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ARTISTIC STAFF

KEVIN IRVING THE CRUMPACKER FAMILY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR A rare dancer whose career spanned multiple disciplines, Kevin Irving began dancing with jazz classes in his hometown dance school (Long Island, New York), before joining the school and training ensemble of Alvin Ailey — an experience that impacted him deeply. From 1982–1985, he danced with The Elisa Monte Dance Company of New York, a company often referred to as “postmodern,” but at 24, he took a sharp turn toward classical dance and joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montréal. Promoted to soloist and principal, Irving became a well-known figure wherever LGBC performed, excelling in classical, neoclassical, and contemporary roles — including roles and ballets created by LGBC’s resident choreographer James Kudelka. In 1993, Irving joined Twyla Tharp Dance, touring the U.S. and Europe with the acclaimed choreographer, including performances at L’Opéra de Paris and the PBS filming of Tharp’s muchlauded ballet In the Upper Room. From 1994–2002, Irving was ballet master and associate director with Nacho Duato’s Compañía Nacional de Danza in Madrid. From 2002–2007, he was artistic director of The Göteborg Ballet in Sweden. The company, during Irving’s tenure, was named the most important dance company in Sweden in Ballet International’s critic poll. From 2007–2013, Irving was a frequent guest ballet master with The Royal Danish Ballet where he staged and rehearsed works by Ji í Kylián, George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins. He has also been a guest teacher with numerous companies and schools in the U.S. and abroad for over 20 years. Additionally, he staged ballets by Nacho Duato and Nicolo Fonte for companies such as The Royal Ballet Covent Garden, Nederlands Dans Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Lyon Opera Ballet, and The Australian Ballet, to name just a few. In the U.S., Irving became associate director at Morphoses (formerly The Wheeldon Company) from 2011–2012, coordinating special initiatives aimed at defining the company’s unique profile in the dance world. In 2010, he founded I-DANCE (Inspiring Dance: American Nations’ Choreographic Ex change), a nonprofit that sends teachers and choreographers to dance communities in Central and South America. Irving was named artistic director of Oregon Ballet Theatre in July 2013.

LISA KIPP REHEARSAL DIRECTOR Lisa Kipp began studying ballet in Olympia, Washington, and finished her training at Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She danced with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pacific Ballet Theatre, Ballet Oregon, City Ballet of Los Angeles, and James Sewell Ballet, as well as performed in the touring company of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. Kipp danced principal roles in George Balanchine’s Rubies, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Square Dance, Concerto Barocco, and Apollo, and appeared as the Cowgirl in Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo. Prior to joining Oregon Ballet Theatre in 2004, she was ballet headmaster for The School of Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle, as well as the company’s rehearsal director. Kipp has been ballet master for OBT for over 10 years and rehearsal director for five. As ballet master, she has assisted James Kudelka, Lar Lubovitch, Lola de Ávila, Nicolo Fonte, Francia Russell, Bart Cook, Christine Redpath, and Helgi Tómasson. She staged George Balanchine’s Rubies, Square Dance, and Who Cares? for the company and is responsible for the corps de ballet in its classical repertoire.

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Photo by Joni Kabana.

JEFFREY STANTON BALLET MASTER Jeffrey Stanton trained at San Francisco Ballet School and the School of American Ballet. In addition to classical ballet, he studied ballroom, jazz, and tap dance. He joined San Francisco Ballet in 1989, before joining Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1994. He was promoted to soloist in 1995, promoted to principal in 1996, and retired from PNB in 2011. He has performed principal roles in various Balanchine works such as Apollo, Theme and Variations, Who Cares?, and Agon. He also performed principal roles in classics such as The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Merry Widow, and Romeo and Juliet. Choreographers such as Nicolo Fonte, Christopher Stowell, Kent Stowell, Val Caniparoli, and Susan Stroman have created roles for him. Stanton has performed as a guest artist for Le Gala des Étoiles in Montréal, the Prague Gala of Stars, and the TITAS Command Performance of International Ballet in Dallas, Texas. In 1999, he was featured in the BBC filming of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s performance of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, at the Sadler Wells Theater in London.

THE STORIED PAST OF THE SLEEPING BEAUTY The Sleeping Beauty began as a director’s dream. In 1888, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Director of Imperial Theatres for Czar Alexander III, wrote a scenario based on Perrault’s La Belle du bois dormant. He envisioned a ballet so charming that “the musical imagination can be carried away,” set and costumed in the style of Louis XIV. Vsevolozhsky assigned the choreography to Marius Petipa, Premier Ballet Master for the Imperial Theatres, and invited the worldrenowned Tchaikovsky to compose the score. In a time when ballet scores were generally composed by specialists in the specific demands of music for dance, Tchaikovsky faced ridicule from ‘serious’ musicians for working in an inferior sphere. Still, he had a lifelong affinity for ballet and he was “charmed, delighted beyond all description” by Vsevolozhsky’s scenario. He accepted the invitation, writing, “It suits me perfectly, and I could ask for nothing better to put to music.” As was customary, Petipa developed the scenario into detailed instructions for Tchaikovsky. Petipa’s daughter, Vera, described how the two worked together on their masterpiece: “Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky arrived at our house… and played through his work in parts, and father listened and planned his dance fantasies in harmony with the music.” Petipa moved small figurines about on his drawing room table, noting down the varied combinations with zeros for the women and crosses for the men. Inspired, Tchaikovsky worked quickly, completing musical sketches for the entire ballet in a mere four months, even while interrupted by concert tours across Europe. Full orchestration took another three months. The Sleeping Beauty was Petipa’s and Tchaikovsky’s first and only full collaboration, a true Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art where all elements are equal. It now ranks among the towering achievements of human creativity. In the words of historian Jennifer Homans, Petipa’s choreography expanded ballet “technique and expressivity while paradoxically reinforcing its strict formal rules and proportions,” while “Tchaikovsky’s music pushes dancers to move with a fullness and subtlety that few other composers then or since have inspired.” Following the premiere in 1890, most critics were not enthusiastic. One wrote “Sleeping Beauty does not belong to history.” To Tchaikovsky’s disappointment, the Czar said only, “Very nice.” But the public loved it. Tchaikovsky’s brother wrote to him, “Your ballet has become a kind of obsession… people have ceased saying to each other, ‘How are you?’ Instead they ask, “Have you seen The Sleeping Beauty?”

References: Tchaikovsky’s Ballets: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker by Roland John Wiley Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans

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