Ballet Arizona
Encyclopedia
Ballet Arizona is a professional ballet company
Ballet company
A ballet company is a group of dancers who perform ballet, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-round basis, except in the United States, where contracts for part of the year are the norm...

 in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

 directed by Ib Andersen
Ib Andersen
Ib Andersen is a Danish dancer and choreographer. He is currently the artistic director of Ballet Arizona in Phoenix, Arizona.Internationally admired as both a dancer and choreographer, Andersen’s contribution to the world of dance is the product of a journey through multiple influences...

. The company was created in 1986 by a merger of three smaller Arizonan dance companies that were struggling to survive. Today, the company of thirty-six dancers occupies a prominent place in American ballet.

History

Allen Rosenberg, a Phoenix philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

 and arts supporter, orchestrated in 1986 a fusion of the Phoenix Ballet, Arizona Dance Theater, and Ballet West Arizona, all of which were in difficulties due to a lack of funding and audience. The company was originally directed by Jean-Paul Comelin, formerly with Milwaukee Ballet
Milwaukee Ballet
The Milwaukee Ballet is a professional ballet company located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1969 by Roberta Boorse and held its first performance on April 24, 1970. It is currently ranked among the top twelve ballet companies in the United States...

 and Stuttgart Ballet
Stuttgart Ballet
Stuttgart Ballet was the first major German ballet company. It rose to fame in the 1960s under Artistic Director John Cranko. The company, which is renowned for presentations of full-length narrative ballets including Romeo and Juliet, Eugene Onegin, The Taming of the Shrew, John Neumeier's Die...

, and New Zealand dancer Malcolm Burn. Burn left soon thereafter, and the company was guided through its early success by Comelin until 1992, when Michael Uthoff became artistic director. During the 1990s the company continued to grow, until it was beset with financial trouble in 1999. In September 2000, Ballet Arizona narrowly escaped shutting down due to severe debts, and was resurrected at the last moment by a wild funding campaign. Ib Andersen was named artistic director in May 2000, and has held that position ever since. Andersen reshaped the company and greatly expanded their repertory, adding a number of works by George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...

 as well as pieces of his own choreography. In 2004, Kevin Myers was appointed Management Consultant to head the administrative division, and one year later the company eliminated its debt.

Performances

Ballet Arizona has a wide repertory of works by well-known choreographers such as Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon
Christopher Wheeldon
Christopher Wheeldon is an international choreographer of contemporary ballet. Born in Somerset, England, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dancer at the age of 8. He attended the Royal Ballet School between the ages of 11 and 18...

, and Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer, who lives and works in New York City.-Early years:Tharp was born in 1941 on a farm in Portland, Indiana, and was named after Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana.she spend hours working on it to help her...

. Artistic Director Andersen also choreographs his own works for the company, and has reinterpreted many classical ballets including Coppélia
Coppélia
Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...

, Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)
Romeo and Juliet is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It is one of the most enduringly popular ballets...

, Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...

, and The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...

. In October and November 2008, the company presented Andersen's new version of A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream (ballet)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a two-act ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music for Shakespeare's play of the same name. In addition to the incidental music, Balanchine incorporated other Mendelssohn works into the ballet including Overtures to Athalie, Son...

.

The company performs regularly at Phoenix Symphony Hall and the Orpheum Theatre
Orpheum Theatre (Phoenix)
The Orpheum Theatre is a small theatre in downtown Phoenix. This venue was originally used for vaudeville acts as part of the nationwide Orpheum Circuit.-History:...

. "Pre-Performance Chats" are offered before all performances except The Nutcracker. Each performing season is kicked off with a series of free, outdoor performances known as "Ballet Under the Stars". The company has an active volunteer organization known as the "Esprit de Corps," which provides a number of services including hosting the company's annual Nutcracker Party.

Dancers

  • Astrit Zejnati
  • Beau Campbell
  • Chelsea Saari
  • Daniel Marshalsay
  • Erica Felsch

  • Humberto Bandera
  • Ilir Shtylla
  • Jillian Barrell
  • Joseph Cavanaugh
  • Kanako Imayoshi
  • Kara Hanretty
  • Kendra Mitchell

  • Kenna Draxton
  • Michal Wozniak
  • Natalia Magnicaballi
  • Paola Hartley
  • Roman Zavarov
  • Russell Clarke
  • Sasha Edelman
  • Sergei Perkovskii

  • Shea Johnson
  • Slawomir Wozniak
  • Tzu-Chia Huang
  • Amanda Eddleman (apprentice)
  • Jessica Phillips (apprentice)


School

The School of Ballet Arizona is the academy affiliated with the company. The school gained its first full-time director, Kee-Juan Han, in 1993, and is now led by director Nancy Crowley and artistic director Ib Andersen. Students of the academy perform in an annual spring performance and The Nutcracker. The school is also involved with the Arizona School for the Arts through after-school programs and performances.

External links

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