GEORGE BALANCHINE (1904-1983)
George Balanchine, born Georgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze in St. Petersburg, Russia, is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet. At the age of nine, he was accepted into the ballet section of St. Petersburg's rigorous Imperial Theater School, and, with other young students, was soon appearing on the stage of the famed Maryinsky Theater in such spectacles as The Sleeping Beauty (his favorite). He graduated with honors in 1921 and joined the corps de ballet of the Maryinsky, by then renamed the State Theater of Opera and Ballet.

The son of a composer, Balanchine gained a knowledge of music early in life that far exceeded that of most of his fellow choreographers. He began piano lessons at five, and at some point between 1919 and 1921, while continuing to dance, he enrolled in the Petrograd Conservatory of Music. There he studied piano and music theory, including composition, harmony, and counterpoint, for three years, and he began to compose music. (In the upheaval of the Russian Revolution, when money was worthless, he sometimes played the piano in cabarets and silent movie houses in exchange for bread.) Such extensive musical training made it possible for Balanchine as a choreographer to communicate with a composer of the stature of Stravinsky; it also gave him the ability to make piano reductions of orchestral scores, an invaluable aid in translating music into dance.

Balanchine began to choreograph while still in his teens, creating his first work in 1920 or earlier. It was a pas de deux called La Nuit, for himself and a female student, to the music of Anton Rubinstein. Another of his early duets, Enigma, danced in bare feet, was performed once at a benefit on the stage of the State Theater, as well as for some years thereafter, in both Petrograd/Leningrad and in the West. In 1923, he and some of his colleagues formed a small troupe, the Young Ballet, for which he composed several works in an experimental vein, but the authorities disapproved, and the performers were threatened with dismissal if they continued to participate. Then fatefully, in the summer of 1924, Balanchine and three other dancers were permitted to leave the newly formed Soviet Union for a tour of Western Europe. They did not return. With Balanchine were Tamara Geva, Alexandra Danilova, and Nicholas Efimov, all of whom later became well known in the West. Seen performing in London, the dancers were invited by the impresario Serge Diaghilev to audition for his renowned Ballets Russes and were taken into the company.

Diaghilev had his eye on Balanchine as a choreographer as well and, with the departure of Bronislava Nijinska, hired him as ballet master (principal choreographer). Balanchine's first substantive effort was Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges (1925), the first of four treatments he would make of this wondrous score over the years. Then came a reworking of Stravinsky's Le Chant du Rossignol, in which 14-year-old Alicia Markova made her stage debut. From that time until 1929, when the Ballets Russes collapsed with Diaghilev's death, Balanchine created nine more ballets (in addition to numerous slighter pieces), including the immortal Apollon Musagète (1928) and Prodigal Son (1929). During this period, Balanchine suffered a serious knee injury. This limited his dancing and may have bolstered his commitment to full-time choreography.

The next years were uncertain ones. Balanchine was making a movie with former Diaghilev ballerina Lydia Lopokova (the wife of British economist John Maynard Keynes) when he heard of Diaghilev's death. He soon began staging dances for Britain's popular Cochran Revues; acted as guest ballet master for the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen; and was engaged by its founder René Blum as ballet master for a new Ballets Russes, the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, for which he choreographed three ballets around the talents of the young Tamara Toumanova-Cotillon, La Concurrence, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.

Leaving the Ballets Russes (perhaps due to the aggressive presence of Colonel W. de Basil, who soon took the company away from René Blum), Balanchine formed Les Ballets 1933, with Boris Kochno, Diaghilev's last private secretary, as artistic advisor and the backing of British socialite Edward James. For the company's first-and only-season, he created six new ballets, in collaboration with such leading artistic figures as Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (The Seven Deadly Sins), artist Pavel Tchelitchew (Errante), and composers Darius Milhaud (Les Songes) and Henri Sauget (Fastes). But the troupe disbanded in a matter of months. It was during its London engagement, however, that a meeting occurred that would change the history of 20th-century dance.

The young American arts patron Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996), raised in Boston and a graduate of Harvard University, harbored a dream: To establish a ballet company in America, filled with American dancers and not dependent on repertory from Europe. Through Romola Nijinsky, whom Kirstein had assisted in writing a biography of her husband, he met Balanchine after a Les Ballets 1933 performance and outlined his vision. Balanchine was essential to it. Deciding quicky in favor of a new start, Balanchine agreed to come to the United States and arrived in New York in October 1933. "But first, a school," he is famously reported to have said.

Kirstein was prepared to support the idea, and the first product of their collaboration was indeed a school, the School of American Ballet, founded in 1934 with the assistance of Edward M.M. Warburg, a Harvard colleague. (The first classes were held January 2.) The School remains in operation to this day, training dancers for the New York City Ballet and companies worldwide. The first ballet Balanchine choreographed in America--Serenade, to Tchaikovsky--was created for students of the School and had its world premiere outdoors at Warburg's summer home near White Plains, New York, in 1934. Within a year, Balanchine and Kirstein had created a professional company, the American Ballet, which made its debut at the Adelphi Theater, New York City, in March 1935. After a handful of summer performances, a projected tour collapsed, but the troupe remained together as the resident ballet company at the Metropolitan Opera. However, Balanchine had no interest in choreographing opera dances, and the Met had little interest in furthering the cause of ballet; in the American Ballet's three years at the Met, Balanchine was allowed just two all-dance programs. In 1936, he mounted a dance-drama version of Gluck's Orfeo and Eurydice, controversial in that the singers were relegated to the pit while the dancers claimed the stage. The second program, in 1937, was, prophetically, devoted to Stravinsky: a revival of Apollo plus two new works, Le Baiser de la Fée and Card Game. It was the first of three festivals Balanchine devoted to Stravinsky over the years.

The fifty-year collaboration of these two creative giants is unique in the 20th century. Stravinsky's description of their work together on Balustrade in 1940 is implicitly a description of their shared vision. He wrote, "Balanchine composed the choreography as he listened to my recording, and I could actually observe him conceiving gestures, movement, combinations, and composition. The result was a series of dialogues perfectly complementary to and coordinated with the dialogues of the music." (In 1972, Balanchine choreographed a new ballet to the same score, Stravinsky Violin Concerto.)

The American Ballet's association with the Met came to an end in 1938 and Balanchine took several of his dancers to Hollywood. In 1941, he and Kirstein assembled another classical company, American Ballet Caravan, for a five-month good-will tour of South America. In the repertory were two major new Balanchine works, Concerto Barocco and Ballet Imperial (later renamed Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2). But after the tour this company, too, disbanded, and the dancers were forced to find work elsewhere. Between 1944 and 1946 Balanchine was engaged to revitalize Sergei Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo after the departure of Massine. There he choreographed Danses Concertantes (1944), Raymonda, and Night Shadow (later called La Sonnambula, both in 1946), while reviving Concerto Barocco, Le Baiser de la Fée, Serenade, Ballet Imperial, and Card Party (renamed Jeu de Cartes). Many of Balanchine's most important early works were introduced to America at large by the Ballet Russe, which toured the length and breadth of the country for nine months of the year.

George Balanchine teaching.
Courtesy NYCB Archives Ballet Society Collection

In 1946 Balanchine and Kirstein formed Ballet Society, presenting to small New York subscription-only audiences such new Balanchine works as The Four Temperaments (1946) and Orpheus (1948). On the strength Orpheus, praised as one of New York's premiere cultural events of the year, Morton Baum, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the New York City Center of Music and Drama, invited the company to join City Center (of which the New York City Drama Company and the New York City Opera were already a part). With the performance of October 11, 1948, consisting of Concerto Barocco, Orpheus, and Symphony in C (created for the Paris Opera Ballet as Le Palais de Cristal the previous year), the New York City Ballet was born. Balanchine's talents had at last found a permanent home.

From that time until his death in 1983, Balanchine served as ballet master for the New York City Ballet, choreographing the majority of the productions the Company has introduced from its inception to the present day. An authoritative catalogue of Balanchine's output lists 425 works, beginning with La Nuit and ending with Variations for Orchestra (1982), a solo for Suzanne Farrell. In between, he created a body of work as extensive as it was diverse. Among his notable ballets were Firebird and Bourrée Fantasque (1949; Firebird restaged with Jerome Robbins in 1970); La Valse (1951); Scotch Symphony (1952); The Nutcracker (his first full-length work for the company), Western Symphony, and Ivesiana (1954); Allegro Brillante (1956); Agon (1957); Stars and Stripes and The Seven Deadly Sins (1958); Episodes (1959, choreographed with Martha Graham); Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and Liebeslieder Walzer (1960); A Midsummer Night's Dream (1962); Bugaku and Movements for Piano and Orchestra (1963); Don Quixote (in three acts) and Harlequinade (in two acts, both 1965); Jewels (called the first full-length plotless ballet,1967); and Who Cares? (1970). In June, 1972, Balanchine staged an intensive week-long celebration of Stravinsky. Of the twenty-one new works presented during the festival, eight were by Balanchine, including four major ones, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Duo Concertant, Symphony in Three Movements, and Divertimento from "Le Baiser de la Fée." Response to the Stravinsky Festival by critics and the public was overwhelming.

In 1975, Balanchine staged a second New York City Ballet Festival, this time a three-week homage to Ravel. This celebration produced sixteen new works by various choreographers, including Balanchine's Tzigane, Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Sonatine.
Over the next seven years, Balanchine added more than a dozen works to the New York City Ballet's repertory. First came Union Jack (1976), observing the U.S. Bicentennial by honoring Great Britain, followed by the lavish Vienna Waltzes (1977). Ballo della Regina and Kammermusik No. 2 were choreographed in 1978, Ballade, Robert Schumann's "Davidsbündlertänze," and Walpurgisnacht Ballet in 1980. Balanchine's last important work, a new version of Mozartiana (a ballet originally choreographed for Les Ballets 1933), was created for the Tchaikovsky Festival of 1981. In 1982 he directed the Stravinsky Centennial Celebration, but by then he was terminally ill.

Although it is for ballet choreography that he is most noted, Balanchine also worked in musical theater and movies. On Broadway, he created dances for Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 and On Your Toes, including the groundbreaking "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ballet (1936); Babes in Arms (1937); I Married an Angel and The Boys from Syracuse (1938); Louisiana Purchase and Cabin in the Sky, co-choreographed with Katherine Dunham (1940); The Merry Widow (1943); and Where's Charley? (1948), among others. His movie credits include The Goldwyn Follies, with its famous "water nymph" ballet (1938); I Was an Adventuress (1940); and Star Spangled Rhythm (1942). All starred Vera Zorina.

Embracing television, Balanchine staged many of his ballets (or excerpts) and created new work especially for the medium: in 1962, he collaborated with Stravinsky on Noah and the Flood and in 1981 redesigned his 1975 staging of L'Enfant et les Sortilèges to include a wide range of special effects, including animation. Through televison, millions of people have been able to see New York City Ballet. "Choreography by Balanchine," a five-part "Dance in America" presentation on the PBS series "Great Performances," began in December 1977. Programs featured The Four Temperaments, Prodigal Son, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Chaconne, and segments of Jewels, among several others. Most are now available on video. Balanchine traveled to Nashville with the Company for the tapings in 1977 and 1978 and personally supervised every shot, in some cases revising steps or angles for greater effectiveness on screen. The series was widely applauded by critics and audiences all over the country and was nominated for an Emmy award. In January 1978, New York City Ballet participated in the acclaimed PBS series "Live from Lincoln Center," when Coppelia, choreographed by Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova in 1974, was telecast live from the stage of the New York State Theater. Eight years later, the Company appeared on another "Live from Lincoln Center" program, performing Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Apollo, Orpheus, Mozartiana, and Who Cares? are among other Balanchine ballets seen on national television.

In 1970, U.S.News and World Report attempted to summarize Balanchine's achievements: "The greatest choreographer of our time, George Balanchine is responsible for the successful fusion of modern concepts with older ideas of classical ballet. Balanchine received his training in Russia before coming to America in 1933. Here, the free-flowing U.S. dance forms stimulated him to develop new techniques in dance design and presentation, which have altered the thinking of the world of dance.

Often working with modern music and the simplest of themes, he has created ballets that are celebrated for their imagination and originality. His company, New York City Ballet, is the leading dance group of the United States and one of the great companies of the world. An essential part of the success of Balanchine's group has been the training of his dancers, which he has supervised since the founding of his School of American Ballet in 1934. Balanchine chose to shape talent locally, and he has said that the basic structure of the American dancer was responsible for inspiring some of the striking lines of his compositions. Balanchine is not only gifted in creating entirely new productions, . . . his choreography for classical works has been equally fresh and inventive. He has made American dance the most advanced and richest in choreographic development in the world today."

Balanchine himself wrote, "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. A ballet may contain a story, but the visual spectacle . . . is the essential element. The choreographer and the dancer must remember that they reach the audience through the eye. It's the illusion created which convinces the audience, much as it is with the work of a magician." Balanchine always preferred to call himself a craftsman rather than a creator, comparing himself to a cook or cabinetmaker (both hobbies of his), and he had a reputation throughout the dance world for the calm and collected way in which he worked with his dancers and colleagues.

As his reputation grew, he was the recipient of much official recognition. In the spring of 1975, the Entertainment Hall of Fame in Hollywood inducted Balanchine as a member, in a nationally televised special by Gene Kelly. The first choreographer so honored, he joined the ranks of such show business luminaries as Fred Astaire, Walt Disney, and Bob Hope. The same year, he received the French Légion d'Honneur. In 1978, he was one of five recipients (with Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, Richard Rodgers, and Artur Rubinstein) of the first Kennedy Center Honors, presented by President Jimmy Carter. He was also presented with a Knighthood of the Order of Dannebrog, First Class, by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. In 1980, Balanchine was honored by the National Society of Arts and Letters with their Gold Medal award, the Austrian government with its Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Letters, First Class, and by the New York Chapter of the American Heart Association with their "Heart of New York" award. These joined such earlier commendations as the French Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters decoration and the National Institute of Arts and Letters award for Distinguished Service to the Arts. The last major award Balanchine received--in absentia--was the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983, the highest honor that can be conferred on a civilian in the United States. At the time, President Ronald Reagan praised Balanchine's genius, saying that he has "inspired millions with his stage choreography . . . and amazed a diverse population through his talents." Soon after, on April 30, 1983, George Balanchine died in New York at the age of 79.

Clement Crisp, one of the many writers who eulogized Balanchine, assessed his contribution: "It is hard to think of the ballet world without the colossal presence of George Balanchine. . . . Now he is gone and, as Lincoln Kirstein said in his brief and infinitely apt curtain speech, 'Mr. B. is with Mozart and Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky.' But we have not lost Balanchine-not the essential Balanchine, who lives in the great catalogue of masterpieces that have so shaped and refined our understanding of ballet and given it-and us-thrilling life. And we are not without the other essential fact of his work: his School and the training system that has tuned American bodies as the ideal classical medium for his ideal classic vision. We can never be without Balanchine. He is so central to the danse d'école in our century, so surely its guiding force, that grief becomes mere self-indulgence. Gratitude and joy must be our feeling for what he gave us, and determination that his work and ideals be honored and preserved and used to illuminate the future of ballet."

Reprinted, with emendations, courtesy of the New York City Ballet and The George Balanchine Trust

NICOLO FONTE
Born in Brooklyn, Nicolo Fonte began dancing at age 14. He studied at the Joffrey Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School and the School of American Ballet while completing a BFA at SUNY Purchase. Upon graduation he danced with Peridance in NYC and later joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal. Mr. Fonte subsequently joined Nacho Duato's Compañia Nacional de Danza and forged a strong identity in the Spanish company for seven years, for both his dancing and his choreography.  His work, En los Segundos Ocultos (In Hidden Seconds), one of three for the company,established his presence on the European dance scene.
In 2000 Mr. Fonte retired from performing, devoting himself fully to his choreographic career.  Since then, he has created ballets for The Dutch National Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and The Royal Ballet of Flanders, among many others.  Mr. Fonte’s 2002 collaboration with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Almost Tango, received a Choo San Goh award and was voted as one of Dance Europe's “Best Premieres” when it was re-staged for The Australian Ballet in 2004.

From 2002 to 2006 Mr. Fonte enjoyed a creative partnership with The Göteborg Ballet in Sweden helping to establish the company’s distinct profile. There, he created his first full-length ballet, Re: Tchaikovsky, which appeared on the “Best of 2005” lists of both Ballett International and Dance Europe.

in July of 2009 he premiered his first work for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Quiet Bang and in September a second creation for Het Nationale Ballet in Holland, Record of Joy, both to glowing critical response. In the coming months, companies in the US performing work by Fonte include The Washington Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre, which revives his hugely successful Bolero from 2008. Fonte's work will be staged for the first time in Finland on The Finnish National Ballet in April of 2010 and the choreographer also returns to The Royal Ballet of Flanders for a fourth time this season; that creation will premiere in March.

JAMES KUDELKA
Acclaimed as one of the most important and richly imaginative choreographers in contemporary dance, James Kudelka fuses the formal vocabulary of classicism with a startlingly fresh and expressive modernism to create a highly distinctive and personal style.

Mr. Kudelka is a native of Newmarket, Ontario and began his dance training at the National Ballet School in Toronto. He graduated in 1972 and joined The National Ballet of Canada, where he choreographed his first works. In 1981 he joined Les Grand Ballets Canadiens as a Principal Dancer and was the company’s Resident Choreographer from 1984 to 1990. In 1992 Mr. Kudelka assumed the position of Artist in Residence with the National Ballet and in 1996 was appointed Artistic Director. He stepped down from that position in 2005 to become the company’s Resident Choreographer.

Among his major works for the National Ballet are An Italian Straw Hat (2005), Cinderella (2004), The Contract (The Pied Piper) (2002), Swan Lake (1999), The Four Seasons (1997), Spring Awakening (1994) and The Miraculous Mandarin (1993). In 2005 Mr. Kudelka was awarded the Order of Canada.

James Kudleka created HUSH for Oregon Ballet Theatre in the spring of 2008.

EMERY LECRONE

Emerging choreographer Emery LeCrone was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina.  She began her training at the Greensboro Ballet and at the age of 14 she moved to Winston-Salem, NC to train at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.  While studying year round with teachers such as Melissa Hayden, Warren Conover, and Nina Danilova, Ms. LeCrone also attended several summers on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet. 

Upon graduation in 2005 Ms. LeCrone was accepted into the North Carolina Dance Theatre.  While with North Carolina Dance Theatre she performed in works such as George Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Serenade, and Walpurgisnacht (Faust), Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux’s Carmina Burana, and Salvatore Aiello’s Nutcracker.  She also worked closely with choreographer Dwight Rhoden of Complexions Dance Company.  It was in her free time with the company that she began choreographing.  She created her first work for North Carolina Dance Theatre II in 2006.

As a choreographer Ms. LeCrone has created several works including Pulling to Break (2006), Concerto 3 in G (2007), Figurine (2008), and most recently Aphorismos (2009); which premiered at The Miller Theatre for The Columbia Ballet Collaborative. She has worked with dancers from North Carolina Dance Theater, the New York City Ballet, Ballet Met, the Los Angeles Ballet, Ballet West, Eugene Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Ballet Arizona, and the American Repertory Ballet.  She has participated in several choreography competitions among others the National Choreographers Initiative under the direction of Molly Lynch and Ballet Builders 2008, and The A.W.A.R.D. SHOW! 2009 at the Joyce Soho in New York City.  Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times called Ms. LeCrone’s choreography “…a delightful whole, exploring innovative partnering as well as the ways spinning full-throttle movement can echo and incorporate the planes of space around it.”

In August 2007, Ms. LeCrone moved to New York City.  That same year she performed with Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company in its inaugural City Center Season and was hired to dance with both the Metropolitan Opera and Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet.

Currently Ms. LeCrone remains in New York City and continues to dance and choreograph.  She will premiere new works this season for The Columbia Ballet Collaborative, the Greensboro Ballet, Novaballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre.  

TREY MCINTYRE
Trey McIntyre is one of the most sought-after choreographers working today. Born in Wichita, KS, McIntyre studied at North Carolina School of the Arts and later with Houston Ballet Academy. In 1989, McIntyre was named Choreographic Apprentice to Houston Ballet; a position created specially for him by Artistic Director Ben Stevenson, and in 1995 elevated to Choreographic Associate. Since then, McIntyre has created a canon of more than 80 works for companies such as Stuttgart Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, New York City Ballet, Ballet de Santiago (Chile) and Trey McIntyre Project. Trey has served as Resident Choreographer for Oregon Ballet Theatre, Ballet Memphis, and The Washington Ballet. He has received many grants and awards, including two choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography, was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2001, one of People Magazine’s “25 Hottest Bachelors” 2003 and one of Out Magazine’s 2008 “Tastemakers”. McIntyre established his critically-acclaimed Trey McIntyre Project, a dance company that allows him to continue his artistic and creative relationships with a select group of high-caliber dancers. In the summer of 2008, Trey McIntyre Project launched as a full-time company operating out of Boise, ID. In Year 1 as a full-time company, Trey McIntyre Project toured to more than 25 cities across the nation and the world.

YURI POSSOKHOV
After receiving his dance training at the Moscow Ballet School, Yuri Possokhov danced with the Bolshoi Ballet for ten years, working primarily with Ballet Master Yuri Grigorovich. He joined the Royal Danish Ballet in 1992 and performed there for two years before moving west to join San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer.  Mr. Possokhov has danced numerous major roles throughout his career, ranging in style from classical to contemporary.  In 1999, he organized a tour entitled “Ballet Beyond Borders,” where sixteen dancers from SFB, including Mr. Possokhov, performed in more than ten cities throughout Russia.

As a choreographer, Mr. Possokhov’s credits include Songs of Spain, choreographed in 1997 for former SFB Principal Dancer Muriel Maffre, A Duet for Two created the same year for former SFB Principal Dancer Joanna Berman, and Impromptu Scriabin for former SFB Soloist Felipe Diaz, performed at the 1997 Jackson International Ballet Competition. In 2000, Mr. Possokhov completed a new work for a dancer at the Maryinsky Ballet and that same year choreographed 5 Mazurkas for the Marin Dance Theatre.

His Magrittomania, a work inspired by the paintings of René Magritte, premiered in March 2000 at San Francisco Ballet, and ganered him the 2001 Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Choreography.   It has since been added to he Bolshoi Ballet’s repertoire.  Mr. Possokhov’s ballet Damned, based on the Euripides’ play Medea, premiered in 2002.  In 2003 he collaborated with SFB Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson on a new staging of Don Quixote.  He has created two works for OBT:  Firebird in 2004 and La Valse in 2005.

In 2006, Mr. Possokhov choreographed a new Cinderella for the Bolshoi Ballet.  The work premiered in Moscow and was subsequently performed in London and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

CHRISTOPHER STOWELL
Christopher Stowell became Oregon Ballet Theatre’s Artistic Director in 2003.  His vision and leadership have cultivated a company with a strong classical foundation and a commitment to fostering new work and promoting live music.  Since his arrival, Mr. Stowell has expanded both the dancer roster and the length of the performance season, and has made major additions to the OBT repertoire: including masterpieces by George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton and Jerome Robbins; works by contemporary choreographers such as Lar Lubovitch, Paul Taylor and Christopher Wheeldon; and world premiere ballets by James Kudelka, Trey McIntyre, Julia Adam and Yuri Possokhov.  Mr. Stowell’s own contributions to the repertoire include Adin, Eyes On You and OBT’s first full-length Swan Lake.

Mr. Stowell was born in New York City and received his training at Pacific Northwest Ballet School and the School of American Ballet.  In 1985 he joined San Francisco Ballet where he danced for sixteen years, appearing in theaters throughout the world including the Paris Opera, New York’s Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre.  As a principal dancer, Mr. Stowell performed leading roles in the full-length classics Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Othello, and had roles created for him by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson and by contemporary choreographers including Mark Morris, William Forsythe and James Kudelka.  An established interpreter of the George Balanchine repertoire, Mr. Stowell appeared in almost every Balanchine ballet performed by SFB.  Upon his retirement, he was accorded a gala farewell in the War Memorial Opera House. 

In recent years, Mr. Stowell has taught and coached in San Francisco, New York, Japan and Europe.  He has created new works for San Francisco Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Diablo Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet, as well as the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute.  He has also staged the works of George Balanchine and Mark Morris.

TWYLA THARP

Since graduating from college in 1963, Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than one 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, the Jerome Robbins Prize, The Kennedy Center Honors 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 Ms. Tharp founded her dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance. In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has choreographed for other companies including: American Ballet Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, The Martha Graham Dance Company, Miami City Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Ms. 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, Ms. 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 Ms. 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 Ms. Tharp won Best Choreography (Musical Theatre) Award of the UK's Critics' Circle National Dance Awards 2006. In 2006 Ms. 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 Ms. 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. Ms. 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 Ms. 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.

Today Ms. Tharp continues to create and to lecture around the world. In 2009 she wrote, The Collaborative Habit : Life Lessons for Working Together.