"Kings of the Dance"

Act One
FOR 4
New ballet by Christopher Wheeldon
Music by Franz Schubert, Death and the Maiden
Design by Jean-Marc Puissant
Angel Corella, Johan Kobborg, Ethan Stiefel, Nikolay Tsiskaridze
Act Two
The Lesson
A ballet by Flemming Flindt
Choreography Flemming Flindt (Based on the play by Eugene Ionesco)
Music George Delerue
DécorFlemming Flindt (After Bernard Dayde)
Costumes Tine Sander and Flemming Flindt
Lighting Flemming Flindt
Cast:
The Teacher
 Johan Kobborg
Angel Corella; Nikolay Tsiskaridze
Pupil – Gudrun Bojesen
Pianist – Deirdre Chapman
Act Three
We Got It Good
New ballet by Stanton Welch
Music by Duke Ellington and William Strayhorn
Angel Corella
Afternoon of a Faun
Music by Claude Debussy
Choreography by Tim Rushton
Johan Kobborg
Wavemaker
Music by John Adams
Choreography by Nils Christe
Ethan Stiefel
Carmen
Solo
Music by George Bizet
Choreography by Roland Petit
Nikolay Tsiskaridze

 

WHO’S WHO

GUDRUN BOJESEN, Guest Artist
She was born in Copenhagen in 1976.  Admitted to the Royal Danish Theatre Ballet School in 1984,
apprentice in 1992, corps dancer 1994, soloist 2000 and solo dancer  since 2001.Principal soloist roles at the Royal Danish Theatre Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake the Princess
in The Nutcracker, Tatiana in Onegin, the Ballerina in Etudes, Teresina in Napoli, the title role in La Sylphide, Elenora in The Kermesse in Bruges, Hilda in A Folk Tale, Elise and Victorine in La Conservatorie,
the principal female role in The Flower Festival in Genzano and Wilhelm Tell, the black angel in Serenade, the ballerina in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2, the principal female role in The Tin Soldier and
Tarantella. Principal soloist appearances First soloist in Symphony in C, the cigarette and whistle solo in Suite en Blanc, Lucille Grahn in Pas de Quatre, Eleven in Enetimen, the soloist roles in Stepping Stones, Return to a Strange land, Jazz, Halleluja Junction, Ballade Enclosed, Turandot’s Dream, Vers un pays
Sage, Somewhat in the Middle elevated, and Kitty in Anna Karenina.

DEIRDRE CHAPMAN, Guest Artist
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Deirdre started her career with San Francisco Ballet where she danced for six years, reaching Soloist position. She then set off across the Atlantic to join Rambert Dance Company and was soon spotted for her speedy and exacting technique, and for her musicality. In 2002, she was offered a position as First Artist with the Royal Ballet but she was quickly promoted to Soloist. Her performances have shown her to be a sensitive lyrical dancer in the classics, while in the contemporary works, she has proved herself a fleet and conscientious performer. In 2003 she was nominated for National Dance Awards (Critics’ Circle) as Outstanding Female Artist (Classical).

ROLAND PETIT, Choreographer
Trained at the Paris Opera Ballet school, Roland Petit joined the company in 1940 but left in 1944 to create and perform his own works at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt, in Paris. In 1945 Petit was instrumental in creating Les Ballets des Champs-Elysees, where he remained as principal dancer, ballet master, and choreographer until 1947. In 1948 he formed the Ballets de Paris de Roland Petit, which made several tours of Europe and the United States. His choreography was often angular or acrobatic and was considered theatrical in its use of mime dance, occasional singing, and props such as cigarettes and telephones.
Petit staged several music hall revues and choreographed the dances for the films Hans Christian Andersen, The Glass Slipper, Daddy Long Legs, Anything Goes, and others. The ballet film Black Tights consisted of Petit's works La Croqueuse de diamants, Cyrano de Bergerac, A Merry Mourning, and Carmen. Petit also staged several of his ballets for Sadler's Wells Ballet (now the Royal Ballet), for the Royal Danish Ballet, and for other troupes. From 1970 to 1975 he owned and operated the Casino de Paris. In 1973 he became director of the Ballet de Marseille. He choreographed a modern version of Coppelia in 1975 and a new Phantom of the Opera for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1980.

FLEMMING FLINDT, Choreographer
Flemming Flindt was born and educated in Copenhagen, Denmark, and became a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet.  In 1960, he became danseur étoile at the Paris Opéra and appeared as a regular guest artist with the London Festival Ballet, Ballet Rambert, The Royal Ballet, and the Berlin Opera.  Flindt¹s first ballet, THE LESSON, created for Danish television in 1963, received the Prix Italia.  In 1965 Flindt was appointed Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Ballet at the age of 29, becoming the youngest director since Auguste Bournonville in 1829. His dramatic talents also extend into the worlds of musicals, operetta and
drama.  In 1979, Flindt established his own company and created an international sensation with his full length production of SALOME and in 1992 he created CAROLINE MATHILDE both to a commissioned scores by Sir Peter Maxwell Davis.  While he was Artistic Director of the Dallas Ballet, Flindt worked with composer Philip Glass on a new ballet, PHAEDRA.  In 1989 he created THE OVERCOAT for Rudolf Nureyev, which premiered in Florence. France has honored Flindt with the distinguished decoration of Chevalier de l¹Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.  The governments of Denmark and Sweden have recognized him for his extraordinary contributions to the arts with a Knighthood of First Degree. In 1989-90 he staged THE LESSON and THE TOREADOR for San Jose Cleveland Ballet and recreated THE OVERCOAT for the Company¹s European debut at the Edinburgh International Festival, starring Rudolf Nureyev.  Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley has also presented Flindt¹s stunning productions of RED SHOES or LEGS OF FIRE, MIRACULOUS MANDARIN, OUT OF AFRICA or LUCIFER¹S DAUGHTER and LA VENTANA.

CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON, Choreographer
Christopher Wheeldon, the Resident Choreographer at New York City Ballet, is considered one of the top ballet choreographers in the world today.  In addition to the many works he has created for NYCB, he has choreographed ballets for such companies as The Royal Ballet in London, San Francisco Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Boston Ballet.  He has received the Mae L. Wien Award for choreography from the School of American Ballet, the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, the London Crtics’ Circle Award, the American Choreography Award, and the Olivier Award. Mr. Wheeldon was born in Yeovil, Somerset, England, and began his ballet training when he was eight years old.  From ages 11 to 18, he trained at The Royal Ballet School, and in 1991 he joined The Royal Ballet in 1991 and also won the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne competition.  In 1993, Mr. Wheeldon was invited to become a member of New York City Ballet, where he was promoted to the rank of soloist in 1998.  He began choreographing for NYCB with Slavonic Dances for the 1997 Diamond Project, and in 1999, Mr. Wheeldon choreographed Scènes de Ballet for the School of American Ballet’s Workshop Performances and for NYCB’s 50th anniversary season.  After creating Mercurial Manoeuvers for the spring 2000 Diamond Project, he retired from dancing to concentrate on his choreographic work. During NYCB’s 2000-2001 season, Mr. Wheeldon served as the Company’s first-ever artist in residence, creating two ballets: Polyphonia, set to piano music by Györgi Ligeti, and Variations Sérieuses, set to music by Felix Mendelssohn.  In July 2001 Mr. Wheeldon was named NYCB’s first Resident Choreographer.  Since that time, Mr. Wheeldon has choreographed several ballets for the Company: Morphoses (June 2002, as part of the tenth Diamond Project festival), Carousel (A Dance) (November 2002), Carnival of the Animals and Liturgy (May 2003), Shambards (May 2004), and After the Rain (January 2005).  Mr. Wheeldon newest work for New York City Ballet will premiere on January 24, 2005.

Among his notable works for other ballet companies are Continuum for San Francisco Ballet and Tryst for The Royal Ballet in 2002, a full-length Swan Lake for Pennsylvania Ballet for 2004.  Mr. Wheeldon choreographed ballet sequences for the 2000 feature film Center Stage, directed by Nicholas Hytner, and he and Mr. Hytner also collaborated on a stage version of Sweet Smell of Success, which opened on Broadway in 2002.

STANTON WELCH, Choreographer
In July 2003, Australian Stanton Welch assumed leadership of Houston Ballet, America's fifth largest classical ballet company.   Mr. Welch is one of the most sought after choreographers of his generation, having created works for such prestigious international companies as Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Australian Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. 
Mr. Welch was born in Melbourne to Marilyn Jones, O.B.E., and Garth Welch, A.M., two of Australia's most gifted dancers of the 1960s and 1970s.  In 1986 he began his training at the late age of seventeen, quickly winning a scholarship to San Francisco Ballet School.  In 1989 he was engaged as a dancer with The Australian Ballet, where he rose to the rank of leading soloist, performing such principal roles as Des Grieux in Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Manon, Lensky in John Cranko's Eugene Onegin, Camille in Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow, and Alan Strang in Equus. He has also worked with internationally acclaimed choreographers such as Ji〓í Kylían, Nacho Duato, and Maurice Béjart. Mr. Welch’s choreographic career developed during his time with The Australian Ballet.  In 1990 he received his first choreographic commission from the company, marking the beginning of a series of commissioned works over the next fourteen years and developing his diverse choreographic style.  For The Australian Ballet he has created The Three of Us (1990); Of Blessed Memory (1991), for which he was voted best new choreographer in 1992 by readers of the British magazine Dance & Dancers; Divergence (1994), which has been preformed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and City Center in New York; full-length productions of Madame Butterfly (1995) and Cinderella (1997); Red Earth (1996); X (1999); and Velocity (2003).  He will also create a new Sleeping Beauty for The Australian Ballet in 2005.  Madame Butterfly has become a signature work for Mr. Welch internationally, and is in the repertoires of Houston Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Atlanta Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, and Boston Ballet. In 1995, Mr. Welch was named resident choreographer of The Australian Ballet.  That same year, he was commissioned to create Corroboree (Wildlife) for The Australian Ballet to perform at “United We Dance,” a dance festival in San Francisco celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter and featuring major companies from across the world premiering new works. Mr. Welch has been extremely active internationally, receiving numerous commissions from the world’s leading companies.  For Houston Ballet, he has choreographed Indigo (1999), Bruiser (2000), Tales of Texas (2004), Blindness (2004), Bolero (2004), and Nosotros (2005).  For San Francisco Ballet: Maninyas (1996), Taiko (1999), Tutu (2003), and Falling (2005).  For American Ballet Theatre: Clear (2001), two songs from Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison (2002); and a new version of Carmina Burana as part of the evening-length work Hereafter (2003).  For BalletMet: Evolution and Don Quixote, both full-length works. For Atlanta Ballet: A Dance in the Garden of Mirth (2000).   For Royal Danish Ballet: Ønsket (1998) and Ander (1999).  For Birmingham Royal Ballet: Powder (1998).  For Moscow Dance Theatre: Green (2000) and OPUS X (2001), both created for Ms. Nina Ananiashvili's group. Mr. Welch has also staged works for Colorado Ballet; Cincinnati Ballet; Tulsa Ballet; Texas Ballet Theater; The Royal Ballet School; Singapore Dance Theatre; Royal New Zealand Ballet; and Dance Galaxy.

NILS CHRISTE, Choreographer
Born in Rotterdam in 1949 and choreographer since 1974, when he created his first ballet for NDT. Until his departure in 1982 he created 12 works for this company, of which Quartet 1 for NDT2 won him the first prize at the Choreographic Competition in Cologne in 1979. As a free-lance choreographer he worked with many ballet-and dance companies in Holland and abroad: Dutch National Ballet, Paris Opera ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Wiener Staatsoper, English National ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, National Ballet of Finland, Basler Ballett, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Ballettmainz, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Washington Ballet and many others in Europe, North and-South America and Canada. From September 1986 till January 1993 he was the artistic director of the now called Scapino Ballet Rotterdam. For this company he created 7 new works including his first and very succesful storyballet Pulcinella. Nils Christe has choreographed to the music of many different composers such as Strawinsky, Poulenc, Shostakovich, Britten, Martinu, Bartok, Satie, Mahler, Liszt, Beethoven, Purcell, Prokoviev, Wagner, Vivaldi, Glass, Reich, Adams  and others. Besides creating for ballet, he also did the choreography for the operas Dido and Aeneas, Aïda and Achnaton. From the many ballets that are re-staged throughout the world, we mention BEFORE NIGHTFALL, to the music of Bohuslav Martinu, originally created for the Paris Opera, SYNC, created for Washington Ballet, music by Ludovico Einaudi and PURCELL PIECES, originally created for Introdans in Holland. Very important to him is the collaboration with his wife, rehearsal director Annegien Sneep, who works as his assistant since 1981 and she takes care of all the re-stagings in Holland and abroad. Nils Christe has created 70 ballets and worked with 51 different companies in 21 countries throughout the world.

TIM RUSHTON, Choreographer
Artistic Director and choreographer of the Danish Dance Theatre. Tim Rushton was born in 1963 in Birmingham, England. He was educated at The Royal Ballet in London and was an active dancer, mainly at companies in northern Europe, until the mid-90´ies. He ended his career as a dancer at The Royal Danish Ballet in order to focus on choreography. He gained rapid respect as creator of modern dance, using classical technique and was commissioned by many dance- and ballet companies. He earned nominations and awards for his work. In 2001 Tim Rushton was appointed Artistic Director of the Danish Dance Theatre. Very fast he rebooted the company, with a new strong artistic profile. Since his take-over, the company has developed itself into a remarkable institution, producing fascinating pieces and events both nationally and internationally. In 2004 he and the company had its debut at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. In 2005 the Danish Dance Theatre moved into its permanent home in the heart of Copenhagen. And Tim Rushton continuous creates new pieces for a bigger and more dedicated audience. In 2006, a.o. at Dance Salad Festival in Houston, Texas and again at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival. 

YURI FATEEV, Balletmaster

Yuri Fateev was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). He studied in the Academy of the Russian Ballet and in 1982 joined the Kirov Ballet, performing a variety of solo parts. He began his pedagogic career in the Mariinsky Theater and in 2003 was appopinted ballet master and repetitor of the Mariinsky Theater Ballet. He works in close cooperation with George Balanchine Foundation and is in charge of Balanchine’s ballets staged in the Mariinsky. He is the leading repetitor of Roland Petit ballets. He has taught and staged Russian classic ballets at Pacific Northwest Ballet, Danish Royal Ballet and the Swedish Royal Ballet. He has worked with ballet stars including Svetlana Zakharova, Darcy Bussell, Diana Vishneva, Igor Zelensky, Andrian Fadeev, Ethan Stiefel, Gillian Murfi, Nikolai Thsiskaridze, Roberto Bolli and Vladimir Malakhov.

JEAN-MARC PUISSANT, Designer
Based in London, Jean-Marc is designing set and costumes for theatre, opera and dance.
He has created original designs for classical and contemporary companies such as the Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater II, Rambert Dance Company, Pennsylvania Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Ballet de l’Opera National du Rhin and Gothenburg Opera Ballet, collaborating with directors and choreographers such as Christopher Wheeldon, Javier de Frutos, David Bintley, Maina Gielgud, Marcia Haydee, Cathy Marston or Adrian Burnett. He trained at the Motley Theatre Design Course in London (founder: Margaret Harris; director: Alison Chitty) and previously studied Art History and Archaeology in La Sorbonne, Paris.
Jean-Marc’s career began as a dancer, studying ballet at the School of Paris Opera and the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris. As a professional dancer, he joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet (dir: Sir Peter Wright) and the Stuttgart Ballet (dir: Marcia Haydee), dancing solo roles in classical, neo-classical and contemporary repertoires. Tryst, designed for The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, was nominated for Best New Dance Production at the 2002 Olivier Awards. Elsa Canasta, designed for Rambert Dance Company, was nominated at the 2003 Olivier Awards. Pennsylvania Ballet’s Swan Lake opened the 2005 Edinburgh International Festival.

SERGEI DANILIAN, Producer
Sergei Danilian has established himself as a successful producer and one of the most innovative impresarios both in the U.S. and abroad. Born in the Soviet Union, was the head of the Touring Department of the Russian Theater Union and in 1990 founded Ardani Artists Management. In 1994, Ardani Artists Management entered the American market and the company has brought to the U.S. some of the best exponents of arts and culture from the former Soviet Union. In 1998, Ardani Artists introduced American audiences to Russia’s leading contemporary ballet company, Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg. Ardani Artists has also presented the Bolshoi Ballet 2002 U.S. tour and the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg 2003 and 2005 U.S. tours. Danilian enjoys a longtime association with the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the West Coast’s premiere presenter of dance. Ardani and The Center are collaborating as co-producers of Kings of the Dance and are working together on the October 2006 Mariinsky Festival during the celebrations for The Center’s 20th Anniversary and the opening of its new concert hall.