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Scene from Ballet Imperial. © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo: Marty Sohl.

Ballet Imperial

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Ballet Imperial - Ballet Imperial
Choreography by George Balanchine
Staged by Colleen Neary
Music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
Stage and Costume Design by Jean-Marc Puissant
Lighting by Mark Stanley

George Balanchine

George Balanchine, who is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet, came to the United States in late 1933 following an early career throughout Europe.

His trip to the United States in 1933 was at the invitation of Lincoln Kirstein, the Boston born dance connoisseur whose dream it was to establish an American school of ballet equivalent to the European schools, as well as an American ballet company. Kirstein had met Balanchine in Paris after seeing a performance by the company that Balanchine was then directing there, Les Ballets 1933; the two were introduced by Romola Nijinsky, widow of the famous Russian dancer, whom Kirstein assisted in her research for a biography of her late husband.

The first result of the Balanchine Kirstein collaboration was The School of American Ballet, founded in early 1934 (the first day of class, in fact, was January 1 of that year) and existing to the present day. It later became the training ground for dancers going into New York City Ballet, which Balanchine and Kirstein were to establish together after 14 more years, in 1948. Balanchine’s first ballet in this country was Serenade, choreographed in 1934 to music by Tchaikovsky, which was premiered outdoors on the estate of a friend near White Plains, New York, as a workshop performance.

In 1935, Kirstein and Balanchine set up a touring company of dancers from the school and called it the American Ballet. That same year the Metropolitan Opera invited the company to become its resident ballet, with Balanchine as the Met’s ballet master. Tight funding, however, permitted Balanchine to mount only two completely dance-oriented works while with the Met, a dance drama version of Gluck’s Orfeo and Eurydice and an all-Stravinsky program, featuring a revival of one of Balanchine’s first ballets, Apollo, plus two new works, Le Baiser de la Fée, and Card Game.

Despite the popular and critical success of the latter program, Balanchine and the Met parted company in early 1938, and Balanchine spent his next few years teaching at the School and working in musical theatre and films. In 1941, he and Kirstein assembled the American Ballet Caravan, sponsored by Nelson Rockefeller, which toured South America with such new Balanchine creations as Concerto Barocco and Ballet Imperial (later renamed Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2). Then from 1944 to 1946, Balanchine was called in as artistic director to help revitalize the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo; he created Raymonda and La Sonnambula for them.

In 1946 Balanchine and Kirstein collaborated again to form Ballet Society, a company which introduced New York subscription only audiences over the next two years to such new Balanchine works as The Four Temperaments (1946) and Stravinsky’s Renard (1947) and Orpheus (1948).

On October 11, 1948, Morton Baum, chairman of the City Center finance committee, saw Ballet Society in a City Center Theater program that included Orpheus, Serenade, and Symphony in C (a ballet which Balanchine had created for the Paris Opera Ballet under the title Le Palais de Crystal the previous year). Baum was so highly impressed that he initiated negotiations that led to the company’s being invited to join the City Center municipal complex (which at that time the New York City Drama Company and the New York City Opera were a part of) as the “New York City Ballet.” Balanchine’s talents at last had found a permanent home.

Since that time, Balanchine served as artistic director for New York City Ballet, choreographing (either wholly or in part) the majority of the now 175 productions the company has introduced since its inception. Among the most noteworthy were The Firebird (1949; restaged with Jerome Robbins, 1970); Bourrée Fantasque (1949); La Valse (1951); The Nutcracker (his first full length work for the company), Ivesiana and Western Symphony (1954); Allegro Brillante (1956); Agon (1957); Seven Deadly Sins (a revival of the original Les Ballets 1933 production) and Stars and Stripes (1958); Episodes (1959); Monumentum Pro Gesualdo and Liebeslieder Walzer (1960); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1962); Movements for Piano and Orchestra and Bugaku (1963); Don Quixote (in three acts) and Harlequinade (in two acts) (1965); Jewels (1967) (his first full length plotless ballet) and Who Cares? (1970). In June 1972, he choreographed Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Duo Concertant, Choral Variations on Bach’s Von Himmel Hoch, Scherzo à la Russe, Symphony in Three Movements, Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fée, and new versions of Pulcinella (with Robbins) and Danses Concertantes for the New York City Ballet Stravinsky Festival.

The son of a composer, Balanchine early in life gained a knowledge of music that far exceeded that of most of his fellow choreographers. He began studying the piano at the age of five and following his graduation in 1921, from the Imperial Ballet School (the St. Petersburg academy where he had started his dance studies at the age of nine), he enrolled in the state’s Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano and musical theory, including composition, harmony and counterpoint, for three years. Such extensive musical training made it possible for Balanchine as a choreographer to communicate with a composer of such stature as Igor Stravinsky; the training also gave Balanchine the ability to reduce orchestral scores on the piano, an invaluable aid in translating music into dance.

Balanchine made his own dancing debut at the age of ten as a Cupid in the Maryinsky Theatre Ballet Company’s production of The Sleeping Beauty. He joined the company as a member of the corps de ballet at 17 and staged one work for them, called Enigmas. Most of his energies during this period, however, were concentrated on choreographic experiments outside the company.

In the summer of 1924, Balanchine was one of the four dancers who left the newly formed Soviet Union for a tour of Western Europe. The others were Tamara Geva, Alexandra Danilova, and Nicholas Efimov, all of whom later became well known dancers in Europe and the United States. All four dancers were invited by impresario Serge Diaghilev to audition for his Ballets Russes in Paris and were accepted into the company.

Diaghilev also had his eye on Balanchine as a choreographer as well, and after watching him stage a new version of the company’s Stravinsky ballet, Le Rossignol, Diaghilev hired him as ballet master to replace Bronislava Nijinska. Shortly after this, Balanchine suffered a knee injury which limited his dancing and correspondingly bolstered his commitment to full time choreography.

Balanchine served as ballet master with Ballets Russes until the company was dissolved following the death of Diaghilev in 1929. After that, he spent the next few years on a variety of projects which took him all over Europe: choreographing for the Royal Danish Ballet; making a movie with former Diaghilev ballerina Lydia Lopoukhova (then the wife of British economist John Maynard Keynes) in England; staging dance extravaganzas for Britain’s popular Cochran Musical Theatre Revues; and working with DeBasil’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (where he discovered the young Tamara Toumanova).

Returning to Paris, Balanchine formed his own company, Les Ballets 1933, collaborating with such leading artistic figures as Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (Seven Deadly Sins), the artist Pavel Tchelitchev, and composers Darius Milhaud and Henri Sauguet. It was during this period that the meeting with Lincoln Kirstein occured, which was to lead to Balanchine’s move from Europe to the United States.

Balanchine has choreographed numerous musical comedies over the years, including On Your Toes (of which Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, a work in New York City Ballet’s repertory, was a part), Cabin in the Sky, Babes in Arms, Where’s Charley?, Song of Norway, The Merry Widow, and The Ziegfield Follies of 1935. His film credits include Star Spangled Rhythm, I Was An Adventuress, and Goldwyn Follies. He choreographed the operas The Rake’s Progress and The Magic Flute for the Met and he collaborated with Stravinsky on the television ballet, Noah and the Flood, in 1962.

Balanchine’s style has been described as neoclassic, a reaction to the Romantic anticlassicism (which had turned into exaggerated theatricality) that was the prevailing style in Russian and European ballet when he had begun to dance. As a choreographer, Balanchine has generally tended to de-emphasize plot in his ballets, preferring to let “dance be the star of the show,” as he once told an interviewer.

He always preferred to call himself a craftsman rather than a creator, comparing himself to a cook or a cabinetmaker (two crafts in which he was rather skilled). He was known throughout the dance world for the calm and collected way in which he works with his dancers and colleagues.

Balanchine himself has written: “We must first realize that dancing is an absolutely independent art, not merely a secondary accompanying one. I believe that it is one of the great arts. The important thing in ballet is the movement itself, as it is sound which is important in a symphony. A ballet may contain a story, but the visual spectacle, not the story, is the essential element. The music of great musicians, it can be enjoyed and understood without any verbal introduction and the choreographer and the dancer must remember that they reach the audience through the eye and the audience, in its turn, must train itself to see what is performed upon the stage. It is the illusion created which convinces the audience, much as it is with the work of a magician. If the illusion fails, the ballet fails, no matter how well a program note tells the audience that it has succeeded.”

Balanchine’s long time friend and collaborator, Igor Stravinsky, once described their association on one particular ballet as follows: “Balustrade, the ballet that George Balanchine and Pavel Tchelitchev made of the Violin Concerto, was one of the most satisfactory visualizations of any of my works. Balanchine composed the choreography as he listened to my recording, and I could actually observe him conceiving gesture, movement, combination, and composition. The result was a series of dialogues perfectly complimentary to and coordinated with the dialogues of the music. Hofmannsthal once said to Strauss: ‘Ballet is perhaps the only form of art which permits real intimate collaboration between two people gifted with visual imagination.’”

Architect of, and principal choreographer for, the New York City Ballet’s Homage àagrave; Ravel festival, Balanchine brought to life a three week celebration of 16 new ballets of which eight were his own creations. At a ceremony held on the evening of the Company’s Ravel Festival Gala at the New York State Theater in May 1975, the French Government proclaimed him a member of the Legion of Honor. In an extraordinary gesture of esteem, Balanchine was awarded the rank of Officer, a position usually reserved for those with many years of prior membership in the Legion.

Also in the spring of 1975, the Entertainment Hall of Fame in Hollywood inducted Balanchine as a member in a nationally televised special, hosted by Gene Kelly. The first choreographer so honored, he joins the ranks of such show business luminaries as Fred Astaire, Walt Disney and Bob Hope. Additionally, in May 1975, the National Institute of Arts and Letters presented him with a rarely given award for Distinguished Service to the Arts, an honor of special significance from the 250 leading American artists who comprise the Institute.

In the last few years, Balanchine has produced two spectacular choreographic achievements. The first was the hour long Bicentennial tribute Union Jack which premiered in May 1976. In the Spring of 1977 came perhaps the most lavish production in the New York City Ballet’s repertory, Vienna Waltzes, which was greeted with resounding critical and popular acclaim. Through the wonders of television, millions of people have been able to see New York City Ballet in their own homes. Choreography by Balanchine, a four part Dance in America presentation on the PBS series Great Performances, began in December 1977. Included on the programs have been The Four Temperaments, Tzigane, Prodigal Son, Allegro Brillante, segments of Jewels and Ballo della Regina, one of his more recent works. Balanchine travelled to Nashville with the company for the video tapings in 1977 and 1978 and personally supervised every shot, in some cases revising steps or angles to be compatible with the camera. The series has been broadly applauded by critics and audiences over the country and was nominated for an Emmy.

In January 1978, New York City Ballet participated in the acclaimed PBS series Live from Lincoln Center for the first time. Coppélia, choreographed by George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova in 1974, was seen live from the stage of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. This presentation also netted Balanchine an Emmy nomination.

Although New York City Ballet has entered its fourth decade, the energy and achievements of George Balanchine continue unabated. Two of his most popular recent works, Ballo della Regina and Kammermusik No. 2 were premiered in 1978, and in December 1978, Balanchine, along with Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, Richard Rodgers, and Arthur Rubinstein, was one of the five recipients of the First Kennedy Center Honors. The Awards, which were presented by President Carter in an official ceremony at the White House, were followed by a nationally televised program honoring the recipients and their achievements. The citation read in part: “Each has raised the artistic standards to which successors must aspire, but more importantly, each, by talent and dedication, has raised our hearts.”

The 1980’s promised even more in terms of both creativity and recognition. Balanchine introduced four new works to New York City Ballet audiences in the spring of 1980: Ballade, to music by Gabriel Fauré; Walpurgisnacht Ballet from Charles Gounod’s opera Faust (this ballet was created for the Paris Opera in 1975, but was restaged for the New York City Ballet); Richard Strauss’ Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, (Balanchine created this comic ballet for the New York City Opera in April, 1979, and it was first performed by the New York City Ballet in May 1980), and finally, in June 1980, Robert Schumann’s Davidsbundlertanze.

Also, in the spring of 1980, Balanchine was honored by the National Society of Arts and Letters with their Gold Medal of Merit, and by the New York Chapter of the American Heart Association with their Heart of New York Award. He was also informed that the Austrian Government would be awarding him the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Letters, First Class. This Award joined his French Legion of Honor, his French Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters decoration, and his 1978 Knighthood of the Order of Dannebrog, First Class, given by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, on the list of stellar honors given by foreign Governments for his services and contributions to the artistic development of the 20th century.

Source: New York City Ballet

Colleen Neary

With stellar credentials in performing, teaching, and staging ballet, Colleen Neary brought a wealth of professional experience and expertise when she and her husband Thordal Christensen co-founded Los Angeles Ballet in 2004 and directed the company until 2022.

Born in Miami, Florida, Neary trained in New York at the School of American Ballet and Harkness House. From 1969 to 1979, she danced as a soloist with New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine, becoming one of his quintessential ballerinas. Balanchine personally selected Neary to stage his ballets for other companies as a répétiteur for The George Balanchine Trust, the official guardian of the choreographer’s style and celebrated choreography. From 1975 to 1979, Neary honed her teaching talents as a faculty member at School of American Ballet and company teacher for the New York City Ballet. In 1979, Neary’s career path led to Europe where she became rehearsal director and choreographic assistant at Switzerland’s Zurich Ballet. She also continued to perform internationally as a guest artist, and staged Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote and Manfred for Zurich Ballet, La Scala de Milan, and in Arena di Verona.

In 1984 choreographer Maurice Bejart recruited her as guest principal artist and company teacher for his Ballet du Deuxieme Siecle. Neary accepted the position of principal dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1986, but returned to Europe in 1992 to spend a decade with The Royal Danish Ballet as rehearsal director, company teacher and First Instructor in charge of productions. Neary and her husband, Thordal Christensen, moved to Los Angeles in 2002, where they founded Los Angeles Ballet in 2004, with the first production debuting in 2006, with an original production of The Nutcracker choreographed by Neary and Christensen. Throughout their tenure they choreographed Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and Giselle together, and Neary staged over 30 Balanchine ballets for the company.

As a répétiteur, Neary remains in demand, continuing to stage Balanchine ballets for major U.S. and international ballet companies including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Ballet West, American Ballet Theatre, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Philadelphia Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Maryinsky Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Korean National Ballet, and New National Ballet of Tokyo. Her commitment to ballet education also resulted in co-founding Los Angeles Ballet School and LA Ballet’s many community outreach programs.

In 2012, Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary received The Lifetime Achievement Award from the McCallum Theatre.

Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky

Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, born in Kamsko‑Votnsk in the district of Viatka on May 7, 1840, was the son of a mining engineer. Although he began piano instruction at the age of five and showed signs of musical precociousness, a musical career was not anticipated at that time. In 1850, he was enrolled in the preparatory class of the School of Jurisprudence when his family moved to St. Petersburg. He was admitted to the School of Jurisprudence in 1852, and while he was still a student there, he composed a canzonetta that became his first published work.

In 1859, he completed his course of study and took a post as a clerk in the Ministry of Justice, but he continued to pursue musical studies, including voice, thoroughbass and composition. He resigned from his post in l863 and became a full-time student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, directed by Anton Rubinstein. It was during this period that he made his debut as a conductor and composed The Storm, his only student composition to be heard with any frequency today. In it, he already exhibited stylistic elements prominent in his later works, including the influence of Russian folk-melody, a command of Western compositional techniques and a flair for brilliant orchestration. Even before his graduation in 1865, he was offered a position as teacher of harmony at what was to become the Moscow Conservatory. In 1866, he moved to Moscow. There he came under the influence of Anton’s brother Nikolai Rubinstein and met Peter Jurgenson, who would eventually become his publisher.

His First Symphony, begun in 1866, proved to be a difficult and laborious exercise for Tchaikovsky, who found the structural demands of the symphonic sonata form incompatible with his own style. It was not performed until 1869, but it was well received. His began first opera, Voyevoda, in 1867, the year in which he met Berlioz and Balakirev, leader of the nationalistic movement in Russian music. Balakirev conducted the first St. Petersburg performance of Tchaikovsky’s symphonic fantasia Fatum, composed in 1868. Tchaikovsky later destroyed the work, as he would several others, but it was eventually reconstructed. Balakirev’s influence was also felt in Tchaikovsky’s first masterpiece, Romeo and Juliet, which he rewrote several times at Balakirev’s suggestion.

From 1870 to 1874, Tchaikovsky became increasingly interested in nationalistic music, although his conservatory training and familiarity with Western techniques kept him outside the circle of “The Mighty Five” (Balakirev, Cui, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov). His nationalistic tendencies came to a peak with the opera Vakula the Smith, first staged in 1876, by which time his infatuation with nationalism in music had declined.

He wrote his first music for solo instrument and orchestra from 1874 to 1877, including his celebrated First Piano Concerto (1875), and in 1875–76 composed his first ballet, Swan Lake. The first performance in 1877 was considered a failure, based less upon Tchaikovsky’s score (which was severely cut and further compromised with interpolations by other composers) than by a poor performance and mediocre physical production. Swan Lake was later revived with new choreography by Petipa and Ivanov in 1895, at which time it was recognized as a masterpiece of the ballet repertoire.

Around the end of 1876, Tchaikovsky began to receive financial support from a wealthy widow, Nadezhda von Meck, who was to remain his devoted patroness for the next 14 years. With a new found financial security, Tchaikovsky embarked upon a period of incredible musical fecundity, producing such cornerstones of the international repertoire as his Fourth Symphony, the violin concerto and the opera Eugene Onegin.

Most of his compositions from the years 1878–84 have not proved as enduring, although his stature in Russia continued to grow, as exemplified by two events in 1884: his opera Mazeppa was given concurrent productions in St. Petersburg and Mosocw and he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir by the Tsar.

In 1887, Tchaikovsky undertook his first foreign tour as a conductor, during which he met such notables as Brahms and Grieg. It was almost immediately after composing his Fifth Symphony in 1888 that he began work on his second ballet, The Sleeping Beauty. The work was given an elaborate premiere and was well received, but the public reaction did not meet the expectations of the composer, choreographer (Petipa) and designer-impresario (Vsevolozhsky), and it was to be some years before the work was recognized as one of the pinnacles of classical ballet.

Tchaikovsky went on without pause to compose the opera The Queen of Spades, which received a successful premiere in 1890 and, along with Eugene Onegin, became an international repertory item. Its success brought about a commission from the Imperial Theatre for two one-act works, the opera Iolanta and the ballet The Nutcracker, one of his most enduringly popular works despite its disappointing reception at its 1892 premiere.

Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, his most profoundly pessimistic work, was first performed October 28, 1893. Nine days later, he died. His death is universally considered to have been a suicide, but the circumstances leading to it have become a musicological controversy that is yet to be resolved.

Once considered by his contemporaries to be too Western in his style, Tchaikovsky was later lionized by Igor Stravinsky as the most Russian of Russian composers. His greatest strength, his incomparable gift for melody, was also responsible for his difficulty in composing within the structures of the German school of composition, and his blatant emotionalism has alienated some commentators. Nonetheless, he is today one of the most popular of all composers, and he created masterpieces in every genre. His music seems uniquely suited to ballet, with its inexhaustible stream of melody, an instinctive sense of movement considered ideal for the human body, and an irresistible rhythmic pulse and brilliant orchestration. It is no coincidence that all three of his ballets are firmly entrenched in the international repertoire.

Jean-Marc Puissant

Jean-Marc Puissant is an award-winning set and costume designer working internationally in opera, theatre, dance and musicals. For The Royal Ballet he has designed Christopher Wheeldon’s Aeternum, Electric Counterpoint, DGV: Danse à grande vitesse and Tryst and designed sets for George Balanchine’s Jewels and Javier De Frutos’s Les Enfants Terribles. For The Royal Opera, he designed sets for David McVicar’s production of Aida. Further work at The Royal Opera House includes Whelan/Watson: Other Stories for The Royal Ballet, Arthur Pita’s A Dream within a Midsummer Night’s Dream for Ballet Black, Arthur Pita’s God’s Garden and Alexander Whitley’s The Measures Taken. He has also appeared on the main stage as a dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Puissant began his career as a dancer, training at the Paris Opera School and dancing professionally with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet. He later enrolled in the Motley Theatre Design Course and studied art history at the Sorbonne. He has designed for leading international companies including New York City Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Rambert, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Scottish Opera, Norwegian National Opera, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia, Menier Chocolate Factory and Théâtre du Châtelet.

Puissant’s designs have won Olivier, South Bank Show and Critics’ Circle awards. He was nominated for Best Scenographer at the 2016 Benois de la danse and was a finalist at World Stage Design 2013. He has given talks about his work at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, has tutored theatre design at Central School of Speech and Drama and is on the Board of Directors of Dance Umbrella Ltd. He was a 2018 Fellow at New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts.

Mark Stanley

Mark Stanley, Resident Lighting Designer for New York City Ballet, has designed more than 200 premieres for their repertoire, including Paul McCartney’s Ocean’s Kingdom. He has worked with choreographers around the world including Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, Susan Stroman, William Forsythe, Benjamin Millepied, Kevin O’Day, and Susan Marshall. His designs are in the repertoire of nearly every major ballet company in North America and Europe including The Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Het Nationale Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, Boston Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pilobolus, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the Joffrey Ballet.

Stanley previously served as Resident Lighting Designer for New York City Opera, lighting over 20 new productions for the resident and touring companies. Additional opera credits include Boston Lyric Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Portland Opera, among others. His work for theater includes lighting design for The Kennedy Center, Long Wharf Theater, Goodspeed Opera House, Ordway Music Theater, Paper Mill Playhouse, Maurice Sendak’s Night Kitchen, and off-Broadway. His designs for New York City Opera, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, and others have been seen nationally on PBS, including Live from Lincoln Center and Great Performances.

Stanley is currently Head of the Lighting Design Program at Boston University School of Theatre and has conducted Master Classes at universities across the United States and in Europe. He is on the board of the Hemsley Lighting Programs and is the author of the Color of Light Workbook.

Devon Teuscher and Thomas Forster in Gemma Bond’s La Boutique. Photo: Quinn Wharton.

La Boutique
Gemma Bond World Premiere

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La Boutique - Synopsis
Choreography by Gemma Bond
Arranged and Orchestrated by Ottorino Respighi
after Gioacchino Rossini
Stage and Costume Design by Jean-Marc Puissant
Lighting by Clifton Taylor

Gemma Bond

Born in Bedfordshire, England, Gemma Bond trained with Sylvia Bebbs and at The Royal Ballet School. In 2000, she danced Zulme in Giselle in the school’s annual performance.

Bond joined The Royal Ballet in 2000 and was promoted to first artist in 2003. Her repertory included Olga in Onegin, Princess Stephanie in Mayerling, Clara in The Nutcracker, the Fairy of the Song Bird in The Sleeping Beauty, a cygnet in Swan Lake, Marie in Anastasia, and a sylphide in La Sylphide. She created a role in Poppy Ben David’s Siren Song (2000), which was part of The Royal Ballet’s “The New Works.”

Bond joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in January 2008. Her repertory with the Company include a Porcelain Princess in Aurora’s Wedding, Galya in The Bright Stream, Step-Sister and Spring Fairy in Cinderella, Mazurka Lady in Coppélia, an Odalisque in Le Corsaire, Amour in Don Quixote, Helena in The Dream, Mrs. Fairfax in Jane Eyre, Vera in A Month in the Country, the Chinese Dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Olga in Onegin, Sergei’s Mother in On the Dnipro, the Fairy of Charity in The Sleeping Beauty, Miettes qui tombent (Breadcrumb) and the Sapphire Fairy in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, a little swan and the Italian Princess in Swan Lake, Effie in La Sylphide, and roles in Black Tuesday, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Company B, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, Dumbarton, and In the Upper Room.

She created Columbine in Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Cinderella in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, a leading role in Liam Scarlett’s With a Chance of Rain, and featured roles in After You and Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once.

Bond got her first taste of choreography at age 13 when she competed in The Royal Ballet’s Kenneth MacMillan Emerging Choreographer. Since 2010, she has created three new ballets for ABT’s choreographic workshop, ABT Incubator, as well as works for ABT Studio Company, Atlanta Ballet, New York Theater Ballet, Intermezzo Ballet Company, the Hartt School, the Joyce Theater, Ballet Sun Valley, and the Washington Ballet. Her choreography has been performed at the prestigious Erik Bruhn Competition, the Youth America Grand Prix Gala, the 92nd Street Y, The Joyce, Jacob’s Pillow, and she has worked on commercial projects with 1stAveMachine.

Bond has received grants from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and in 2014 was awarded the fellowship grant from the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of New York City Ballet. Bond was a 2017-2018 New York City Center Choreography Fellow, the recipient of a 2017 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship, and the winner of the 2018 Clive Barnes Award for Choreography.

For American Ballet Theatre, Bond has created Depuis le Jour (Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize, 2012), A Time There Was (2019), Convivium (2020), and La Boutique (2024).

Ottorino Respighi

Mostly known for his richly descriptive symphonic poems Fontane di Roma (The Fountains of Rome) and Pini di Roma (The Pines of Rome), Respighi was a versatile composer who translated into music powerful visual experiences and feelings of deep attachment to cherished places. Respighi’s symphonic works are praised primarily for their exquisite orchestration, but these compositions also possess a charm which transcends the merely picturesque. This charm is particularly evident in works inspired by Medieval and Renaissance music, such as Ancient Airs and Dances for orchestra.

Born in 1879, Respighi studied from 1891 to 1900 at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna. In 1900 and 1902, he traveled to Russia, where he played the viola in the Imperial Orchestra in St. Petersburg. During his two extended visits to Russia, Respighi studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, absorbing the Russian master’s ideas regarding orchestral color. In 1903, Respighi turned to a career of a concert violinist; he also played chamber music, joining Bologna’s Mugellini Quartet as a violist. During the early 1900s, Respighi started writing music, but his compositions (chamber and orchestral works) attracted little attention. In 1908-1909, he was in Berlin, where he immersed himself in German musical culture. In 1913, Respighi settled in Rome, accepting a composition professorship at the Liceo (subsequently Conservatorio) di Santa Cecilia. Enchanted by Rome, Respighi found inspiration in the city’s unique atmosphere and consequently formulated an original, personal musical language, exemplified by Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome), written in 1914-1916.

Respighi’s next project was a children’s opera, La bella dormente nel bosco (Sleeping Beauty), finished in 1921, and regarded as his best stage work. After the Fontane di Roma, Respighi sought inspiration in early music, introducing Renaissance and Medieval themes into his compositions. In 1917, he composed the first set of his Antiche arie e danze per liuto (&Ancient Airs and Dances for Lute), for piano duet and strings. The second and third sets, for strings, were composed in 1923 and 1931, respectively. Sometimes regarded as adaptations, these compositions nevertheless exude a unique freshness and sincerity.

Works composed in the 1920s reflected both Respighi’s fascination with early music and his desire to translate visual sensations into music. Thus, the Concerto gregoriano for violin and orchestra, composed in 1921, and Quartetto dorico, written in 1924, evoke the spirit of ancient music, while The Pines of Rome describes the splendor of the Roman landscape.

In 1924, Respighi was named director of the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, resigning, however, two years later, so he would have more time to compose. Nevertheless, this period included two American tours, in 1925-1926 and 1932, as a conductor and pianist. He also accompanied singers, including his wife, Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo, who was also a composer. Works composed during this period include Vetrate di chiesa (Church Windows), for orchestra, written in 1925, and the Trittico botticelliano (Three Botticelli Pictures), composed in 1927 — a work inspired by three paintings by the great Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. Composed in 1928-1930, Respighi’s Lauda per la Nativita del Signore, for two pianos, wind ensembles, vocal soloists, and chorus, develops Renaissance motifs to create a charming, serene celebration of the spirit of Christmas. Elected to the Royal Academy of Italy in 1932, Respighi died in 1936.

Gioacchino Rossini

Gioachino Rossini’s chief legacy remains his extraordinary contribution to the operatic repertoire. His comedic masterpieces, including L’Italiana in Algeri, La gazza ladra, and perhaps his most famous work, Il barbiere di Siviglia, are regarded as cornerstones of the genre along with works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi. He was revered from the time he was a teenager until his death.

Rossini’s parents were both working musicians. His father played the horn and taught at the prestigious Accademia Filharmonica in Bologna, and his mother, although not formally trained, was a soprano. Rossini was taught and encouraged at home until he eventually enrolled at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna. After graduation from that institution, the young musician was commissioned by the Venetian Teatro San Moise to compose La cambiale di matrimonio, a comedy in one act. In 1812, Rossini wrote La pietra del paragone, for La Scala theater in Milan and was already, at the tender age of 20, Italy’s most prominent composer.

In 1815, Rossini accepted a contract to work for the theaters in Naples, where he would remain until 1822, composing prolifically in comfort. He composed 19 operas during this tenure, focusing his attention on opera seria and creating one of his most famous serious works, Otello, for the Teatro San Carlos. While he served in this capacity, Rossini met and courted Isabella Colbran, a local soprano whom he would eventually marry. Other cities, too, clamored for Rossini’s works, and it was for Roman audiences that he composed the sparkling comedies Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville, 1816) and La cenerentola (Cinderella, 1817).

In 1822, Rossini left Naples and embarked on a European tour. The Italian musician was received enthusiastically to say the least, and enjoyed fame and acclaim everywhere. Even Beethoven, at the opposite stylistic pole in the musical scene of the day, praised him. The following year, Rossini was commissioned to write Semiramide, a serious opera, for La Fenice, a theater in Venice. This work was less successful in its own day than some of his previous efforts, but spawned several arias that remain part of any vocalist’s songbook. In 1824, Rossini traveled, via London, to Paris where he would live for five years and serve as the music director at the Théâtre Italien from 1824 to 1826. The composer gained commissions from other opera houses in France, including the Paris Opéra. Rossini composed his final opera, Guillaume Tell (1829), before retiring from composition in that genre at the age of 37. Its overture is not only a concert favorite, but an unmistakable reflection and continuation of Beethoven’s heroic ideal. The catalog of work Rossini had written at the time of his retirement included 32 operas, two symphonies, numerous cantatas, and a handful of oratorios and chamber music pieces. After moving back to Italy, Rossini became a widower in 1845. His marriage to Isabella Colbran had not been particularly happy, and shortly after her death, the composer married Olympe Pelissier, a woman who had been his mistress.

In 1855, Rossini, along with his new bride, moved once again, this time settling in Passy, a suburb of Paris. He spent the remaining years of his life writing sacred music as well as delectable miniatures for both piano and voice (some of which he called “sins of my old age”). Rossini was buried in Paris’ Père Lachaise cemetery in proximity to the graves of Vincenzo Bellini, Luigi Cherubini, and Frédéric Chopin. In 1887, Rossini’s grave was transferred from Paris to Santa Croce, in Florence, in a ceremony attended by more than 6,000 admirers.

Jean-Marc Puissant

Jean-Marc Puissant is an award-winning set and costume designer working internationally in opera, theatre, dance and musicals. For The Royal Ballet he has designed Christopher Wheeldon’s Aeternum, Electric Counterpoint, DGV: Danse à grande vitesse and Tryst and designed sets for George Balanchine’s Jewels and Javier De Frutos’s Les Enfants Terribles. For The Royal Opera, he designed sets for David McVicar’s production of Aida. Further work at The Royal Opera House includes Whelan/Watson: Other Stories for The Royal Ballet, Arthur Pita’s A Dream within a Midsummer Night’s Dream for Ballet Black, Arthur Pita’s God’s Garden and Alexander Whitley’s The Measures Taken. He has also appeared on the main stage as a dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Puissant began his career as a dancer, training at the Paris Opera School and dancing professionally with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet. He later enrolled in the Motley Theatre Design Course and studied art history at the Sorbonne. He has designed for leading international companies including New York City Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Rambert, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Scottish Opera, Norwegian National Opera, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia, Menier Chocolate Factory and Théâtre du Châtelet.

Puissant’s designs have won Olivier, South Bank Show and Critics’ Circle awards. He was nominated for Best Scenographer at the 2016 Benois de la danse and was a finalist at World Stage Design 2013. He has given talks about his work at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, has tutored theatre design at Central School of Speech and Drama and is on the Board of Directors of Dance Umbrella Ltd. He was a 2018 Fellow at New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts.

Clifton Taylor

Clifton Taylor has created lighting, projection, and scenic designs for theater, dance, and opera companies around the world for over 32 years. Taylor has designed a number of unique concert music events for major orchestras, solo musicians and large-scale venues. His work has been commissioned on Broadway, Off-Broadway, regionally, and in 17 countries outside the United States.

Taylor has previously taught at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, the New York Choreographic Institute, Boston University, The Juilliard School, the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and at the University of Iowa.

His Broadway credits include Frozen, Jay Johnson: The Two and Only, and Hot Feet.

Taylor has designed for the repertories of Paul Taylor Dance Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Martha Graham Dance Company, the Dance Theater of Harlem, and Sardono Dance Theater in Indonesia; for ballet works for American Ballet Theatre and ballet companies in Boston, Washington, and San Francisco and abroad in Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom, China, and France.

Taylor is the author of the lighting design book Color and Light, Navigating Color Mixing in the Midst of an LED Revolution.

Taylor’s nominations include 2010 Henry Hewes Nomination for White Woman Street at the Irish Rep., directed by Charlotte Moore; a 2004 Lucille Lortel Nomination for Frozen, directed by Doug Hughes; and a 1992 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award Nomination for Miss Evers’ Boys, directed by Benny Sato Ambush.

He has received the Column Award for The Tempest at the Dallas Theater Center for Best Lighting Design of a Play (2011), the Connecticut Theatre Critics Award for Journey’s End at the Westport Country Playhouse (2005), the Garland Award for The Two and Only’s Los Angeles pre-Broadway run (2005), and the Knight of Illumination Award Winner for his design of Four Quartets at the Barbican Theatre in London (2019).

Taylor is an United Scenic Artists Local 829, member, a USITT Professional Member, and is part of the AFAS Artists Collective, Winston-Salem.

SunMi Park and Tristan Brosnan in Jessica Lang's Children's Songs Dance. Photo: Erin Baiano.

Children's Songs Dance
pas de deux

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Children's Songs Dance - Synopsis
Choreography by Jessica Lang
Music by Chick Corea
Creative Associate: Kanji Segawa
Costumes by Jillian Lewis
Costume Design Supervision by Caitlin Rain
Lighting by Nicole Pearce

Jessica Lang

Since 1999, American choreographer Jessica Lang has created more than 100 works on companies worldwide including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet (2013 Manchester Theatre Award nominee), the National Ballet of Japan, Joffrey Ballet, and her eponymous company Jessica Lang Dance, among many others. Lang’s additional commissions include works for the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra, Harris Theater and the Chicago Architecture Biennial (in collaboration with architect Steven Holl), the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum for its Works and Process series. For opera, Lang made her directorial debut creating Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the 2013 Glimmerglass Opera Festival, which was presented at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival in 2017 performed by Jessica Lang Dance. In 2016, she choreographed San Francisco Opera’s production of Aida, directed by Francesca Zambello, which was presented at Washington National Opera and Seattle Opera during the 2017-18 season.

Lang was Artistic Director of Jessica Lang Dance from 2011-2019. Founded in 2011, the company had tremendous success touring and performing for audiences in more than 85 cities, presented by major venues including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Los Angeles Music Center, The Kennedy Center, Harris Theater, New York City Center, Northrop Auditorium, Winspear Opera House, Tel Aviv Opera House, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, BAM Fisher, and Helikon Opera, among others.

Lang is the recipient of a 2018 Martha Hill Mid-Career Award, the 2017 Arison Award, and a 2014 Bessie Award. She was a New York City Center Fellow in 2015, a Fellow at the NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts in 2016, and a Caroline Hearst Choreographer-in-Residence at Princeton University in 2019.

Lang’s work has also been performed by numerous educational institutions, including the Juilliard School, SUNY Purchase, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and Point Park University. She was a founding faculty member of the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, a teaching artist for the Make-a-Ballet program, and served as a mentor and panelist for the ABT Incubator choreographic workshop.

Lang is originally from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy and a former member of Twyla Tharp’s company, THARP!

For American Ballet Theatre, Lang has created Her Notes (2016), Garden Blue (2018), Let Me Sing Forevermore (2019), and ZigZag (2021). She has also staged Splendid Isolation III for the main Company and choreographed six works for ABT Studio Company.

Chick Corea

A masterful and creatively wide-ranging jazz pianist, Chick Corea was a celebrated performer whose influential albums found him exploring harmonically adventurous post-bop, electric fusion, Latin traditions, and classical. Initially emerging in the 1960s, Corea gained early notice for his solo albums, including 1968’s Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, and sideman work with Willie Bobo, Blue Mitchell, and Stan Getz. He joined Miles Davis’ first electric ensemble and appeared on the landmark 1969 album Bitches Brew. As a leader, he built upon his experience with Davis, founding his own innovative fusion group Return to Forever and penning such beloved jazz standards as “Spain,” “500 Miles High,” “La Fiesta,” and “Windows.” A prolific artist, and the fourth most-nominated artist in Grammy history with over 60 nominations and 20 wins, Corea continued to release a steady stream of acclaimed Top Ten jazz-charting albums throughout his career, including 1976’s The Leprechaun, 1989’s Chick Corea Akoustic Band, 2014’s Trilogy, and 2019’s Antidote. In September 2021, Resonance, a double-live duo outing with pianist Makoto Ozone, was released.

Born Armando Anthony Corea in 1941 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, Corea was first introduced to the piano around age four by his father, a Dixieland-style trumpeter. By age eight, he was also playing drums. Immersed in jazz at home, he listened to an array of artists including pianists Horace Silver and Bud Powell, who were early influences. Another influence was pianist Salvatore Sullo, with whom Corea studied classical piano and composition. As a teenager, he was a member of the local St. Rose Scarlet Lancers drum and bugle corps, and started playing his own jazz gigs. After high school, he studied briefly at Columbia University and Juilliard, before leaving school to pursue his jazz career.

Some of Corea’s most formative experiences came in the early ’60s playing with Latin bandleaders Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo. He also worked in small jazz groups with Blue Mitchell, Herbie Mann, and Stan Getz. As a leader, Corea made his recording debut with 1966’s Tones for Joan’s Bones. However, it was his 1968 trio release, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, with Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes that marked his arrival as one of the most gifted improvisers of his generation. The album eventually earned status as a jazz classic and in 1999 the title-track was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

After a stint with Sarah Vaughan, Corea joined Miles Davis’ group, coming on board as Herbie Hancock’s eventual replacement. He would stay with Davis from 1968 to 1970, during the trumpeter’s important transitional period from acoustic post-bop to electric fusion. Davis persuaded Corea to start playing electric piano and included him on such pivotal albums as Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, and the landmark Bitches Brew.

Following his time with Davis, Corea founded the avant-garde acoustic jazz quartet Circle, which also included Anthony Braxton, Dave Holland, and Barry Altschul. He also formed a trio with Holland and Altschul, releasing 1971’s Song of Singing on Blue Note. That same year, he made his ECM debut with the same group on A.R.C.. He also released to introspective solo piano sessions for the label, 1971’s Piano Improvisations, Vol. 1 and 1972’s Piano Improvisations, Vol. 2.

By the end of 1971, Corea had shifted his creative direction again, playing for a short time with Stan Getz before forming Return to Forever. The group initially started out as a Brazilian-influenced ensemble, featuring bassist Stanley Clarke, saxophonist Joe Farrell, percussionist Airto Moreira, and vocalist Flora Purim. They debuted in 1972 with the eponymous Return to Forever, hitting number eight on the Billboard Jazz chart. They returned the following year with Light as a Feather. Another Top Ten jazz album, it earned Corea his first two Grammy nominations, including Best Instrumental Arrangement for “Spain,” largely considered his best-known song.

Within a year, Corea had transformed Return to Forever into an even more cutting-edge fusion ensemble, with Clarke, guitarist Bill Connors, and drummer Lenny White joining. This version of the group appeared on 1973’s Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy and found Corea further drawing upon his work with Miles Davis, weaving together more electric instruments. Return to Forever would see several line-up changes throughout its lifetime, including introducing a then-19-year-old guitarist Al DiMeola on 1974’s Where Have I Known You Before. When RTF broke up in the late ’70s, Corea retained the name for some large ensemble dates with Clarke. During the next few years, he returned to acoustic playing and appeared in a variety of contexts, including separate duet tours with Gary Burton and Herbie Hancock, a quartet with Michael Brecker, trios with Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes, tributes to Thelonious Monk, and some classical music.

In 1985, Corea formed another benchmark fusion group who debuted on the eponymous The Elektric Band and featured bassist John Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl. The same group also recorded as the Akoustic Trio for 1989’s Chick Corea Akoustic Band. When Patitucci went out on his own in the early ’90s, the personnel changed, but Corea continued leading stimulating groups, including a quartet with Patitucci and Bob Berg. From 1996 to 1997, Corea toured with an all-star quintet featuring Kenny Garrett and Wallace Roney that played modern versions of Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk compositions as heard on Remembering Bud Powell. There were also notable sessions with vibraphonist Gary Burton, including 1997’s Like Minds with Pat Metheny. Two years later, he issued his first studio album with his Origin ensemble, Change.

Corea began the 21st century by releasing a pair of solo piano records, Solo Piano: Originals and Solo Piano: Standards, in 2000 followed by Past, Present & Futures in 2001. Rendezvous in New York appeared in 2003, followed by To the Stars in 2004. The Ultimate Adventure was released in 2006. That same year, Corea released Super Trio with drummer Steve Gadd and bassist Christian McBride.

In the spring of 2007, Corea released the duet album with banjo master Béla Fleck entitled The Enchantment on Concord. It was followed by a Japan-only six-disc box set called Five Trios in 2008 that showcased the pianist in a handful of different trio settings. The same year, Corea and vibraphonist Gary Burton released their fourth collaboration together, The New Crystal Silence.

Also in 2008, Corea reunited with John McLaughlin for the first time since they’d played together with Miles Davis in the late ’60s. They pulled together a band with saxophonist Kenny Garrett, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, and bassist Christian McBride for the recording Five Peace Band: Live (with another former Miles collaborator, Herbie Hancock, guesting on “In a Silent Way/It’s About That Time”). Concord re-released Return to Forever’s four albums issued between 1973 and 1976 (with Corea, White, Clarke, and DiMeola) — Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Where Have I Known You Before, No Mystery, and Romantic Warrior — as a precursor for a reunion tour. This resulted in both a live album, Returns, and a concert DVD. In 2009, Corea teamed with Japanese piano sensation Hiromi for Duet, followed by a live trio album titled Forever with Clarke and White, culled from their “RTF Unplugged” tour. The two-disc set, issued by Concord in 2011, featured guest appearances by Chaka Khan, original RTF guitarist Connors, and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty.

In 2012, Corea was busy from get-go. He delivered a trio recording on Concord in January, Further Explorations, with sidemen Eddie Gomez and Paul Motian (both members of various Evans ensembles). Corea: The Continents Concerto for Jazz Quintet and Chamber Orchestra was issued by Deutsche Grammophone in February. In September, another duet recording with Burton, Hot House, was released by Concord. In the summer of 2013, Corea debuted his new electric band with The Vigil; its members included bassist Christian McBride, drummer Marcus Gilmore, Tim Garland on reeds and winds, and guitarist Charles Altura. The expansive three-disc Trilogy, recorded live at stops all over the world with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade appeared in 2014.

The pianist then reunited with longtime friend Béla Fleck for the 2015 duet album, Two, compiled from over seven years of their live performances together. The following year, Corea celebrated his 75th birthday with a six-week stint of shows at the Blue Note in New York city. Joined by a bevy of guests including Herbie Hancock, Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, John McLaughlin, Stanley Clarke, and others, the performances were released in 2017 as part of The Musician album and documentary. In addition, he joined longtime associate drummer Steve Gadd for Chinese Butterfly, which also featured Lionel Loueke, Steve Wilson, Carlitos Del Puerto, and Luisito Quintero. Trilogy 2, Corea’s second collection of live recordings with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade, arrived in 2018.

For 2019’s Antidote, Corea assembled an updated version of his Latin-infused octet and explored newer songs alongside material off his classic Latin-infused albums like 1976’s My Spanish Heart and 1982’s Touchstone. Dubbed the Spanish Heart Band, it included Madrid’s Jorge Pardo on saxophone and flute (he was an original member of flamenco master Paco de Lucia’s band). Also from the last generation of that group, Corea recruited guitarist Niño Josele. Trumpeter Michael Rodriguez and trombonist Steve Davis rounded out the horn section while the rhythm section comprised Cuban bassist Carlitos Del Puerto, percussionist Luicito Quintero, and drummer Marcus Gilmore. Flamenco dancer Nino de los Reyes and singer Ruben Blades also appeared. The album won Corea his 23rd Grammy Award and first for Best Latin Jazz Album. The solo piano album Plays arrived in 2020 and featured interpretations of jazz standards, as well as classical pieces by Mozart, Scriabin, Chopin, and others. Corea was active until his death on February 9, 2021 from cancer at age 79. In September, the posthumous live duo outing Resonance, with pianist Makoto Ozone, was released by Universal Japan.

Source: AllMusic.com

Kanji Segawa

Kanji Segawa has been a dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater since 2011. Originally from Japan, he began his dance training with his mother Erika Akoh, studying ballet with Kan Horiuchi and Ju Horiuchi in Tokyo. In 1997 Segawa came to the U.S. under the Japanese Government Artist Fellowship to train at The Ailey School. He was a member of Ailey II from 2000-2002 and Battleworks from 2002-2010. Segawa worked extensively with Mark Morris from 2004-2011, appearing with Mark Morris Dance Group and as a principal dancer in John Adams’s Nixon in China at The Metropolitan Opera. He is a master teacher and choreographs for companies and educational institutions. His work Future was premiered by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater during the 2021 Virtual Spring Gala.

Segawa has been Creative Associate for Jessica Lang since 1999, assisting her on creations for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, The National Ballet of Japan, among others and staging her work on many companies, universities and schools around the world.

Jillian Lewis

Jillian Lewis is a high-end fashion and costume designer based in New York City. Her designs draw from a variety of eclectic references to express her artistic perspective of fashion. Her pieces have a sculptural, body conscious quality that exhibit strength, softness, and femininity all at once. Born and raised in New York, Lewis graduated from Parsons School of Design with a CFDA scholarship. She has been working in the fashion industry for almost two decades, most notably as Director of Design at Ralph Lauren, Senior Design Contributor at Anthropologie, and Creative Director of her namesake line.

Lewis’s designs first received attention from her appearance on bravo’s fourth season of Project Runway. Her collection made it to the final three and walked the runway in Bryant Park. After Project Runway, she launched the Jillian Lewis collection and proceeded to show collections each season with multiple corporate sponsors. She acquired 20 retail accounts and gained notoriety through editorial placements and celebrity dressing. She is currently doing project-based design work for the fashion industry. Her expertise covers the full spectrum: everything from bridal design to racy stretch leather and suede to luxury knitwear to utilitarian uniforms. She has recently created a full assortment of men’s and women’s staff uniforms for Holland America Line.

Lewis has a history of collaborations in the dance community. Her costumes dive into the story of the choreographer or director’s work to contribute to the visual story. She has costumed productions at Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, The Guggenheim Museum, The Joyce Theater, The Baryshnikov Arts Center as well as Holland America Line. She has designed costumes for Jessica Lang, Stephen Petronio, Pam Tanawitz, Brian Reeder and Liz Gerring.

Caitlin Rain

Caitlin Rain is a New York-based artist and costume designer. A Texas native, she graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Dramatic Art. Subsequently, she earned her M.F.A. in Stage Design from Southern Methodist University.

Since her arrival in New York, she has designed for theater and opera, and assisted on productions for American Ballet Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre, Santa Fe Opera, Boston Ballet, and the National Ballet of Latvia, among others.

Rain’s career in design overlaps with her interest in portraiture and character studies. Self-taught in digital media, she is a versatile illustrator with a range of styles.

Nicole Pearce

Nicole Pearce is an international lighting designer for dance, theater, and opera based out of Queens, New York. Her work has been seen across the United States, Europe, Siberia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, and Cuba. Recent works include Closing Distance with Brian Brooks and Brian Brooks Moving Company, Elektra with Brian Staufenbiel and Minnesota Opera, and Celia and Fidel by Eduardo Machado and directed by Molly Smith at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

Collaborations in dance include work with chorographers Mark Morris, Jessica Lang, John Heginbotham, Aszure Barton, Brian Brooks, Kyle Abraham, Robert Battle, Alexander Ekman, Sonya Tayeh, Andrea Miller, Jorma Elo, and Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa, along with companies including The Joffrey Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet, Finnish National Opera, Gallim Dance, Mark Morris Dance Group, Dance Heginbotham, Jessica Lang Dance, Aszure & Artists, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Birmingham Royal Ballet, The National Ballet of Japan, Malpaso Dance Company, Nederlands Dans Theater, and American Ballet Theatre.

Scene from Harald Lander’s Études. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor.

Études

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Synopsis - Études
Ballet and Choreography by Harald Lander
Music by Carl Czerny
Adapted and Orchestrated by Knudåge Riisager
Staged by Thomas Lund
Artistic Advisor: Lise Lander
Lighting Design by Nananne Porcher
after Harald Lander

Harald Lander

Born in 1905, Harold Lander, was a Danish dancer and choreographer who was primarily responsible for rebuilding the faltering Royal Danish Ballet into a superb performing organization.
Lander studied under the great ballet master and reformer Michel Fokine in 1926-27 and danced in leading roles until 1945. As ballet master of the Royal Danish Ballet he enriched its repertoire with productions of Fokine’s masterpieces such as, Les Sylphides, Petrushka, and Prince Igor and revivals of works by the great 19th-century Danish choreographer August Bournonville. His own compositions include the frequently performed Etudes, a one-act ballet that begins with traditional ballet exercises at a dance studio’s “barre” and ends with spectacular displays by advanced students.
After becoming ballet master of the Paris Opera in 1953, he became a French citizen in 1956 and opened a studio in Paris in 1964. He was decorated by the governments of Denmark, Belgium, and France for his contributions to modern ballet. Lander returned to Copenhagen shortly before his death in 1971.

Carl Czerny

Carl Czerny was born in Vienna in 1791, and died there in 1857. He was a great pianist-pedagogue, the pupil of Beethoven, the teacher of Liszt, and the world’s champion as writer of popular pianoforte studies. Of these he wrote hundreds and they are perhaps the only remaining public relics of a varied production that ran to “Opus 1000.”

His individual contribution to the history of music spreads to the specific areas of pianoforte playing and teaching, improvisation, and composition, especially in the areas of concerto, hexameron, and étude.

Knudåge Riisager

Knudåge Riisager, a Danish composer of strongly modernistic and nationalistic style, was born in Port Kunda, Estonia on March 6, 1897. He took his degree in political economy at Copenhagen University in 1921 but one year later decided to turn to music and composing and began his studies in music theory with Peder Gram and Otto Malling. He also began his study of the violin at that time with Peder Moller.

Riisager traveled to Paris to work with Albert Roussel and Paul Le Flem in 1930 and then to Leipzig to study counterpoint with Hermann Grabner. Critics generally agree that Riisager’s compositions are especially reflective of the teachings of Roussel and indicate the strong influence of the works of Paul Dukas. He was the recipient of several prizes during his career, including the prize from the Danish Ministry of Education in 1942 and the Wilhelm Hansen prize for composition in 1925. In 1937, Riisager became the President of the Danish League of Composers.

Among Riisager’s compositions are four symphonies, two overtures, the Dionysian Suite, Variations on a Theme by Mezangeau, Poem mecanique, Jabiru T-DOZC, the Trumpet Concerto and several ballets, including Benzin (1930), Cocktail Party (1942), Tolo med Posten and The Bird Phoenix (1942), Qarrtsiluni (1942), and works for chamber groups, male chorus, voice, and the piano.

Riisager died in Copenhagen on December 16, 1974.

Thomas Lund

Thomas Lund completed his dance training at The Royal Danish Ballet School and has had his career as a principal dancer in the Royal Danish Ballet, with guest performances around the world. He has performed leads in Bournonville ballets such as La Sylphide, Napoli, The Kermesse in Bruges, Abdallah, Le Conservatoire, The Flower Festival in Genzano and classical and neo-classical ballets such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Études, Gaité Parisienne, The Lesson, Caroline Mathilde, Symphony in C, Rubies, and Tarantella.

Lund regularly stages Harald Lander’s chief work Études in Denmark and around the world (Opéra de Paris, Boston Ballet, Wiener Staatsoper, The National Ballet of Canada). He stages August Bournonville ballets in Denmark and abroad, is a teacher of the Bournonville style, and has given a number of Bournonville master classes in Denmark and abroad.

From 2012 to 2022, Lund was Director of the Royal Danish Ballet School.

Lund is Commander of the Order of Dannebrog.

Lise Lander

Born Elisabeth Gateau, Lise Lander was Harald Lander’s assistant and, from 1965 until his death in 1971, also his wife. Together with Toni Lander (Harald Lander’s previous wife), she has taught the choreographer’s production Études to the Hungarian National Ballet, the Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris, the Tokyo Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, the Houston Ballet, Salt Lake City’s Ballet West, and the Royal Danish Ballet.

Since Toni Lander’s death in 1985, Lise Lander has carried on this work alone, leading the teaching sections and serving as an artistic consultant, bringing the work to more and more cities, including Boston, Shanghai, London, and Vienna.

She is the current heir to the rights to Harald Lander’s works.

Nananne Porcher

Nananne Porcher, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, was president of Jean Rosenthal Associates, Inc. She did graduate work at UCLA and holds an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She was assistant to Jean Rosenthal from 1944 to 1956. She designed the lighting for over 100 operas, including two world premieres and numerous American premieres, working on the first opera performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center as well as the first opera at the opening of the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D. C. She is included in Who’s Who in Opera.

Porcher designed lighting for ballet from 1957, including work with New York City Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theater, and various regional companies. She served as Lighting Designer and technical coordinator for American Ballet Theatre from 1960‑1966, and as Resident Lighting Designer and technical coordinator from 1971‑1978.

Porcher’s television work included the lighting direction for the 1976 Emmy Award “Live From Lincoln Center” production of ABT’s Swan Lake, and the 1977 Emmy Award “Live From Lincoln Center” production of ABT’s Giselle. Her film work included the Stage Lighting Direction for The Turning Point, Herbert Ross’ film with Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Porcher’s professional affiliations included International Association of Lighting Designers, United States Institute of Theater Technology, League of Historic American Theaters, and Theater Historical Society.

Nananne Porcher died in 2001 at the age of 78.

Great Galloping Gottschalk
pas de deux

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Great Galloping Gottschalk pas de deux - Synopsis
Choreography by Lynne Taylor-Corbett
Music by Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Piano Pieces Orchestrated by Jack Elliott
Costumes by Gretchen Warren
Lighting by Brad Fields
after Edward M. Greenberg

Lynne Taylor-Corbett

Lynne Taylor-Corbett received Tony Award® and Drama Desk Award nominations Broadway’s Swing! (2000) and Drama Desk Award and Lucille Lortel Award nominations for My Vaudeville Man (2008) and Wanda’s World (2008). In 2024, she directed and co-wrote the book for Distant Thunder, which was performed Off-Broadway in New York City.

Taylor-Corbett’s choreography can be seen in the feature films Footloose, My Blue Heaven, and Bewitched, and her dance works have been commissioned by New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, among others. Companies throughout the world have performed her works which have been seen on Live from Lincoln Center, Live from the San Francisco Opera House, and on UNC-TV.

Taylor-Corbett is a member of the Society for Directors and Choreographers, and proud to be on the Counsel of Advisors for the Association on American Indian Affairs, an organization that provides amazing service throughout Native Country.

Louis Moreau Gottschalk

American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk was a virtuoso pianist and the first American composer to establish a reputation overseas. Gottschalk garnered fame through such American-styled works as “Bamboula” (1845). In the United States, his pieces “Le Banjo” (1855) and “The Dying Poet” (1853) proved enormously popular. The impact of Gottschalk’s music on the later development of ragtime might seem obvious, yet there is no proven link from him to the syncopated popular music he anticipated in works like “Bamboula.” The music of Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton show traces of his melodic shape and rhythmic pulse. Nickelodeon pianists did a great disservice to Gottschalk by loving him too well; pieces like “The Dying Poet” and “Morte!!” turned many a dramatic corner in silent movie houses, and the public began to identify these themes as cliché. By the 1940s, Gottschalk was condemned as hopelessly old-fashioned, and it would take decades of work by scholars to improve his fortunes. In his best music, Gottschalk was an American original; masterpieces like “Souvenir de Porto Rico,” “L’Union,” and “O Ma Charmant, Épargnez-Moi!” transcend time through their emotional power, technical mastery, audacity, wit, and charm.

Louis Gottschalk was the eldest son of a Jewish-English New Orleans real estate speculator and his French-Creole bride. Gottschalk may have heard the drums at Place Congo in New Orleans, but his exposure to Creole melody likely came through his own household. Piano study was undertaken with Narcisse Lettellier (who would also teach Morton), and at age 11, Gottschalk was sent to Paris. Denied entrance to the Conservatoire, he continued with Charles Hallé and Camille Stamaty, adding composition with Pierre Maleden. His Paris debut at the Salle Pleyel in 1845 earned praise from Chopin. By the end of the 1840s, Gottschalk’s first works, such as “Bamboula,” appeared. These syncopated pieces based on popular Creole melodies rapidly gained popularity worldwide. Gottschalk left Paris in 1852 to join his father in New York, only to encounter stiff competition from touring foreign artists. With his father’s death in late 1853, Gottschalk inherited support of his mother and six siblings. In 1855, he signed a contract with publisher William Hall to issue several pieces, including “The Banjo” and “The Last Hope.” The latter is a sad and sweetly melancholy piece, and it proved hugely popular. Gottschalk found himself obliged to repeat it at every concert, and wrote “even my paternal love for ‘The Last Hope’ has succumbed under the terrible necessity of meeting it at every step.” With an appearance at Dodsworth Hall in December 1855, Gottschalk finally found his audience. For the first time he was solvent, and after his mother’s death in 1857, he was released from his familial obligations. He embarked on a tour of the Caribbean and didn’t return for five years. When this ended, America was in the midst of the Civil War. He supported the North, touring Union States until 1864. Gottschalk wearied of the horrors surrounding him, becoming an avid proponent of education, playing benefit concerts for public schools and libraries. During a tour to California in 1865, he entered into an involvement with a young woman attending a seminary school in Oakland, and the press excoriated him. He escaped on a steamer bound for Panama City. Instead of returning to New York, he pressed on to Peru, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina. On December 18, 1869, Gottschalk died at the age of 40.

Jack Elliott

Jack Elliott was born August 6, 1927, in Hartford, Connecticut. He attended Hartt College of Music and later studied composition with Isadore Freed, Arnold Franchetti, Bohuslav Martinu, and Lukas Foss. He taught at Hartt College before moving to New York City in 1951, where he played piano with his own trio at the Embers, and worked as an organist and choirmaster.

In 1958 he moved to France, where he was music director, accompanist, and arranger for Jacqueline Francois, and worked as a music director of Philips Records. During the early 1960s in New York he was a dance arranger for the Broadway musicals Fiorello, Tenderloin, She Loves Me, and Mr. President. He moved to Los Angeles to work as an arranger on the Judy Garland television show, and later was music director of the Andy Williams television show.

His motion picture scores include The Comic, Where’s Poppa?, Oh God!, Just You and Me, Kid, and The Jerk. He produced the Blade Runner soundtrack with the New American Orchestra. He has scored such television series as Charlie’s Angels and Barney Miller, as well as numerous movies for television. He produced the NBC television special which featured the New American Orchestra, Live From Studio 8H…100 Years of America’s Popular Music. Elliott served as music director for the Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, Kennedy Center Honors, and the 1984 Summer Olympics. In addition, he holds the distinction of serving as music director of the Grammy Awards for 30 consecutive years.

Elliott founded the Henry Mancini Institute in 1997 and served as its music director until his death in 2001.

Brad Fields

Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Brad Fields has traveled throughout the world as a lighting designer for ballet and modern dance companies. He joined American Ballet Theatre in 1995 where he has also served as the lighting designer for over thirty ballets including Alexei Ratmansky’s Bernstein in a Bubble, The Bright Stream, Firebird, Harlequinade, Neo, On the Dnipro, Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, Seven Sonatas, Songs of Bukovina, and Whipped Cream, Christopher Wheeldon’s Thirteen Diversions, Benjamin Millepied’s Everything Doesn’t Happen At Once and I Feel The Earth Move, Twyla Tharp’s Rabbit and Rogue, and Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre.

Fields has frequently worked with Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato. For the Mikhailovsky Ballet he designed the lighting for Duato’s Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Prelude, and Nunc Dimittis. For Compañia Nacional de Danza he lit Duato’s Alas, Arcangelo, Castratti, Cobalto, Diecisite, Dreams of Ether, Gilded Goldbergs, Herrumbre, Hevel, Jardín Infinito, Multiplicity: Form of Silence and Emptiness, Remanso, and Without Words.

Other credits include George Balanchine’s Don Quixote for National Ballet of Canada and Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Natalia Makarova’s La Bayadère, Nicolo Fonte’s The Possibility Space, and Matt Mozewski’s Semele for The Australian Ballet. He has also designed for Ballet Argentina, Bavarian State Ballet, Boston Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Houston Ballet, Hubbard Street, Göteborg Opera Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Lewitzky Dance Company, Lyon Opera Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Netherlands Dance Theatre, North Carolina Dance Theater, the Norwegian Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Royal Swedish Ballet, Vienna Opera Ballet, and Ballet Zurich.

Fields graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 1987.

Edward M. Greenberg

Edward M. Greenberg was a director and teacher of theatrical arts at Queens College in New York City. Greenberg produced or directed more than 250 major productions throughout the country during his 35-year career in theater. He retired in 1991, after serving 20 years as exec producer of the St. Louis Municipal Opera Co.

Prior to joining the St. Louis Opera, Greenberg was director of both the Los Angeles and the San Francisco Civic Light Opera associations.

His work with musical theater in California led composer Richard Rodgers to have him direct four of the first Lincoln Center musicals, Carousel, The King and I, Kismet and The Merry Widow. Off-Broadway, Greenberg served as lighting designer for Jack Gelber’s New Play: Rehearsal (1976), Comanche Cafe/Domino Courts (1976), Jules Feiffer’s Hold Me! (1977), Cold Storage (1977), Fefu and Her Friends (1978), The Grinding Machine (1978), and Seduced (1979).

He directed the centerpiece of the 1970 White House Conference on Children, a musical entitled The Sound of Children, which was later televised by NBC as a children’s special.

As a teacher, Greenberg founded the Performer’s Workshop in Los Angeles and taught at Queens College for 20 years up to 1991.

Greenberg passed away in 1995 at the age of 71.

Scene from Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room. Photo: Marty Sohl.

In the Upper Room

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In the Upper Room - Synopsis
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Shelley Washington
Staged by Blaine Hoven
Music by Philip Glass
Original Costume Design by Norma Kamali
Lighting originally by Jennifer Tipton

Twyla Tharp

Since graduating from college in 1963, Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than hundred thirty-five dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed three Broadway shows, written two books and received one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, nineteen honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President’s Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts and many grants including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1965 Tharp founded her dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance. In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has choreographed for many other companies including: American Ballet Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance and The Martha Graham Dance Company.

Tharp’s work first appeared on Broadway in 1980 with When We Were Very Young, followed in 1981 by her collaboration with David Byrne on The Catherine Wheel at the Winter Garden. Her 1985 production of Singin’ in the Rain played at the Gershwin and was followed by an extensive national tour. In 2002, Tharp’s award-winning dance musical Movin’ Out set to the music and lyrics of Billy Joel premiered at the Richard Rodgers and ran for three years. A national tour opened in 2004 and also ran for three years. For Movin’ Out Tharp received the 2003 Tony Award, the 2003 Astaire Award, the Drama League Award for Sustained Achievement in Musical Theater; and both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography. For the London production Tharp won Best Choreography (Musical Theatre) Award of the UK’s Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards 2006. In 2006 Tharp worked with Bob Dylan’s music and lyrics to create The Times They Are A-Changin’ which played at the Brooks Atkinson.

In film Tharp has collaborated with director Milos Forman on Hair in 1978, Ragtime in 1980, and Amadeus in 1984, with Taylor Hackford on White Nights in 1985 and with James Brooks on I’ll Do Anything in 1994.

Her television credits include choreographing Sue’s Leg for the inaugural episode of PBS’ Dance in America, co-producing and directing Making Television Dance, which won the Chicago International Film Festival Award; and directing The Catherine Wheel for BBC Television. Tharp co-directed the television special Baryshnikov By Tharp, which won two Emmy Awards as well as the Director’s Guild of America Award for Outstanding Director Achievement.

In 1992 Tharp wrote her autobiography Push Comes to Shove. Her second book,The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life was published in October 2003. She was a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor in 2008.

Today Tharp continues to create and to lecture around the world.

The following works by Twyla Tharp were given their World Premieres by American Ballet Theatre: Americans We (1995), Bach Partita (1983), The Brahms-Haydn Variations (under the title Variations on a Theme by Haydn (2000), Brief Fling (1990), Bum’s Rush (1989), The Elements (1996), Everlast (1989), How Near Heaven (1995), Jump Start (1995), Known by Heart (1998), The Little Ballet (under the title Once Upon a Time (1983), Once More, Frank (Pas de Deux) (1976), Push Comes to Shove (1976), Quartet (1989), Rabbit and Rogue (2008) and Sinatra Suite (1983).

Blaine Hoven

Born in Mobile, Alabama, Blaine Hoven began his training at Mobile Ballet under the direction of Winthrop Corey and Ann Duke. During his high school years, he trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts with Melissa Hayden, Warren Conover, Fanchon Cordell, Nina Danilova, and Susan McKee McCollough. Hoven received American Ballet Theatre’s National Training Scholarship from 1999 through 2002 and attended ABT’s Summer Intensive for five summers.

Hoven joined ABT Studio Company in September 2003 and the main Company as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2004. He was appointed a Soloist in August 2016. His repertoire with the Company includes a leading role in The Brahms-Haydn Variations, the Ballet Dancer in The Bright Stream, the Lead Mazurka/Czardas in Coppélia, Dorcon in Daphnis and Chloe, Lankendem in Le Corsaire, Espada in Don Quixote, Bottom in The Dream, the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, the Standard Bearer in The Green Table, Pierrot and Harlequin’s Friend in Alexei Ratmansky’s Harlequinade, St. John Rivers and Reverend Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre, Known by Heart pas de deux, Des Grieux in Lady of the Camellias, Jose in Like Water for Chocolate, Lescaut in Manon, Russian Dance in Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Dionysius in Of Love and Rage, Lensky in Onegin, Cassio in Othello, Benvolio and Paris in Romeo and Juliet, Bacchus in The Seasons, the Bluebird, the Russian Prince, and a Fairy Knight in The Sleeping Beauty, the Bluebird and a Fairy Cavalier in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, Benno and the Neapolitan Dance in Swan Lake, Aminta and Jaseion in Sylvia, Caliban in The Tempest, Adam in Touché, Ladislav Slivovitz in Whipped Cream, leading roles in C. to C. (Close to Chuck), Désir, Garden Blue, I Feel The Earth Move, Mozartiana, Seven Sonatas, Songs of Bukovina, Symphonie Concertante, Thirteen Diversions, A Time There Was, and Troika, and featured roles in Airs, After You, Bach Partita, Baker’s Dozen, Brief Fling, Clear, Deuce Coupe, In the Upper Room, One of Three, Overgrown Path, Private Light, Raymonda Divertissements, and Sinfonietta.

He created Louis XIV in A Gathering of Ghosts, the Spanish Dance in Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, The Faun in The Seasons, the Italian Prince in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, Don Zucchero in Whipped Cream, leading roles in AFTERITE, Desire, Her Notes, Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, and ZigZag, and featured roles in Aftereffect (first production), Bernstein in a Bubble, Citizen, Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once, From Here On Out, Glow – Stop and Pretty Good Year.

In 2008, Hoven was a recipient of the Princess Grace Award and the Chris Hellman Dance Award, a specially designated prize awarded to one recipient in the dance category each year.

Philip Glass

Born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 31, 1937, Philip Glass discovered music through the records his father’s radio repair shop carried, in addition to servicing radios. Glass rapidly became familiar with Beethoven quartets, Schubert sonatas, Shostakovitch symphonies and other music then considered “offbeat.’’ It was not until he was in his late teens that Glass encountered more ‘”standard’’ classics.

Glass’ formal training began at age six with music lessons. At age eight, he took up the flute but by fifteen, the instrument’s limited range, as well as with what post-war Baltimore had to offer in terms of musical life, frustrated him. During his second year in high school, the University of Chicago accepted his application for admission. Glass moved to Chicago, supporting himself with part-time jobs waiting tables and loading airplanes at airports. He majored in mathematics and philosophy, and during off-hours practiced piano, concentrating on composers such as Ives and Webern.

At nineteen, Glass graduated from the University of Chicago and moved to New York City to attend The Juilliard School. During this time, he abandoned the 12-tone techniques he used in Chicago and explored the works of American composers like Aaron Copeland and William Schuman. Glass studied with Vincent Persichetti, Darius Milhaud and William Bergsma. Rejecting serialism, Glass gravitated to such maverick composers as Harry Partch, Charles Ives, Moondog, Henry Cowell and Virgil Thomson. In1960, he moved to Paris and spent two years of intensive study under Nadia Boulanger. It was in Paris that filmmaker Conrad Roods hired Glass to transcribe ragas by Ravi Shankar’s into western notation. During this process, Glass discovered the techniques of Indian music. After researching music in North Africa, India and the Himalayas, he applied these techniques to his own work.

By 1974, Glass had composed a large collection of new music for his performing group, The Philip Glass Ensemble, and music for the Mabou Mines Theater Company, co-founded by Glass. This period culminated in Music in Twelve Parts (1974), a three-hour summation of Glass’ new music, followed by the landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach (1976) —a five-hour epic created with Robert Wilson that is now seen as a landmark in 20th century music-theater. Glass then decided to make Einstein part of a trilogy, resulting in the creation of the operas Satyagraha (1982) and Akhenaton (1984). Over the years, Glass and Wilson worked on several other projects including Civil Wars (Rome) (1984), the fifth act of a multi-composer epic written for the 1984 Olympics; White Raven (1991), an opera commissioned by Portugal to celebrate its history of discovery and premiering at EXPO ‘98 in Lisbon and in 2001 at the Lincoln Center Festival; and Monsters of Grace (1998), a digital 3-D opera.

Beyond these landmark works, Glass’ repertoire spans the genres of opera, orchestra, chamber ensemble, dance, theater, and film and includes collaborations with a variety of distinctive contemporary artists. His operas include The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1986) and Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (1997) with librettos written by Doris Lessing based on her novels; Hydrogen Jukebox (1990) with a libretto by Allen Ginsberg based on his poetry; The Voyage (1992), based on the explorations of Christopher Columbus with a libretto written by David Henry Hwang; The Fall of the House of Usher (1988), based on the Edgar Allen Poe short story with a libretto by Arthur Yorinks; and In the Penal Colony (2000), a musical theater work based on the short story by Franz Kafka with a libretto by Rudolf Wurlitzer. Glass’ most recent opera collaborations include Galileo Galilei (2002) with Mary Zimmerman and The Sound of a Voice (2003) with David Henry Hwang.

No less varied are Glass’ orchestral works. There are large-scale works for chorus and orchestra such as Itaipu (1989) and Symphony No. 5 (1999) a symphonic chorus based on texts from wisdom traditions throughout the world; Symphony No. 2 (1996) commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony No. 3 (1996), Symphony No. 6 (Plutonian Ode) (2001), with text by Allen Ginsberg; and “Low’” and “Heroes” Symphonies (1992, 1997), both based on the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno. Glass also produced five string quartets as well as concertos for violin and orchestra, saxophone quartet and orchestra, two timpanists and orchestra, and harpsichord and orchestra. His Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2000) premiered at the Klanspuren Festival in Tirol, Austria and his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (2001), commissioned for Julian Lloyd Webber’s 50th birthday, premiered at the Beijing Festival.

Glass film scores include Godfrey Reggio’s trilogy Koyaanisqatsi (1983), Powaqqatsi (1987) and Naqoyqatsi (2002); Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line (1988), A Brief History of Time (1992) and The Fog of War (2003); Paul Shrader’s Mishima (1985); Bernard Rose’s Candyman (1992) and Bill Condon’s Candyman II (1996); and an original score, performed by Kronos Quartet for the re-release of the 1930 Dracula (2000) starring Bela Lagosi. Critically acclaimed film scores include Martin Scorsese’s Kundun (1997)– which won Glass the L. A. Critics Award, as well as the Academy and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Score and original music for Peter Weir’s The Truman Show (1998), which won a Golden Globe Award for Best Score in 1999. Glass’ work for Stephen Daldry’s The Hours (2002) received Golden Globe, Grammy, and Academy Award nominations, along with winning the Anthony Asquith Award for Achievement in Film Music from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He also scored the thrillers Taking Lives and Secret Window in 2004.

Beyond the genres of opera, orchestra, and film scores, Glass also has a number of unclassifiable dance, theater, and recording works. Dance hybrids include In the Upper Room (1986), choreographed by Twyla Tharp, and A Descent into the Maelstrom (1986). Theater hybrids include The Photographer (1983), Mysteries and What’s so Funny? (1990), and 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (1988) with a libretto by David Henry Hwang and designs by Jerome Sirlin. Glass has also created a trilogy of musical theater pieces based on the films of Jean Cocteau, Orphée (1993), La Belle et La Bête (1994) and Les Enfants Terribles (1996). His hybrid recording projects include Passages (1991) with Ravi Shankar and Songs from Liquid Days (1986) with lyrics by David Byrne, Paul Simon, Laurie Anderson, and Suzanne Vega.

In 2003, Glass premiered the opera The Sound of a Voice with David Henry Hwang, created the score to Errol Morris’ Academy Award winning documentary The Fog of War, and released the CD Études for Piano Vol. I, No. 1-10 on the Orange Mountain Music label. Premieres for 2004 included the new work Orion, a collaboration between Glass and six other international artists opening in Athens as part of the cultural celebration of the 2004 Olympics in Greece. Glass also premiered his Piano Concerto No. 2, based on Lewis and Clark, with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra. Premieres in 2005 were his Symphony No. 7 with the National Symphony Orchestra and the opera Waiting for the Barbarians, based on the book by John Coetzee. Glass continues to regularly tour with Philip on Film, performing live with his ensemble to a series of new short films as well as classics like Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, La Belle et La Bête, and Dracula.

Norma Kamali

Norma Kamali has thrived in the fashion business for over 50 years and remains the sole owner of her namesake company. As a designer, her aim is to create clothing that helps women reach their potential. A native New Yorker, Kamali is a graduate of Washington Irving High School and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1964. Four years later (l968), she opened her first boutique in New York, featuring designs made with elaborate appliques, lizard and leather patches, snakeskins and t-shirts with rhinestone studs.

In 1969, she introduced “Hot Pants” to the American market. Editorial coverage of her designs and shop were featured in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. In l974, the Kamali shop moved to Madison Avenue, and she designed “Parachute Clothing” made from actual silk parachutes. The following year (l970), she designed the “Sleeping Bag Coat.” Other innovations include sculptural swimwear and multi-style clothing made for ease of care and travel.

In 1976, Kamali opened a shop in Los Angeles and created her I Love New York promotion for Madison Avenue retailers. The following year (1977), she introduced her first wholesale swimwear collection and a Cosmopolitan cover featuring one of her bikini designs created international demand.

In July 1978, Kamali opened her own business and retail store OMO (On My Own) Norma Kamali. In the same year, she designed the costumes for the Emerald City scenes of Sidney Lumet’s film The Wiz. Also in 1978, Diana Vreeland included Kamali’s parachute designs in her Vanity Fair exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they are now in the museum’s permanent collection.

In 1983, Kamali opened her new OMO Norma Kamali Shop and began creating fashion videos. Her Fall Fantasy (1984) video pioneered an important trend in fashion merchandising. The following year, she directed Fashion Aid, a video for the New York Honorary Committee designers in a benefit for the Live Aid Foundation fundraiser by the fashion industry. For her work in fashion videos, she was a recipient of three “Best Category Awards” at the First Annual Video Awards and a Special Community Service Award for Fashion and Video (1986). She introduced her video catalogue the same year.

Kamali’s limited edition couture, swimwear and outerwear collections are exclusively featured in her own boutique with Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills, and also featured in Brown’s in London. She is the winner of numerous awards including two Coty Awards (in 1981 for her Sweatshirt Collection design innovation and in 1982 for Women’s Fashion Design), the Coty Hall of Fame Award (1983), the Council of Fashion Designers Award for outstanding women’s fashion designs (1983), the Earnshaw Preview “Earnie Award” for Outstanding Children’s Sportswear Design (1983), the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising’s “FIDM Award” in Los Angeles (1984), the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Award in recognition of her innovative use of video in the presentation and promotion of fashion (1985), the Distinguished Architecture Award from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (1986), the American Success Award for Vocational Technical Education (FIT), presented to her by President Bush in the White House Rose Garden (1989), the Pencil Award for her extraordinary commitment to New York City Public School Education and the Fashion Outreach Style Award (1999), the Business Outreach Award from the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce (2001), the Entrepreneur Award from the Fashion Group and her induction into the 2002 Fashion Walk of Fame by the Fashion Center Business Improvement District, and the Special Tribute Award by the Board of Directors of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (2005).

Ghost Catcher (2019) represents Kamali’s latest designs to be added to American Ballet Theatre repertoire. Kamali has sought to design costumes exemplifying gender neutral style for this latest collaboration with Twyla Tharp. She previously created the costumes for Tharp’s In The Upper Room (1988) and Rabbit and Rogue (2008).

Jennifer Tipton

Well-known for lighting theater, opera, and dance, Jennifer Tipton was born in Columbus, Ohio and attended Cornell University where she majored in English. After graduation, Tipton came to New York to study dance. Her interest in lighting began with a course in the subject at the American Dance Festival, Connecticut College.

Tipton has been awarded two Bessie Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award for lighting dance; her work in that field includes pieces choreographed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jiří Kylián, Dana Reitz, Jerome Robbins, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Dan Wagoner, and Trisha Brown, among many others. Her work in the theatre has garnered a Joseph Jefferson Award, a Kudo, a Drama-League Award, two American Theatre Wing Awards, an Obie, two Drama Desk Awards (the first for The Cherry Orchard and Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf; the second for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, Waiting for Godot, and Long Day’s Journey into Night), and two Tony Awards® for The Cherry Orchard and Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. Her work in opera includes Richard Jones’s production of Hansel und Gretel and David McVicar’s production of Il Trovatore, both at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as Aida, directed by David McVicar at the Royal Opera House in London. In the fall of 1991 she directed a production of The Tempest at the Guthrie. Her recent work includes Pictures from Home and To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway, Samuel Beckett’s First Love for Zoom, and all of Richard Nelson’s Rhinebeck plays, a remount of Richard Strauss’s Electra for the Dallas Opera, Amy Hall Garner’s Somewhere in the Middle for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Jerome Robbins for the Paris Opera Ballet. She created her own installation, Our Days and Night at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

Tipton has been an artistic associate with the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. In 1982, she received the Creative Arts Award in Dance from Brandeis University. She held a Guggenheim Fellowship for the 1986-87 season and received the 1989 Commonwealth Award in Dramatic Arts. In 1991, she received a Dance Magazine Award. She has been a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Theatre Program Distinguished Artist Award, and a grant in the National Theatre Artist Residency Program funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. She received the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2001, the Jerome Robbins Prize in 2003 and the Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture in New York City in April 2004. In 2008, she became the United States Artists Gracie Fellow and a MacArthur Fellow. Tipton is a Professor Emeritus in the Practice of Design at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University and the Yale Repertory Theatre Lighting Design Advisor.

Tipton’s lighting has been represented in American Ballet Theatre’s repertory since A Soldier’s Tale in 1971. Among many ballets in the Company’s repertory that she has lit are Amnon V’Tamar, Bach Partita, Le Baiser de la Fée, Ballet Imperial, Brief Fling, Bruch Violin Concerto No.1, Bum’s Rush, Crime and Punishment, Don Quixote (Kitri’s Wedding), Eccentrique, The Elements, Enough Said, Everlast, Field, Chair and Mountain, Gala Performance, A Gathering of Ghosts, Giselle, The Informer, Interludes, Intermezzo, The Leaves are Fading, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s production of The Nutcracker, Alexei Ratmansky’s production of The Nutcracker, The Other, Push Comes to Shove, Raymonda, Grand Pas Hongrois, Sinatra Suite, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Sunset, and Theatre.

Scene from La Bayadère. Photo: Rosalie O'Connor.

The Kingdom of the Shades

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The Kingdom of the Shades - Synopsis
Choreography by Natalia Makarova
after Marius Petipa
Music by Ludwig Minkus
Specially Arranged by John Lanchbery
Production Conceived and Directed by Natalia Makarova
Scenery by PierLuigi Samaritani
Costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge
Lighting by Toshiro Ogawa

Natalia Makarova

Natalia Makarova began her career in her native Leningrad, entering the Vaganova School at the age of 13. After graduating, she joined the Kirov Ballet, rapidly rising to the rank of Ballerina. She came to international prominence when she danced Giselle with the Kirov Ballet in London, which became one of her signature roles. She won the Gold Medal in Varna in l965 and the Anna Pavlova Award in Paris in 1970.

On September 4, l970, while on tour in London with the Kirov, Makarova chose to remain in the West to extend her horizons. She began her new career by joining American Ballet Theatre, making her debut with the Company in Giselle. She also appeared as guest artist with major ballet companies throughout the world. Her long association with the Royal Ballet began in 1972. Her vast repertory includes the classical repertoire and the ballets of the great contemporary choreographers including MacMillan, Robbins, Balanchine, Ashton, Tudor, Bejart, Petit, Neumeier, Tetley and Cranko. In 1985 she won the Evening Standard Award in London, presented by Princess Diana, for her performance of Cranko’s Onegin.

Among the ballets and pas de deux created for Makarova are Robbins’s Other Dance (with Baryshnikov); Ashton’s Le Rossignol (with Dowell); Contredances (with Dowell); Neumeier’s Epilogue (with Bruhn); Bejart’s Mephisto (with Donn); Petit’s Blue Angel and MacMillan Pas de Deux (with MacLeary).

Makarova staged the “Kingdom of the Shades” from La Bayadère for American Ballet Theatre in 1974. In 1980, she staged and directed the full-length production for ABT, the first Western company to acquire this work. Her production included for the first time since 1919 a reconstruction of the last act, with Makarova’s choreography after Marius Petipa, restoring the original dramatic structure and impact of this early masterpiece. She has staged her production of La Bayadère for 19 companies including the Royal Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Tokyo Ballet; Australian Ballet; Hamburg Ballet; Teatro Colon; Stanislavsky Ballet in Moscow; Dutch National Ballet; Teatr Wielki in Poland; National Ballet of Kiev; and most recently in 2016 for the National Ballet of China. Her other productions include Giselle for the Royal Swedish Ballet; Sleeping Beauty for the Royal Ballet; Swan Lake for the Perm Ballet of Russia and the National Ballet of China; and Paquita and Kingdom of the Shades.

Her television work includes the 4-part ‘Ballerina’ Series, which she wrote and presented for the BBC; ‘Assoluta’ (BBC); ‘Makarova Returns’ (BBC); ‘In a Class of Her Own’ and ‘Natasha’. She has also been filmed in Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Other Dances and La Bayadère.

She made her musical comedy debut on Broadway in On Your Toes, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1983, Drama Desk Award, the Stanislavsky Award, Astaire Award and numerous other awards. In 1984, she starred in the West End production of On Your Toes, for which she won the Laurence Olivier Award.

On February 1, 1989, after 19 years’ absence, Makarova was the first artistic exile to be invited back to perform in the Soviet Union. She returned to her native Leningrad where she danced with the Kirov Ballet on the stage where she began her illustrious career.

In 1991, she made her debut as a dramatic actress in the Chichester Festival production of Tovarich, which transferred to the West End in London. She returned to Russia in 1992 in the play Two for the Seesaw, giving performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1997, she starred in the Chichester Festival production of George Bernard Shaw’s play Misalliance. She played Elvira in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit at the Palace Theatre in England.

Makarova received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012. This award was created “to provide National recognition to individuals who through their lifetime have made significant contribution to American culture through the performing arts.” President and Mrs. Obama held a reception at the White House for the Honorees, which was followed by a Tribute performance at the Kennedy Center.

In 2014, in Moscow, she was awarded the “Soul of Dance” by the Russian Ballet Journal and the Russian Ministry of Culture, which honors her for preserving the Russian heritage of classical ballet through her productions in the West. The 2018 Jury of the Benois de la Danse has chosen Makarova for this year’s Life Achievement Award. She continues to stage classical ballets throughout the world passing on her knowledge to a new generation of dancers.

Marius Petipa

Marius Petipa, the “father of classical ballet,” was born in Marseilles, France, in 1819. He began his dance training at the age of seven with his father, Jean Petipa, the French dancer and teacher. Marius was educated at the Grand College in Brussels and also attended the conservatoire, where he studied music. Although he disliked dancing in those early years, his progress was so great that he made his debut in 1831 in his father’s production of Gardel’s La Dansomanie.

In 1834 Jean Petipa became Maitre de Ballet at the theatre in Bordeaux and it was here that Marius completed his education. At the age of sixteen, he became premier danseur at the theatre in Nantes, where he also produced several short ballets.

In 1839 Marius left Nantes to tour North America with his father, and on their return visit went to Paris. The following year he made his debut at the Comedie Francaise, where he partnered Carlotte Grisi in a benefit performance. He continued his studies with A. Vestris and became a principal dancer in Bordeaux.

Petipa next went to Spain in 1845, to work at the King’s Theatre. While in Madrid, he studied Spanish dance and choreographed Carmen et son Terero, La Perle de Seville, L’Aventure d’une fille de Madrid, La Fleur de Grenade, and Depart Dour la Course des Toureaux.

Petipa returned to Paris as a principal dancer, but in 1847 left for Russia. He had signed a one-year contract with the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre, but was to remain there for the rest of his life. As a principal dancer, Petipa often appeared with Fanny Elssler and was much acclaimed for his performances in such ballets as Paquita (which he restaged and in which made his debut), Giselle, La Peri, Armida, Catarina, Le Delire d’un peintre, Esmeralda, Le Corsaire and Faust. Considered an excellent dancer and partner, his acting, stage manners and pantomime were held up as examples for many generations of dancers.

When Giselle was revived in 1850, Petipa made some changes in the Wilis scenes, which became the Grand Pas des Wilis of 1884. In 1854, he married Maria Sourovshchikova, a student in the graduating class of the Imperial School, who later danced in many of her husband’s ballets. (Petipa’s second marriage was to Lubova Leonidovna, a member of the Moscow Ballet, in 1882.) In 1854 he became an instructor in the school, while continuing to dance and to restage ballets from the French repertoire.

Sources differ on the first original work he staged for the Imperial Theatre: some state it was The Star of Granada, others that it was A Marriage During Regency. But all sources concur that his first great success was The Daughter of Pharoh (staged in six weeks), which resulted in his appointment as Choreographer-in-Chief in 1862 — a position he held for nearly fifty years.

In 1869 Petipa became Premier Ballet Master of the Imperial Theatre. The value of his accomplishments is inestimable: he produced more than sixty full-evening ballets and innumerable shorter works and he is considered to have laid the foundation for the entire school of Russian ballet. The ballet repertoire in the Soviet Union is still based mainly on his works.

Those who felt the dramatic content of ballet should be strengthened began to oppose Petipa toward the end of his career. His noble classicism and consciousness of form was considered old-fashioned, and in 1903, at age 84, Petipa was forced to retire from the Imperial Theatre as a direct result of the failure of his ballet, The Magic Mirror. His last years were filled with bitterness and disillusionment because his beloved theatre had been taken away. He died in St. Petersburg in 1910.

Marius Petipa is considered one of the greatest choreographers of all time. He researched the subject matter of the ballets he staged, making careful and detailed preparations for each production, and then worked closely with the designer and composer. Petipa elevated the Russian ballet to international fame and laid the cornerstone for 20th Century ballet. His classicism integrated the purity of the French school with Italian virtuosity.

Sources:
1. The Dance Encyclopedia, Compiled and edited by Anatole Chujoy and P. W. Manchester, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1967.
2. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet, Horst Koegler, Oxford University Press, London, 1977.
3. Complete Book of Ballets. A Guide to the Principal Ballets of the 19th Centurv, Cyril Beaumont, Putnam, London, 1937.
4. Russian Ballet Master: The Memoirs of Marius Petipa, Ed., Lillian Moore,Tr. Helen Whittaker, Adam and Charles Black, London, 1958. Researched and compiled by Fran Michelman.

Ludwig Minkus

Ludwig Minkus, the ballet composer and violinist, was born in Vienna in 1826.

Minkus made his first appearance as a composer in Paris in April 1846 with Paquita, which was written jointly with Edward Deldevez and choreographed by Joseph Mazilier. La Fiammetta with choreography by Saint‑Léon (February 13, 1864) and Nemea (July 14, 1864) followed. He next collaborated with Délibes on La Source (November 12, 1866) and composed music for two more ballets with Saint‑Leon as the choreographer – Le Poisson d’Or (1867) and Le Lys (1869) – in Paris.

In 1853 he went to Russia as the conductor of Prince N. B. Yussupov’s serf orchestra in St. Petersburg and was a soloist in the Moscow Bolshoi Orchestra from 1861‑1872. He also taught at the Moscow Conservatory (1866‑1872).

From 1864‑1871, Minkus was the official ballet composer at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. In 1871, he was transferred to St. Petersburg, where he worked until 1891 when his position was eliminated and he was retired.

Discontent with his small pension (the equivalent of about $285.00 a year), the composer left Russia for Austria, where he died, in 1917, at the age of 91.

The composer of over twenty ballets, among them Don Quixote, Roxanna, Camargo, Papillons, The Bandits, The Adventures of Peleas, La Bayadère, The Daughter of the Snows, The Magic Pills, Mlada, Kalkabrino, and Day and Night, Minkus was facile and an excellent craftsman in the context of the style of ballet music of his day. His music is melodic and distinguished by clear dance rhythms.

John Lanchbery

Born in London, John Lanchbery won the Henry Smart Scholarship in Composition in 1942 which enabled him to study at the Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers included Sir Henry Wood. During the war he served in the Royal Armoured Corps, and at the war’s end, returned to the Royal Academy to complete his studies.

Lanchbery spent two years in his first professional conducting post as the Music Director of London’s Metropolitan Ballet. He then went on to work with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, serving as the principal conductor of the company, later known as The Royal Ballet, from 1960-1972. After a tour with The Australian Ballet to the United States in 1970, Lanchbery became that company’s guest conductor and was subsequently appointed the company’s music director in 1972.

Lanchbery arranged the scores for Sir Frederick Ashton’s ballet La Fille Mal Gardée, and the Franz Liszt music for Kenneth MacMillan’s full-length ballet, Mayerling, which was given its World Premiere in the spring of 1978 at Covent Garden. He arranged the Franz Lehár score for the first full-length ballet production of The Merry Widow by The Australian Ballet, the first of five successful collaborations with choreographer Ronald Hynd, and subsequently conducted the Adelaide Symphony and Singers in a 1976 recording of highlights from The Merry Widow, which earned him a Gold Record in 1977. Lanchbery has composed music for films and various BBC sound and television programs, and his work on the film score for The Tales of Beatrix Potter was highly acclaimed. Other film score arrangements included Evil Under the Sun and the Oscar-nominated The Turning Point. Most recently, Lanchbery arranged a score for the special restoration of D.W. Griffith’s silent film classic The Birth of a Nation (1915), and composed an original score for John Ford’s silent film The Iron Horse (1924).

In Lanchbery’s past association with American Ballet Theatre, he conducted several performances of Giselle in the Spring of 1977 and conducted for the triumphant World Premiere of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Don Quixote (Kitri’s Wedding) at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 1978. Lanchbery specially arranged the Ludwig Minkus score for Natalia Makarova’s full-length production of La Bayadère, which received its premiere in 1980 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. He also served as American Ballet Theatre’s Music Director from 1978-1980.

While maintaining his close association with The Royal Ballet, Lanchbery appears regularly as ballet conductor with many of the world’s leading opera houses including Paris, Stockholm, Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Houston. He has also toured with The Australian Ballet to Japan, Russia, China, and London. He recently returned to The Australian Ballet for a year as chief conductor, which included the company’s 1990 summer tour of the United States.

Most recently, Lanchbery completed a score for Ben Stevenson’s Dracula, to music of Franz Liszt.

John Lanchbery received many honors. He was the first foreign conductor to receive the Bolshoi Medal. In 1989, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award from the Royal Academy of Dance and the Carina Ari Medal, presented by HRH Princess Christina of Sweden “for the furtherance of the Art of Dance.” In 1991, he was awarded the OBE in the New Year’s Honours List.

Lanchbery died in February 2003 aged 79.

PierLuigi Samaritani

PierLuigi Samaritani was born in Novara, Italy, where he completed his classical studies. He later attended the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan before going to Paris to study art. In Paris, Samaritani met the celebrated set designer and painter Lila De Nobili who awakened his interest in the theatre, and he enrolled at the Centre Dramatique de la Rue Blanche. At the age of 21 he was invited by director Raymond Rouleau to create sets for Dencker’s play Le Fil Rouge at the Theatre de Mary Bell. After this initial success Samaritani decided to extend his knowledge of theatre technique, working as assistant to Lila De Nobili (at the Spoleto Festival of the Two Worlds), again to Lila De Nobili and Fabrizio Clerici (Teatro alla Scala, Milan), Franco Zeffirelli (Opera de Paris; Teatro Romano, Verona), and Giorgio De Chirico (Teatro dell’Opera, Rome). In 1967, Massimo Begianckino, general manager of Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera, invited Samaritani to design sets and costumes for Manfred (Schumann/Byron) – the success of that production placed him among the foremost designers of today. The next production that Samaritani designed was I Capricci di Callot at La Scala of Milan in 1968, followed by Semiramide (Rossini) for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Tristan und Isolde (Wagner) at the Spoleto Festival of the Two Worlds.

In 1969, Samaritani designed sets and costumes for La Clemenza di Tito at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera, The Medium and El Retable de Maese Pedro for the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds, Maria di Rohan for Teatro alla Scala; in 1970, he designed La Vestale for Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, Marie Golovin for the Opera de Marseille and the Opera de Paris. In the next four years, he designed Amahl and the Night Visitors and Help, Help the Gobolinks at the Grand Theatre de Geneve, Teatro dell’Opera, Rome, and La Piccola Scala, Milan, Carmen for the Teatro alla Scala, Don Pasquale for the Theater in Gartnerplatz in Munich, Giovanna d’Arco for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Les Dialogues des Carmelites for the Opera de Paris, Lucia di Lammermoor for Teatro La Fenice, Mose for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Sebastian for the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, La Boheme for the Opera de Paris, La Boheme for the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Maria di Rohan for Teatro La Fenice, and Don Quichote (Massenet) for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

In 1975, Samaritani designed a new production of Don Pasquale for the Spoleto Festival, where he also made his directorial debut in The Old Maid and the Thief. During the next three years, he designed the sets and costumes for: Trittico and La Falena at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Eugene Onegin for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, I Racconti di Hoffmann for the Dallas Civic Theatre, Orfeo e Euridice for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Gemma di Vergy for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Otello for the Hamburgische Staatsoper, Luisa Miller for the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Re Cervo for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Eigste for the Teatro La Fenice, Medea in Corinto for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and La Traviata for the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome.

In 1978, Samaritani staged and designed the sets and costumes for Massenet’s Werther for the Teatro Comunale of Florence, a production which was later brought to the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In 1978 Samaritani also created the sets and costumes for Cosi fan Tutte for the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and for Thais for the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome. Also in that year, Samaritani was commissioned to design Vivaldi’s L’Incoronazione di Dario in Siena ‑‑ a production which received considerable critical acclaim and was greeted by much public controversy. In 1979, he staged Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Comunale of Florence and was seen at the Festival of the Two Worlds in Charleston in May 1980. Late in 1979, Samaritani designed the new production of Gounod’s Faust for the televised opening night of the Chicago Lyric Opera’s 25th anniversary season. His plans for l980 included the staging of Francesca da Rimini for the Teatro Filarmonico of Verona (he also designed the sets and costumes), and designing the sets and costumes for Lucrezia Borgia at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera. In June 1980 Samaritani staged and designed Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Samaritani marked his American Ballet Theatre and Metropolitan Opera House debut with his designs for La Bayadère. This was also the first time that he had designed for the ballet. In 1988, Samaritani designed the scenery and costumes for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s production of Swan Lake.

Theoni V. Aldredge

With over 150 stage productions, numerous ballets and several films to her credit, Theoni V. Aldredge ranks as one of the most prolific and successful costume designers of the late 20^th century. Born and raised in Greece, Aldredge was inspired to become a costumer after seeing the film version of Caesar and Cleopatra in 1946. Moving to the United States, she trained at the Goodman Theatre School where she made her debut with The Distaff Side (1950). In 1953, she married actor Tom Aldredge and the couple settled in New York. After debuting in films with Girl of the Night (1960), Aldredge began her long association as one of the resident designers at Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival with a 1961 production of Much Ado About Nothing. Over the next three decades at the NYSF, she crafted the appropriate clothing for many Shakespearean productions, including the acclaimed Edwardian-set Much Ado About Nothing in 1973, and revivals, Threepenny Opera (1977), as well as the landmark musicals Hair (1967) and A Chorus Line (1975).

In 1974, producer David Merrick asked Aldredge to create the lavish, beautiful 1920s wardrobe for the film version of The Great Gatsby. Douglas Slocombe’s pristine cinematography captured Aldredge’s ravishing designs and the Academy took note by bestowing that year’s Best Costume Design Oscar on her. Three years later, Broadway honored Aldredge for her stage work, presenting her with the 1977 Tony Award for her witty 1940s wardrobe featured in the musical Annie. She continued to design extraordinary designs for several of Broadway’s most popular shows, including Barnum (1980), 42nd Street produced by Merrick (1981), Dreamgirls (1982), La Cage aux Folles (1984) and The Secret Garden (1991).

Onscreen, Aldredge dressed Faye Dunaway and her co-stars in such films as Network (1976), The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) and The Champ (1979).

John Huston asked her to revisit her award-winning designs for the film version of Annie (1982). Cher wore clothing designed by Aldredge in her Oscar-winning Moonstruck (1987), as did Jessica Lange in Night and the City (1992) and the 1995 remake of A Streetcar Named Desire. She also designed costumes for the film The Rage: Carrie 2 and the stage revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (2000). In 1990, Aldredge was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in the Gershwin Theatre in New York.

For American Ballet Theatre, Aldredge has designed costumes for Hamlet Connotations (1976), La Bayadère (1980), La Sonnambula (1981), Interludes, Paquita and Symphonie Concertante (1983), Amnon V’Tamar (1984) and Theme and Variations (1986). She died in January 2011 aged 88.

Toshiro Ogawa

Toshiro Ogawa, who was born in Tokyo, Japan, received his first training in his native city and then attended the University of Hawaii’s East‑West Center for one year (1963‑1964) on a grant. His first professional engagement was as a lighting designer for summer stock at Green Mansions in New York State. From 1966 through 1971, he was a member of the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, and then traveled to Germany to further his studies in various opera houses. It was during that time that he first met Glen Tetley, with whom he worked in Stuttgart until the latter’s resignation as Director of the ballet company. Ogawa worked as the Production Director for the Royal Iranian Opera House in Teheran before returning to the United States in 1975.

Ogawa’s lighting design for Contredances marked his United States debut and was his first work for American Ballet Theatre. In addition to La Bayadère, Ogawa has done the lighting for Adagio for Strings, Fantasie Sérieuse, Pierrot Lunaire, Rendezvous pas de deux (by Stephen Jan-Hoff to the music of Henryk Wieniawsky), and Le Retour. He has also designed for the National Ballet of Canada, the Houston Ballet, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and the Grand Kabuki Theatre. Ogawa joined the faculty of UCLA in the spring of 1990.

Carlos Gonzalez and Joseph Markey in Kyle Abraham’s Mercurial Son. Photo: Quinn Wharton.

Mercurial Son
Kyle Abraham World Premiere

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Mercurial Son - Synopsis
Choreography by Kyle Abraham
Music by Grischa Lichtenberger
Costumes by Karen Young
Lighting by Dan Scully
Assistants to the Choreographer: Stephanie Terasaki
Assistants to the Choreographer: Tamisha A. Guy
Costume Design Supervision by Caitlin Rain

Kyle Abraham

Kyle Abraham, Founder and Artistic Director of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, has premiered his work to international audiences and acclaim since 2006. Abraham has been profiled in Document Journal, Vanity Fair, Ebony, Harper’s Bazaar, Kinfolk, O Magazine, Paper, Surface, W Magazine, Vogue, and Vogue UK, among many other publications. He is the proud recipient of a National Dance Critics Award for Choreography (2024, Are You in Your Feelings?/ Alvin Ailey Dance Theater), Dance Magazine Award (2022), Princess Grace Statue Award (2018), Doris Duke Award (2016), and MacArthur Fellowship (2013). In addition to performing and developing new works for his company, Abraham has been commissioned by a wide variety of dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The National Ballet of Cuba, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, and The Royal Ballet. In 2024, Abraham is premiering two evening-length works: Cassette Vol. 1 in Hamburg, German in August, and Dear God, Make Me Beautiful at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City in December.

Since 2021, Abraham has served as the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professor in Dance at The University of Southern California (USC) Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Abraham sits on the advisory board for Dance Magazine and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the inaugural Black Genius Brain Trust, and the inaugural cohort of the Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab, a partnership between the Prada Group, Theaster Gates Studio, Dorchester Industries, and Rebuild Foundation.

Abraham has led and curated several performance series including the Danspace Project (2024 / 50th anniversary season) and Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City (2023, 2022), among others. In 2020, Abraham was the first ever guest editor for Dance Magazine.

Grischa Lichtenberger

Grischa Lichtenberger was born in Bielefeld 1983. In 2009 he released his debut EP ~treibgut ununbium on German label Raster-Noton. ~treibgut – a system of references to the river Rhein – operated as a motto for varied expressions: installations, videos, music, painting, and drawings. Beginning in 2006, while moving to Duesseldorf, Lichtenberger decided to rethink the artistic process from scratch – it’s ethical legitimization and it’s epistemological backgrounds – all in regard to the concreteness of the biographical situation in its landscape and history. Since 2008 Lichtenberger has lived in Berlin.

Lichtenberger’s focus is not only the musical expression, but the process of creating art in general. Always regarding the complexity and difficulties of communication and material referenciality, he seeks to overcome the dominance of functional interpretations, while maintaining an open access to technology and production. The archive of samples and fragments of overcome and discarded technological artifacts and everyday livestock is enabled by an ethical figure, wherein art is to address and regard the other, without economizing or confining them.

Karen Young

Karen Young has designed costumes for numerous modern dance and contemporary video art projects, which have been seen in theaters and museums all over the world. She has collaborated as a designer with many internationally renowned video artists, with recent projects including David Michalek’s Slow Dancing (Lincoln Center Festival, Venice Biennale) and Goldenly (for Alvin Ailey), Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 5, and Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation’s The Rape of the Sabine Women (Athens Festival, Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, Louisiana Museum, Denmark) and 89 Seconds at Alcazar (Whitney Biennial, MoMA). Her design work for dance can be seen in the repertoires of Elisa Monte, Karole Armitage, Larry Keigwin, Pascal Rioult, Philadanco, Noémie Lafrance, Fang Yi Sheu’s LAFA & Artists (Taiwan), and the Martha Graham Dance Company with which she has been associated for many years and where she recently reconstructed Martha Graham’s original costume designs for Clytemnestra. The costumes for Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once (2009) were her first work for American Ballet Theatre.

Dan Scully

Dan Scully is a New York based lighting and projection designer, working in all forms of live performance. Dance work includes designs for American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Royal Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, LA Dance Project, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Notable theater credits include Rocky (Broadway), Jedermann (Salzburger Festspeile), and If/Then (US National Tour). Concert and event work includes site-specific video designs for the Bonnaroo Music Festival, as well as multiple projects with the New York Pops and Carnegie Hall (New York). Dan is the resident designer for A.I.M. By Kyle Abraham. He has an MFA from New York University Tisch School of Arts.

Stephanie Terasaki

Stephanie Terasaki was born and raised in southern California. She began her formal training at Inland Pacific Ballet Academy while also attending the Orange County School of the Arts. She then received her BFA from The Juilliard School under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes. She currently freelances and is based in New York City. In the recent years, she has also been working as a creative assistant for Kyle Abraham in his newly commissioned works for The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre, and Vail Dance Festival.

Tamisha A. Guy

Tamisha A. Guy, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, studied at Ballet Tech under Eliot Feld, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, and SUNY Purchase. She joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2013. Awards include the 2016 Princess Grace Award and 2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance. She was named one of Dance Magazine’s 2016 “Top 25 to Watch” and Dance Europe’s 2017 “Best Dancers of the Year.” Guy currently dances with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, is a Lecturer in Dance at Barnard College, and is the Founder of HUETAPE, a skin-toned kinesiology tape brand celebrating the unique needs of melanated individuals.

Caitlin Rain

Caitlin Rain is a New York-based artist and costume designer. A Texas native, she graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Dramatic Art. Subsequently, she earned her M.F.A. in Stage Design from Southern Methodist University.

Since her arrival in New York, she has designed for theater and opera, and assisted on productions for American Ballet Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre, Santa Fe Opera, Boston Ballet, and the National Ballet of Latvia, among others.

Rain’s career in design overlaps with her interest in portraiture and character studies. Self-taught in digital media, she is a versatile illustrator with a range of styles.

Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside in Alexei Ratmansky’s Neo. Photo: ioulex for The Joyce Theater.

Neo
Company Premiere

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Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky
Music by Dai Fujikura
Costumes by Moritz Junge
Lighting by Brad Fields

Alexei Ratmansky

Alexei Ratmansky was born in St. Petersburg and trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow. His performing career included positions as principal dancer with Ukrainian National Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. He has choreographed ballets for the Mariinsky Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Kiev Ballet, and the State Ballet of Georgia, as well as for Nina Ananiashvili, Diana Vishneva, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Ratmansky’s 1998 work, Dreams of Japan, earned a prestigious Golden Mask Award by the Theatre Union of Russia. In 2005, he was awarded the Benois de la Danse prize for his choreography of Anna Karenina for the Royal Danish Ballet. He was made Knight of the Order of Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 2001. He won his second Benois de la Danse for Shostakovich Trilogy in 2014.

Ratmansky was named artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet in January 2004. For the Bolshoi Ballet, he choreographed full-length productions of The Bright Stream (2003) and The Bolt (2005) and re-staged Le Corsaire (2007) and the Soviet-era Flames of Paris (2008). Under Ratmansky’s direction, the Bolshoi Ballet was named “Best Foreign Company” in 2005 and 2007 by The Critics’ Circle in London, and he received a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for The Bright Stream in 2006. In 2007, he won a Golden Mask Award for Best Choreographer for his production of Jeu de Cartes for the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2009, Ratmansky choreographed new dances for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Aida. Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre as Artist in Residence in January 2009. In 2012, Ratmansky choreographed a new version of The Golden Cockerel for the Royal Danish Ballet. The Golden Cockerel received its American Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on June 6, 2016.

For American Ballet Theatre, Ratmansky has choreographed On the Dnieper (2009), Seven Sonatas (2009), Waltz Masquerade, a ballet honoring Nina Ananiashvili’s final season (2009), The Nutcracker (2010), Dumbarton (2011), Firebird and Symphony #9 (2012), Chamber Symphony, Piano Concerto #1 and The Tempest (2013), The Sleeping Beauty (2015), Serenade after Plato’s Symposium (2016), Songs of Bukovina (2017), Whipped Cream (2017), Harlequinade (2018), The Seasons (2019), Of Love and Rage (2020), and Bernstein in a Bubble (2021).

Ratmansky was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow for 2013. In 2020, he received a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Best Classical Choreography for his work with San Francisco Ballet on Shostakovich Trilogy, a co-commission with American Ballet Theatre.

Dai Fujikura

Born in 1977 in Osaka, Japan, Dai Fujikura was fifteen when he moved to the United Kingdom. The recipient of many composition prizes, he has received numerous international co-commissions from the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, BBC Proms, Bamberg Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and more. He has been Composer-in-Residence of Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra since 2014 and held the same post at the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France in 2017-18. Fujikura’s first opera, Solaris, co-commissioned by the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra de Lausanne, and the Opéra de Lille, had its world premiere in Paris in 2015 and has since gained a worldwide reputation. A new production of Solaris was created and performed at the Theatre Augsburg in 2018, and the opera received a subsequent staging in 2020.

In 2017, Fujikura received the Silver Lion Award from the Venice Biennale. In the same year, he was named the Artistic Director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater’s Born Creative Festival.

In 2019, his Shamisen Concerto was premiered at Mostly Mozart festival at Lincoln Center in New York City and there has since been numerous performances of this work by various orchestras.

In 2020, Fujikura premiered his fourth piano concerto, Akiko’s Piano, dedicated to Hiroshima Symphony’s Peace and Music Ambassador, Martha Argerich, and performed as part of their Music for Peace project. His third opera, A Dream of Armageddon, was premiered at the New National Theatre Tokyo in the same year.

His works are recorded by and released mainly on his own label Minabel Records in collaboration with SONY Music and his compositions are published by Ricordi Berlin.

Moritz Junge

Moritz Junge is an acclaimed set and costume designer who works internationally across theatre, opera, dance and entertainment. Born in Germany, Junge studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin before coming to London to complete his MFA in set and costume design at the Slade School of Fine Art under the tutelage of Philip Prowse and Yolanda Sonnabend. In 2001 he was the overall winner of the Linbury Prize, the UK’s most prestigious award for graduates in stage design. Following his degree show, he debuted with Tom Cairns designing the world premiere of Tom Ades’ The Tempest which opened in 2004 at the Royal Opera House in London. Junge has since worked consistently with most of the leading performing art institutions in the world, alongside numerous commercial projects, including costume design for the London 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony. He also regularly works with photographer Finlay MacKay, creating and styling commercial images for advertising campaigns such as the Lavazza calendar in 2008 and a Sony BMG album for Paloma Faith.

His opera and ballet work includes Così fan tutte (Opera Australia), Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci (Metropolitan Opera, New York), Les Troyens, Aida (Royal Opera), Don Carlo (Bolshoi), L’Anatomie de la sensation (Paris Opera Ballet), Outlier (New York City Ballet), Daphne (La Monnaie, Brussels), Dyad 1929 (The Australian Ballet), Renature (Nederlands Dans Theater) and La Cenerentola (Glyndebourne). For The Royal Ballet his work includes Multiverse, Live Fire Exercise, Limen, Infra (also Joffrey Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet), and Chroma (also Alvin Ailey, Boston Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, San Francisco Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Bolshoi, Dutch National Ballet). Designs for theatre include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe), In the Republic of Happiness (Royal Court), The Kitchen, Dido, Queen of Carthage and The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other (National Theatre), Judgment Day (Almeida) and All About my Mother (Old Vic).

Brad Fields

Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Brad Fields has traveled throughout the world as a lighting designer for ballet and modern dance companies. He joined American Ballet Theatre in 1995 where he has also served as the lighting designer for over thirty ballets including Alexei Ratmansky’s Bernstein in a Bubble, The Bright Stream, Firebird, Harlequinade, Neo, On the Dnipro, Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, Seven Sonatas, Songs of Bukovina, and Whipped Cream, Christopher Wheeldon’s Thirteen Diversions, Benjamin Millepied’s Everything Doesn’t Happen At Once and I Feel The Earth Move, Twyla Tharp’s Rabbit and Rogue, and Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre.

Fields has frequently worked with Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato. For the Mikhailovsky Ballet he designed the lighting for Duato’s Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Prelude, and Nunc Dimittis. For Compañia Nacional de Danza he lit Duato’s Alas, Arcangelo, Castratti, Cobalto, Diecisite, Dreams of Ether, Gilded Goldbergs, Herrumbre, Hevel, Jardín Infinito, Multiplicity: Form of Silence and Emptiness, Remanso, and Without Words.

Other credits include George Balanchine’s Don Quixote for National Ballet of Canada and Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Natalia Makarova’s La Bayadère, Nicolo Fonte’s The Possibility Space, and Matt Mozewski’s Semele for The Australian Ballet. He has also designed for Ballet Argentina, Bavarian State Ballet, Boston Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Houston Ballet, Hubbard Street, Göteborg Opera Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Lewitzky Dance Company, Lyon Opera Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Netherlands Dance Theatre, North Carolina Dance Theater, the Norwegian Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Royal Swedish Ballet, Vienna Opera Ballet, and Ballet Zurich.

Fields graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 1987.

Herman Cornejo in Sinatra Suite. Photo: Erin Baiano, courtesy Vail Dance Festival.

Sinatra Suite

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Sinatra Suite - Synopsis
Sinatra Suite - Music
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Costume by Oscar de la Renta
Lighting by Jennifer Tipton