See the Music, Hear the Dance Welcome to our annual performance See the Music, Hear the Dance. It is a delight to share this evening’s program of music and dance with our Colburn community. See the Music, Hear the Dance is one of the most famous quotes from George Balanchine, the teacher and choreographer who founded the School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet. This idea of bodies visualizing music through high-definition dancing was foundational to Balanchine’s work. His vision revolutionized ballet in America, and the impact of his choreographic body of work continues to shape dance traditions today, forty years after his death. Here at Colburn, our dance training across multiple genres is a continuation of that musically driven tradition. We are fortunate to work in close concert with some of the most extraordinary musicians in realizing that vision. During the program, we will introduce you to dance artists from The Joffrey Ballet, and musicians from our Music Academy and Conservatory. These performers will take us on a journey through excerpts from the iconic repertoire of The Joffrey Ballet, one of the premiere dance companies in America. Tonight, we are also thrilled to welcome Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet, Ashely Wheater MBE, to Colburn along with Leslie Carothers, Dance Academy faculty. Ashley and Leslie will share their insights into the choreography performed and how each performer brings their unique musical interpretation to the stage. Both Ashley and Leslie danced with The Joffrey Ballet and continue to share expertise from their illustrious performing careers with the next generation of students and professionals in their current roles—shaping a bright future for dance in America. The choreography being performed tonight has been created using the language of classical ballet, the same physical grammar that ballet dancers perfect in their daily technique classes. You will see how this language has the capacity to express a wide range of experiences and emotions. Like music, dance has the capacity to transcend the spoken word, bringing immense beauty into our lives. Sincerely, Margaret Tracey Dean, Trudl Zipper Dance Institute
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See the Music, Hear the Dance
October 28, 2023 Zipper Hall, 7 pm
Cohosts: Margaret Tracey and Cameron Fikes Guest Speakers: Ashley Wheater and Leslie Carothers
Suite Saint-Saëns pas de duex (Excerpt) Jeraldine M. Mendoza and Dylan R. Gutierrez Aina Lu, Piano
choreography by gerald arpino music by camille saint-saëns 1835–1921
Discussion
Video of “Round of Angels” Leslie Carothers and Ashley Wheater
choreography by gerald arpino music by gustav mahler 1860–1911
Discussion
Italy pas de deux from Anna Karenina Jeraldine M. Mendoza and Dylan R. Gutierrez Aina Lu, Piano Emily Wu, Piano Ann Kuo, Flute Joshua Ho, Harp
choreography by yuri possokhov music by ilya demutsky b. 1983
Guest Speakers Ashley Wheater MBE The Mary B. Galvin Artistic Director of The Joffrey since 2007 Ashley Wheater has dedicated his life to dance. He was born in Scotland and trained at The Royal Ballet School in England. He worked with Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, and Michael Somes in numerous ballets at Covent Garden, including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Manon, Anastacia, and The Dream. Wheater danced with Rudolf Nureyev in Nureyev and Friends at the London Coliseum. On Nureyev’s advice, Wheater joined the London Festival Ballet and danced in his Romeo and Juliet and Sleeping Beauty. He danced in Glen Tetley’s Sphinx and Greening and in Festival Ballet’s large repertoire of classics and new creations. Under the artistic direction of John Field, he was promoted to Principal Dancer at the age of 20. In 1982, he joined the Australian Ballet where he continued dancing principal roles in both classical and contemporary work, especially in the John Cranko full-length ballets. In 1985, at the invitation of Gerald Arpino, Wheater joined The Joffrey Ballet. For the next four years, he performed various works by American choreographers including William Forsythe, Gerald Arpino, Mark Morris, Paul Taylor, and Laura Dean, as well as repertoire by Ashton and Cranko. Joining the San Francisco Ballet in 1989, he continued his creative career working under Helgi Tomasson, and with choreographers James Kudelka, David Bintley, and many more. In 1997, he retired from dancing and was appointed Ballet Master and, later, Assistant to the Artistic Director at the San Francisco Ballet. Since his appointment in 2007 as Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet, his passion and commitment to the Joffrey have been evident in the quality that he has brought to the dancing and to the repertoire. He has invited world-renowned choreographers, as well as fresh young talent, to create new work for the company. Wheater has added new full-length works to the Joffrey’s repertoire, including Lar Lubovitch’s groundbreaking Othello, Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow, and Yuri Possokhov’s Don Quixote.
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In 2008, Wheater was the recipient of the Boeing Game-Changer Award in recognition of his commitment to community engagement in Chicago and to the celebration of diversity through dance. He sits on the Advisory Board for Dance Magazine, serves as the Artistic Advisor for ChiArts, and is the Advisor to the Arts for the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. In 2010, Wheater, representing The Joffrey Ballet, was named Lincoln Academy Laureate, the highest honor presented by the State of Illinois, and in 2013 the Chicago Tribune named him “Chicagoan of the Year”. In 2015, Wheater received the University of Chicago Rosenberger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative and Performing Arts. In December 2019, he was appointed to be a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Leslie Carothers As a former principal dancer with The Joffrey Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet, and as an international guest artist, Leslie has danced extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She was featured on television in “Dance in America’s: A Night at The Joffrey,” televised on PBS, The Diana Ross Show, The Merv Griffin Show, and others. During her many years as a leading dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, she danced a wide range of principal roles, in works by Sir Frederick Ashton, Jiri Kylian, Mark Morris, Ben Stevenson, Glen Tetley, and Twyla Tharp, amongst others. During her career, leading roles were created for her by Robert Joffrey, William Forsythe, Gerald Arpino, Dwight Rhoden, John Clifford, and many others. In the Pennsylvania Ballet, Leslie danced the title roles in The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Coppelia, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, and John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, as well as an extensive repertoire of the ballets of George Balanchine. Leslie served as ballet faculty and Dance Institute Director at the Colburn School of Performing Arts for almost a decade, and currently travels as guest teacher to schools across the United States and Europe, including the ABT William J. Gillespie School at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and the Finnish National Ballet School. She also teaches ballet, Pilates, and Zena Rommett Floor-Barre® classes in the Los Angeles area.
Featured Artists Jeraldine M. Mendoza Jeraldine Mendoza was born in San Francisco, California, and trained at City Ballet School of San Francisco since the age of five, under the artistic direction of Galina Alexandrova. At age 17, Mendoza was invited to graduate in the Russian course at the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. She later won First Place at the YAGP San Francisco Regional Semi-Finals in 2011. Within her first year with the Joffrey, Mendoza danced lead roles in Yuri Possokhov’s Don Quixote, Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker, Wayne McGregor’s INFRA, Edwaard Liang’s Age of Innocence, and Jerome Robbins’s In the Night. In 2012, she won the prestigious young artists’ scholarship from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund, under the nomination of Artistic Director Ashley Wheater, making her the first Chicago artist to win since the award’s inception. Mendoza later graced the cover of Dance Magazine in May 2015, the magazine’s first-ever international issue. Since joining the Joffrey, Mendoza has danced principal roles in Stanton Welch’s La Bayadére Nikiya), Son of Chamber Symphony, and Maninyas; Jiři Kylián’s Forgotten Land; Gerald Arpino’s Sea Shadow, Light Rain, and Round of Angels; Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs; George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and The Four Temperaments; Christopher Wheeldon’s Continuum, Swan Lake (Odette/Odile), Liturgy, Fool’s Paradise, The Nutcracker, and Commedia; Jerome Robbins’s Interplay and Glass Pieces; Krzysztof Pastor’s Romeo& Juliet (Juliet); Yuri Possokhov’s RAkU, Miraculous Mandarin, and Anna Karenina (Kitty); Anthony Tudor’s Lilac Garden; Alexander Ekman’s Tulle and Midsummer Night’s Dream; Justin Peck’s In Creases, Year of the Rabbit, and The Times Are Racing; Val Caniparoli’s Incantations; Myles Thatcher’s Passengers; John Neumeier’s Sylvia (Sylvia); Ashley Page’s Tipping Point; Sir Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella (Cinderella); Lola de Avila’s Giselle (Giselle, Myrta); Nicolas Blanc’s Beyond the Shore, Lorelei, and Under the Trees’ Voices; Andrew McNicol’s Yonder Blue; Liam Scarlett’s Vespertine; and Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre (Blanche).
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Dylan R. Gutierrez Dylan Gutierrez grew up in Van Nuys, California, and received his training at the Los Angeles Ballet Academy under the direction of his mother Andrea-Paris Gutierrez. In 2006, he was awarded a full scholarship to train at The Royal Ballet School in London. With the guidance of Gailene Stock, Gary Norman, and Meelis Pakri, he was offered a job as an apprentice with the San Francisco Ballet where he danced ballets such as The Four Temperaments and West Side Story Suite. Since joining The Joffrey Ballet, Gutierrez has danced many roles in the Joffrey’s extensive repertory. Favorite roles danced include Death in The Green Table, Basilio in Don Quixote, Prince Siegfried in Christopher Wheeldon’s Swan Lake, Prince Albrecht in Giselle, Main Pas de Deux couple from Wayne McGregor’s INFRA, Sanguinic in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, and Justin Peck’s Year of the Rabbit and the Pas de Deux in The Times Are Racing. Gutierrez has also been a part of several Joffrey world premiere roles including Buffalo Bill, and The Great Impresario in Christopher Wheeldon’s The Nutcracker, Vronsky in Yuri Possokhov’s Anna Karenina, Stone Furies in John Neumeier’s Orpheus and Eurydice, and most recently the role of Lennie in Cathy Marston’s Of Mice and Men, set to premiere in 2022. Gutierrez is one-third part of the production company Action Lines, alongside fellow dancer Xavier Núñez and friend/writer Eric Grant. Action Lines has created several original dance films for The Joffrey Ballet, including their inaugural project, an original installation for the 150 Media Stream titled Interim Avoidance.
Trudl Zipper Dance Institute Leadership Margaret Tracey Since retiring from New York City Ballet in 2002, Tracey has become an admired and dedicated teacher and arts advocate. She served as the Director of Boston Ballet School (BBS) from 2007–2021 and was profiled in a 2009 issue of Dance Teacher Magazine. During her tenure at BBS, Tracey drew upon her teaching experiences, studies in psychology, and ties to community clinicians to initiate a comprehensive Wellness Program at BBS. She also created the Next Generation, a year-end performance showcasing preprofessional students, which has become an annual highlight that spotlights BBS as a leader in local and regional arts education. Her stature in the dance world brought BBS extraordinary access to the Balanchine and Robbins repertoire, enhancing the training and performance experience for students. In addition, Tracey committed to commissioning underrepresented voices in choreography by amplifying the work of women and BIPOC choreographers such as Jill Johnson, Lia Cirio, and Ja’ Malik, among others. Tracey further distinguished BBS internationally by establishing exchange programs with Canada’s National Ballet School, Paris Opera Ballet School, the Royal Danish Ballet, and Dresden’s Semperoper Ballet. And under her leadership, BBS also became a partner school with the prestigious Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition. Tracey continues to dedicate her efforts as a dance educator with a strong commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access to champion change. She has served on panels for MoBBallet’s annual educational symposiums (2019, 2020, and 2022) and has worked with colleagues at Dance USA School Directors Affinity Group to share learning around culturally responsive teaching practices to better support faculty. Tracey’s work as an international arts educator continues as she serves on the organizing committee for World Ballet School Day (2020 and 2021), and the 2023 edition of Assemble Internationale; an Olympic-caliber gathering of pre-professional students and directors from schools around the globe empowering young artists to develop their voices, hosted by Canada’s National Ballet School. Born in Pueblo, Colorado, Tracey began ballet studies with her mother, Nancy Tracey, at age six. In 1982, she was accepted as a student at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet (NYCB). At SAB, she was
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the recipient of an Atlantic Richfield Foundation scholarship (1982–85) as well as a Princess Grace Foundation award (1985–86) that cited her “exceptional promise and dedication to excellence.” In 1986, Tracey joined the NYCB corps de ballet, launching a celebrated 16-year stage career. A principal dancer from 1991 until her retirement in 2002, she excelled in the Balanchine repertoire, appearing frequently in such core works as Apollo, Allegro Brilliante, Ballo della Regina, Concerto Barocco, Serenade, Square Dance, Symphony in C, Vienna Waltzes, Western Symphony, and Who Cares?, among others. She was also featured in a range of Robbins’ ballets, including Andantino, Afternoon of a Faun, The Four Seasons, and The Goldberg Variations, and created a role in the choreographer’s Ives, Songs (1988). She originated roles in works by William Forsythe, Richard Tanner, Ib Andersen, Trey McIntyre, and Peter Martins, including his Les Petit Riens, Fearful Symmetries, Zakouski, and his production of The Sleeping Beauty, in which she appeared both as Princess Aurora and Princess Florine. With NYCB, Tracey toured Europe and Asia, appeared in the PBS “Live from Lincoln Center” series, and danced the Marzipan Shepherdess in the 1993 film of Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. As a Balanchine Repetiteur, Tracey has staged several of his works including, Concerto Barocco, Theme and Variations, Scotch Symphony, Raymonda Variations, and Divertimento #15, among others in both professional companies and schools. And in 2011 she was recognized with a Jerome Robbins Foundation award for her distinguished interpretation as a Robbins’ dancer. Tracey joined the Colburn School in fall 2023 to assume the role of Dean of the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute overseeing the Dance Academy and the Youth and Adult Dance programs.