CHOREOGRAPHERS AND ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTORS

Helen Pickett – Choreographer for IN Cognito Choreographer, Helen Pickett, native of San Diego, CA, has created over 60 ballets in the U.S., U.K. and Europe. The Crucible, which premiered at Edinburgh International Festival in 2019, won the UK Theatre Critics Award and the Herald Angel Award, just had its London premiere in June 2022, and it will show at the Kennedy Center, Spoleto Festival USA and Nashville in May/June 2023. In 2020/21, Helen choreographed 12 dance films, including The Air Before Me, winning the Audience Choice Award for Screen Dance International Festival, and Hurley Burley, which was nominated for an Emmy Award. While Resident Choreographer for Atlanta Ballet, 2012 – 2017, she was named Best Choreographer in 2014 and 2015. Helen’s upcoming commissions include, Boston Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Alberta Ballet, West Australian Ballet, and two new long form narratives for National Ballet of Canada and Dutch National Ballet.

Helen danced with William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt from 1987-1998, and performed with the Wooster Group, director, Elizabeth LeCompte, 1998-2003. She collaborated as a choreographer and actress with the filmmakers, Eve Sussman, Toni Dove and Laurie Simmons. In 2021, Helen was co-director of the Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Summer Dance Program, and leads her think tank workshop, Choreographic Essentials. Between 2020 and 2021, Helen created and produced, 83 interviews for her YouTube talk show, Creative Vitality Jam Sessions. Helen founded, 2021, the Female Choreographer’s Big Round Table, a zoom discussion panel, with 160 women in the roster. She earned a Master of Fine Arts from Hollins University, and in 2016, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Representation: Kristopher McDowell, KMP. www.helenpickett.com

Crystal Pite – Choreographer for A Picture of You Falling

In a choreographic career spanning three decades, Crystal Pite has created over 50 works for companies including The Royal Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater I, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Ballets Jazz Montréal (resident choreographer 2001–04), and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Pite is a Member of the Order of Canada, and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Benois de la Danse, Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal, two UK Critics’ Circle Dance Awards, four Lau-rence Olivier Awards, and the 2022 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. She began her dance career as a company member of Ballet British Columbia (Ballet BC), then William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt, and is currently Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater I, Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells in London. She holds an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University and is a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot in Vancouver.

Christopher Stuart - Choreographer for Under the Lights

See page 8 for biography.

Traci Gilchrest - Rehearsal Director & Stager for IN Cognito

See page 8 for biography.

Anne Plamondon -

Stager for A Picture of You Falling

Anne Plamondon’s dancing is characterized as captivating, fluid, gracious, versatile, and radiant. Classically trained at the National Ballet School of Canada and the Banff Centre for the Arts, Anne Plamondon graduated from the École supérieure de danse du Québec. Between 1994 and 2000, she danced with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and Gulbenkian Ballet, performing in works by over thirty choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Hans Van Manen, Johan Inger, Ohad Naharin, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, Gideon Obarzanek aand Angelin Prejliokaj. As a freelance artist she also worked with choreographers Marcos Morau, Marie Chouinard and Ina Christel Johannessen, and collaborated with the circus company Les 7 doigts de la main. Anne has been featured in several dance films, created and performed in Red Shoes, winner of the 2010 Golden Sheaf Award at the Yorkton Film Festival and was semi-finalist at the Paris Play Film Festival for Solitude Partagée in 2020.

Between 2006 and 2015, Anne dances with Crystal Pite and her company Kidd Pivot on the works Lost Action, the solo Fault, The You Show and the duet A Picture of You Falling, winner of the Olivier Awards for outstanding achievement in dance in 2015. Anne joined RUBBERBANDance Group in 2002. Along side Victor Quijada, she quickly became the emblem of the company. She acted as co-artistic director from 2006 to 2015 and participated in the development of the RUBBERBAND Method, which she teaches internationally.

Anne makes her choreographic debut with the solo The Same Eyes as Yours (2012) created in collaboration with theatre director Marie Brassard. Since the foundation or of her company Anne Plamondon Productions in 2018, her work has been presented at the National Arts Center in Ottawa, Jacob’s Pillow, Guggenheim Museum, Live Arts in New York as well as broadcasted on CBC Arts and Télé-Québec. Most recently, she choreographed for Alberta Ballet and BJM (Ballet Jazz of Montreal).

Since 2019, Anne assumes the role of Delegate Curator of dance with the Domaine Forget International Festival and Academy. As curator, she leads the development of the vision of dance, its outreach within the organization and its region, and sits on the artistic committee. She has been teaching at the Domaine Forget Academy for almost 10 years.

Ana Lopez - Guest Répétiteur See page 8 for biography.

Jon Upleger - Stager for Under the Lights

Jon Upleger began his formal training in 1997 under the direction of Petrus Bosman and David Keener at the Virginia School of the Arts. Upon graduation, he received the school’s prestigious Dean’s Award and then joined Nashville Ballet as an apprentice in 2000.

During his time at Nashville Ballet, Upleger has performed roles from such varied repertoire as Romeo in Artistic Director Paul Vasterling’s Romeo & Juliet, the Sugar Plum Cavalier in Nashville’s Nutcracker, Dracula in Vasterling’s Dracula, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Albrecht in Giselle, Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming in Cinderella Other leading roles include Stanley Kowalski in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s American premiere of A Streetcar Named Desire, Christopher Wheeldon’s Ghosts, Jiri Kylian’s Petite Mort and Sechs Tanze, Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra Suite, Salvatore Aiello’s Satto, Sarah Slipper’s Ploughing the Dark, the Protagonist in Vasterling’s Firebird, Oberon in Vasterling’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Carmina Burana, Peter Pan and The Ben Folds Project and Christopher Stuart’s Under the Lights and 7 Deadly Sins. He has also had the honor of working with Christopher Bruce, Jennifer Archibald, Gina Patterson and Val Caniparoli.

After performing Upleger became a Rehearsal Director at Nashville Ballet where he taught company class, staged repertoire, helped cast ballets and most importantly coached ensemble and principal couples to ensure a sense of confidence every time they took to the stage. While teaching at the School of Nashville Ballet Upleger helped create the Young Men’s Scholarship Program, which provides tuition-free ballet training for males age 6-18, and served as a Principal Instructor.

In September of 2021 Mr. Upleger opened the Grand Rapids School of Dance. He is happy to be back in his home state bringing the joy of dance to the Grand Rapids Community with his wife, Alexandra, and son, Hudson.