Apollo (staging) Stars and Stripes (ppd)
|
Born in Phoenix, Arizona,
Richard Tanner received his early
dance instruction from Robert
Lindgren and Sonja Tyven. He
continued his dance training
while simultaneously pursuing a
course of academic study,
ultimately receiving a Bachelor of
Fine Arts degree from the
University of Utah. Mr. Tanner
continued his dance education at
New York's School of American
Ballet -- the official school of the
New York City Ballet -- where his
teachers included Stanley
Williams, Pierre Vladimirov,
Andre Eglevsky, and Diana
Adams.
Mr. Tanner danced with
Oklahoma's Ballet West as a
soloist from 1967 through 1970.
He then joined the New York
City Ballet, where he remained
for ten years. In 1971, Mr.
Tanner choreographed two
ballets for the company:
Concerto for Two Solo
Pianos (Igor Stravinsky) and
Octandre (Edgar
Varese). In addition to appearing
in a wide variety of roles from the
company's extensive repertory,
Mr. Tanner participated as both a
dancer and a choreographer in
the historic 1972 Stravinsky
Festival, to which he contributed
Qctour. From 1981 to
1983 Mr. Tanner served as
Regisseur General at American
Ballet Theatre, and from 1985 to
1990 he served as Associate
Artistic Director of the
Pennsylvania
Ballet.
Mr. Tanner has choreographed
more than two dozen ballets for
such companies as Ballet West,
Eglevsky Ballet, Pacific
Northwest Ballet, Ballet
Oklahoma, Miami City Ballet,
and numerous touring groups.
He has created a number of
works for the Pennsylvania Ballet
including Candide
Variations set to music by
Leonard Bernstein, XVIII
Symphonic Etudes (Robert
Schumann), Skin & Steel
(Tim Clark), Rough
Assemblage (David Van
Tieghem), and Eroica
(Franz Liszt). Other works
include Sonatas and
Interludes (John Cage),
which was created for the
Eglevsky Ballet and entered the
repertory of the New York City
Ballet during the company's
1988 American Music Festival,
and The Waltz Project
(Robert Moran, Lou Harrison,
Ivan Tcherepnin, Joseph
Fenimore, Robert Helps, Tom
Constanterr, Philip Glass, and
Morton Gould), which was
created in June, 1984 for a
touring group led by Edward
Villella, and later set for Ballet
Oklahoma. In February, 1990,
Mr. Tanner choreographed
Prague Symphony
(Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) for
the New York City Ballet. Mr.
Tanner's Ancient Airs and
Dances (Ottorino Respighi)
was presented along with ten
other ballets, as part of New York
City Ballet's inaugural season of
The Diamond Project in May,
1992. Mr. Tanner's latest works
for the New York City Ballet
include A Schubert
Sonata (Franz Schubert),
Episodes & Sarcasms
(Sergei Prokoficv), and
Operetta Affezionata
(Carl Maria von
Weber). In
additlon to his work as a choreographer,
Mr. Tanner has staged Balanchine
repertory ranging from Bourree
Fantasque (Emmanuel Chabrier)
to Symphony in Three Movements
(Stravinsky) throughout the
UnitedStates and
Europe. |
© Copyright 2003-2007 Ballet Theatre Foundation, Inc.
All rights reserved.