NCI - Choreographers and Dancers

2010 Choreographers and Dancers

Ann Marie DeAngelo, former principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, was featured in Backstage as a “multiple-career artist”. She founded her own experimental dance troupe called Ballet D’Angelo, was the founding Artistic Director of Ballet de Monterrey, and Associate Director of the Joffrey Ballet. She has also been the producer, director and contributing choreographer of six Gala benefits, raising over $1 Million for Career Transition for Dancers. She is director of the new show Thank You, Gregory - A Tribute to Tap Legends - this fall, 2009. She has created over 40 works. Choreography for ballet companies include the Joffrey Ballet, National Ballet of Cuba; Ohio Ballet; Pittsburgh Ballet Theater; Oregon Ballet Theater; Ballet Pacifica; Nevada Ballet Theater; BalletNY, and ABT Studio Company. She has created works for various universities including Goucher College and Marymount Manhattan College. In 2003, Ms. DeAngelo created a one-act ghost story based on The Bell Witch that was nominated for a “Benois de la Danse” Award and in 2004, a segment was performed at the Bolshoi Theater, Moscow. She has recently choreographed a musical for the Shanghai Expo 2010. Ms. DeAngelo has taught, for numerous dance companies, universities and summer courses; and continues to teach workshops to non-dancers “Bringing Performance to Life’. Ms. DeAngelo also has a certificate in Arts Administration from New York University.

Helen Heineman was a soloist with Nederlands Dans Theatre and the National Ballet of Washington and a principal with the Harkness Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. She trained at the School of American Ballet and with Maria Swoboda and Sybil Shearer. After retirement as a dancer, she pursued degrees from Fordham University at Lincoln Center and Yale Law School. Ms. Heineman practiced Corporate Law in New York City for a number of years and recently resumed her work as a choreographer. She has choreographed for the Harkness Ballet, the Boston Ballet’s Choreographers Series, and Richmond Ballet. Her works have been performed at the Joyce and the Miller Theatres by Fugate/Bahiri Ballet NY. In 2007, three of her ballets were presented at the Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out series and her work will be presented again this coming summer as part of the 2010 Series. In 2008 her work was presented for a week at Joyce SoHo. She has presented work as part of the New Choreographers On Point’s Previews and Ballet Builders programs and for Thang Dao’s Contemporary Dance Festival. She is the artistic director of Viewpointe, a chamber dance group made up of dancers trained in the classical idiom, who also excel at contemporary movement. Over the past few years, Viewpointe has presented performances, showcases and workshops in the New York City area.

Viktor Kabaniaev was trained at the famed Vaganova School in St. Petersburg, Russia. During the years following he worked as a principal and soloist dancer in various ballet companies in the former Soviet Union, Germany and United States including the Leningrad State Ballet Theater, Rusian Ballet, Komische Oper Berlin, Dortmund Ballet, Hannover Ballet and Diablo Ballet. Viktor choreographed his first ballet “Transfigured Night” in 1997 for Hannover Ballet Workshop. In July 1997 he was awarded a Special Prize for his second piece “Adagietto” at the 29th Annual Ballet Festival of Japan, held in Tokyo. In 2004 he won the First Laureate for Choreography with his “White Light” at the 3rd International Serge Diaghilev Competition for Choreographers in Gdynia, Poland. In 2005 he received the Grand Prize for his work “Duet” at the 8th Annual Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival in Palm Desert, CA. And in 2008 he was planed 1st in the 2nd New American Talent/Dance in Austin, Texas. He has created over forty works for ballet companies such as Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Austin, Diablo Ballet, Moving Dance Arts, Smuin Ballet, and others. Since 2005 Viktor has served as the Director of Diablo Ballet Apprentice Program.

Peter Quanz knew he wanted to be a choreographer at age nine. In his first year at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School he was given the opportunity to choreograph for dancers from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company. By clearly defining his need to choreograph at a young age, Peter chose to pursue his creative development and education rather than follow a dancer's traditional career. He performed with the Stuttgart Ballet, but decided in 2002 to become a free-lance choreographer. Peter has choreographed ballets for some of the world's leading ballet companies including the Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre, American Ballet Theatre, the Royal Ballet (Linbury Theatre), Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada. He has also choreographed for dancers from the Martha Graham Dance Company. Peter is a recipient of the Clifford E. Lee Award, Canada's national award for young choreographers. He has also been supported by grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Chalmers Foundation and the Judy and Henny Jurriens Choreographic Fellowship.

Lighting Designer
Monique L’Heureux is an award winning lighting designer who has been working in the field of dance for over two decades. This year, she is celebrating her seventh collaboration with artistic director, Molly Lynch. Past designs include: Ma Cong’s French Twist for Smuin Ballet; Molly Lynch’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Anjani Ambegaokar’s Made in Mumbaii at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center;The Motion Picture and Television Fund event featuring Chita Rivera, Dick van Dyke, Shirley MacLaine, Hugh Jackman,Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Hudson, and others; Charles Moulton’s Ball Passing piece in Fall for Dance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center; Robert Sund’s Alice in Wonderland; the National and Pacific Festivals of Regional Dance America; the summer season at the Hollywood Bowl; and associate design work on the Universal Studios’ Magical Starlight Parade in Osaka, Japan. She attended Pepperdine University and received her MFA from the University of California, Irvine, after which she apprenticed at the Los Angeles Music Center’s Mark Taper Forum. She has taught for the dance departments at Loyola Marymount University and Moorpark College and the theatre department at El Camino College.She is the recipient of four Lester Horton Dance Awards. She is an accomplished artist and photographer whose work has been shown in galleries including the Long Beach Public Library’s Art on Display, the Carl Broderick Gallery, VIVA Gallery, Long Beach Arts Center, City of Brea Gallery, and The Stage Gallery, as well as a permanent installation in the Glendale Adventist Medical Center. She is a member of United Scenic Artists. www.artanddesigns.net

2010 Dancers Women: Adrienne Benz - BalletMet Alexandra Christian – Nevada Ballet Theatre Emily Ramirez – BalletMet Susan Roemer – Smuin Ballet Maggie Small – Richmond Ballet Emily Tedesco – Nevada Ballet Theatre Andrea Vierra – Nashville Ballet Men: Andrew Brader – Los Angeles Ballet Christian Broomhall – Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Greg DeArmond – North Carolina Dance Theatre Pedro Gamino – American Repertory Ballet Ted Keener – Smuin Ballet Thomas Ragland - Richmond Ballet Christopher Stuart – Nashville Ballet Kirby Wallis – Ballet Austin Benjamin Needham-Wood – Louisville Ballet		2010 NCI dancers