited
him to dance with the London
Festival Ballet, where, as a
principal dancer, he performed
leading roles in all the
classics.
Mr. Stevenson also veered to
London's West End where he
performed the juvenile lead in
The Music Man, and
appeared in the original casts
of Half a Sixpence and
The Boys From Syracuse.
For British television's
"Sunday Night at the
Palladium," he danced in
musical numbers 52 weeks a year
with such stars as Judy
Garland, Ella Fitzgerald,
Shirley Bassey, and Cleo
Laine.
In 1967, the London Festival
Ballet asked him to stage his
first, and highly successful,
production of The Sleeping
Beauty which starred Margot
Fonteyn. In 1968, Rebekah
Harkness invited him to New
York to direct the newly-formed
Harkness Youth Dancers. After
choreographing
Cinderella in 1970 for
the National Ballet in
Washington, D.C., he joined the
company in 1971 as co-director
with Frederick Franklin. That
same year, he staged a new
production of The Sleeping
Beauty in observance of the
inaugural season of the John F.
Kennedy Center for the
Performing
Arts.
In 1976, Mr. Stevenson was
appointed Artistic Director of
the Houston Ballet, and since
that time, he has built the
Houston Ballet into one of
America's leading ballet
companies. During his tenure,
he has developed the company's
repertory by acquiring the
works of the world's most
respected choreographers,
commissioning new works,
staging the classics and
choreographing original works.
At the Mr. Stevenson's
invitation, Sir Kenneth
MacMillan and Christopher Bruce
joined the Houston Ballet in
1989 as Artistic Associate and
Resident Choreographer
respectively, thereby
establishing a permanent core
of choreographers whose works
contribute to the diversity of
the Houston Ballet's
repertory.
Mr. Stevenson has received
numerous awards for his
choreography, including three
gold medals at the
International Ballet
Competitions of 1972, 1982, and
1986. In addition, he has
staged his ballets for the
English National Ballet,
American Ballet Theatre, the
Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala in
Milan, the Munich State Opera
Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet,
London City Ballet, Ballet de
Santiago, and for many
companies in the United
States.
In 1978, Mr. Stevenson
travelled to China on behalf of
the United States government as
part of a cultural exchange
program. At the invitation of
the Chinese government, he has
returned almost every year
since to teach at the Beijing
Dance Academy. To expose the
Chinese students to Western
dance forms, Mr. Stevenson has
brought with him teachers of
jazz and modern dance,
including Gwen Verdon. In 1985,
he was instrumental in the
creation of the Choreographic
Department at the Beijing Dance
Academy. He is the only
foreigner to have been made an
Honorary Faculty Member of the
Beijing Dance Academy and the
Shenyang Conservatory of Music.
Mr. Stevenson has also taught
for American Ballet Theatre,
The Joffrey Ballet, and the
English National Ballet. In
addition, Mr. Stevenson
oversees the development of the
Houston Ballet Academy as its
director.
Mr. Stevenson's friends and
colleagues know him as a
world-class wit and raconteur,
a lavish and generous host who
delights in cooking and
entertaining. He is married to
Joan Tostavine, a former
classmate, who teaches at her
own ballet school in
England.
During the 1995-96 season, Ben
Stevenson celebrated twenty
years as the head of the
Houston Ballet. Over the past
decades, Mr. Stevenson has
nurtured Houston Ballet from a
small provincial ensemble to
one of the nation's largest
dance companies that has
performed to critical acclaim
throughout the world. In July,
1995, Mr. Stevenson led the
Houston Ballet on a two-week
tour of the People's Republic
of China with performances in
Beijing, Shanghai, and
Shenzhen. The Houston Ballet is
the first full American ballet
company to be invited by the
Chinese government to tour the
People's Republic. The
company's invitation to perform
in China is a direct result of
the Mr. Stevenson's
international reputation as a
choreographer and teacher. Over
500 million Chinese witnessed
Mr. Stevenson's production of
Romeo and Juliet when
the Houston Ballet's opening
night performance in Beijing
was telecast live on Chinese
television. |
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