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2017 Choreographers and Dancers |
 Suzanne
Haag is originally from Connecticut. She began her dance
training at the School of the Hartford Ballet and then attended Butler
University in Indianapolis where she received her degree in Dance and
Arts Administration. She has performed with Nevada Ballet Theatre,
Ballet Idaho, DROP Dance Collective and is currently in her 14th season
with the Eugene Ballet Company. Suzanne has been featured in many works
by EBC Artistic Director Toni Pimble and guest choreographers including
Mauricio Wainrot, Jessica Lang, Amy Seiwert, Robert Battle, and Septime
Webre. In 2013 Suzanne co-founded the unique performance group,
#instaballet, which utilizes audience participation and creativity to
generate new ballets. Suzanne began choreographing ballets as a young
student and has continued to create throughout her performance career.
In 2016 she was commissioned to create her first work on EBC entitled
Look, and premiered her latest piece, The Surrounding Third, for EBC
this past February. As part of EBC’s 2017/2018 season, she will be
collaborating with the band, Pink Martini. Suzanne participated in NCI
as a dancer in 2007, working with Edwaard Liang and Jerry Opdenaker and
is thrilled to be returning as a choreographer this year. |
 Robert
Mills stepped into the role of Oklahoma City Ballet’s Artistic
Director in 2008, 14 years after he began his association with the
company. Since he took the helm of Oklahoma City Ballet, the company
began a new era of growth and renewal. In the past eight years the
number of performances have doubled, the annual budget of the
organization has tripled, the annual summer intensive draws aspiring
ballet dancers from around the country, and dancers and choreographers
from around the world are vying to work with Oklahoma City Ballet.
Originally from Northwest Indiana near the heart of Chicago, Robert
began formal training in gymnastics at the age of seven and soon after
shifted his focus to dance. He studied in Chicago, concentrating on
ballet with renowned pedagogue and author Anna Paskevska, with former
soloists of London’s Royal Ballet Richard Ellis and Christine DuBoulay,
and at the Ruth Page Foundation with Larry Long. He received further
training in ballet with full scholarships from the Milwaukee Ballet
School, Richmond Ballet, The Rock School in Philadelphia and the Joffrey
Ballet School in New York City. Robert enjoyed a vast performing career
touring internationally as a guest artist and dancing with the Milwaukee
Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Oklahoma
City Ballet, Eugene Ballet and Ballet Idaho.
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 Penny
Saunders, originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, graduated
from the Harid Conservatory in 1995, and began her professional career
with The American Repertory Ballet under the direction of Septime Webre.
She went on to dance with Ballet Arizona, MOMIX Dance Theater, Cedar Lake
Ensemble and in 2004 she joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In 2011,
Saunders won the International Commissioning Project which launched her
choreographic career, creating pieces for Hubbard Streets’ main and second
company, Whim W’Him, SFDanceworks, Neos Dance Theater, Owen Cox Dance
Group, and The Nexus Project. Saunders is honored to be the choreographer
in residence at The Grand Rapids Ballet receiving support from The New
York City Ballet Choreographic Commissions Initiative and to be the
recipient of the 2016 Princess Grace Choreographic Fellowship. |
 Christopher
Stuart, originally from Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Christopher has danced
with Nashville Ballet for the last 14 years and has risen to the rank of
principal. His vast experiences as a dancer and performer helped him
articulate his choreographic voice. Stuart has created pieces for
Nashville Ballet 2, Nashville Ballet, Quixotic Fusion and Ballet
Arkansas. In Nashville Ballet’s 2012 Emergence performance, he
collaborated with ALIAS Chamber Ensemble and Watkins College of Art,
Design & Film. In 2012 he choreographed and staged Nashville Shakespeare
Festival’s "Macbeth". For the past three seasons Stuart has created
pieces for Nashville Ballets annual Ballet Ball with music performed by
Holly Williams, Kellie Pickler, Clare Bowen and John Oates. For
Nashville Ballets 2014 Attitude series, he created Under the Lights, a
full length work to the music of Johnny Cash performed by Sugar and the
Hi lows. Stuart was a finalist in Ballet Arkansas' first annual Visions
Choreographic Competition. In 2015 Stuart had the pleasure of
choreographing a piece to the music of the world renowned Fisk Jubilee
Singers. Most recently he was awarded a choreographic Fellowship from
the New York Choreographic Institute. In May 2017 Nashville Ballet will
present the World Premiere of Stuart's Seven Deadly Sins. |
| 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
fourteenth 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 |
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| 2017 Dancers | ||
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Women: Julia Eisen – Nashville Ballet Julia Feldman – Sacramento Ballet Sabrina Holland – Richmond Ballet Tessia “Tess” Lane – California Ballet Elise Pekarek – Ballet Austin Lauren Pschirrer – Smuin Ballet Lydia Relle – Ballet San Antonio Molly Wagner Gregory – Kansas City Ballet Men: |
 2017 NCI dancers |
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All photos by Robert Salas and David Friedman |
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