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Artists
Dancers
Brett was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he began his dance training at the Fort Wayne Ballet School. He continued at the Virginia School of the Arts, Joffrey Ballet School, and Boston Ballet School. Brett has been a guest artist with KUNST-STOFF and the Sacramento Ballet. This is Brett’s eighth season with LINES Ballet.
David Harvey began dancing at age 11 in the Seattle area. He studied at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and graduated, after three years of training, from the Kirov Academy of Ballet (formerly the Universal Ballet Academy) in Washington DC. Harvey was a member of the LINES Ballet School Training Program fall 2006 through fall 2007 and has performed in the San Francisco Opera’s production of Iphigenie en Tauride. This is his third season with LINES Ballet.
Born in High Point, North Carolina, Ashley studied with Susan’s Dance Unlimited and graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts, studying under Nina Danilova and Melissa Hayden. She performed with North Carolina Dance Theater II dancing in George Balanchine’s Serenade, Alvin Ailey’s The River, and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux’s Carmina Burana. This is her fourth season with LINES Ballet.
Laurel began her training at Minnesota Dance Theatre. She then moved to Seattle where she danced at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School (PNBS) as a professional division student. While attending PNBS Laurel performed and toured with the company in several Balanchine ballets. Returning to Minnesota Dance Theatre as a company member, she performed works by Antony Tudor, Dwight Rhoden and Alonzo King. She was featured on the cover of Pointe magazine and is a Princess Grace Award winner. This is Laurel’s eighth season with LINES Ballet.
Caroline Rocher began her training at the Conservatoire de Montpellier in France with Madame Claparede and later studied at the Rudra Bejart Lausanne School in Switzerland. She came to the United States in 1998 to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and was then invited to join the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company in 1999. She was promptly promoted to principal dancer the following year, performing leading roles in The Prodigal Son, Agon, and Glen Tetley’s Sphinx. Caroline took part in “Le Gala des Etoiles du 21ieme siècle” in Paris in 2004, and then moved to Germany to join the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich. This is her third season with LINES Ballet.
COREY SCOTT-GILBERT
Originally born in Washington DC, Corey began his dance training at Baltimore School for the Arts, later attending the Juilliard School in New York under the direction of Harkarvey and Rhodes. After graduating with a BFA in 2005, Corey accepted an invitation from France to be a soloist with Lyon Opera Ballet. He has collaborated with and performed ballets by William Forsythe, Sasha Waltz, Jiri Kylian, Matz Ek, and other international choreographers. This is Corey's third season with LINES Ballet.
Meredith Webster grew up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin studying with Jean Wolfmeyer. She attended the Harid Conservatory and Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Washington in 2003. Before moving to San Francisco, Meredith worked in Seattle with Spectrum Dance Theater (Artistic Director, Donald Byrd), and Sonia Dawkins' Prism Dance Theater. In 2007, she was honored with a Princess Grace Award in dance. This is Meredith’s fifth season with LINES Ballet.
Keelan Whitmore is originally from Rockford, Illinois, where he began his training at the Rockford Dance Company and later went on to graduate from Interlochen Arts Academy. Keelan also studied at the Joffrey Ballet School/New School University and has danced with Kansas City Ballet for five seasons, where he performed works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, and Nacho Duato. His choreography has been showcased in workshop and gala performances with Kansas City Ballet, Virginia School of the Arts, and Regional Dance America, where he received the 2005 National Choreography Recognition Award. Keelan is the co-founder/co-artistic director of Quixotic Performance Fusion. This is Keelan’s fourth season with LINES Ballet.
Ricardo Zayas of Brooklyn, NY studied on scholarship at the schools of Dance Theater of Harlem and the San Francisco Ballet. In 2005, he graduated with honors from Fordham University. He joined the Ailey II Company in his senior year and has also danced with Complexions Contemporary Ballet and Shen Wei Dance Arts. This is Ricardo’s fourth season with LINES Ballet.
Michael Montgomery of Long Beach, CA trained at the Orange County High School of the Arts and studied at the Alvin Ailey School in the Certificate program from 2006-2007. He joined the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Dominican University BFA Program in 2008 and is expected to graduate in 2011. In 2008, Mr. Montgomery was awarded the American College Dance Festival Association's best student performer award for the Southwest Region; and in 2010 was named a Shenson Performing Arts Fellow. This is Michael's first season as an apprentice with Alonzo King LINES Ballet.
Jeannette Diaz-Barboza began her training in the Royal Swedish Ballet School. She was the Swedish finalist for the Eurovision Dance competition in 1999, danced with the company Europa Dance for talented young dancers, and then joined the Royal Swedish Ballet as a 2nd soloist. Jeannette was also invited to join the company Stockholm 59° North, which performs new work by Swedish choreographers. She appears in the dance film “Fröt” by Alexander Ekman. This is her first season with LINES.
Simon Feltz began his dance training at the National Conservatory of Dance in Strasbourg and continued his studies in Cannes, France, at the Rosella Hightower School of Dance. He was selected for the Monaco Dance Forum’s Jeunes Ballets Tremplin program, which supports talented young dancers as they enter their professional careers, and was awarded a scholarship by Her Royal Highness the Princess of Hanover. This is Simon’s first season as an apprentice with LINES Ballet.
ARTURO FERNANDEZ (Ballet Master)
A native of Oakland, California, Arturo began dance training at the School
of Performing Arts in San Diego. He joined the San Diego Ballet in 1978,
and performed with the California, Arizona, Sacramento and New Jersey
Ballets as well as the Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo and Pittsburgh
Ballet Theater. In 1981, Arturo joined modern dance company ODC/San
Francisco, and served as the assistant to the choreographers from 1988 until
spring 1991. Arturo has choreographed for the James Sewell Ballet, Inland
Pacific Ballet and LINES Ballet, and has also demonstrated his work in
self-produced concerts throughout the region. Since 1992, he has been the
Ballet Master for LINES Ballet, assisting Alonzo King in the creation of new
work.
Since 1998 he has coordinated and taught in Alonzo King's
Professional Summer Intensive. In 2001 he directed the first summer
Pre-Professional Program at LINES. For more than a decade he has been an
integral part of the faculty of the San Francisco Dance Center. He has set
ballets by Alonzo King on companies and Universities throughout the United
States including NYU, Washington University in St. Louis and the Florida
State University, Most notably, in August of 2006 he set Handel, choreographed by Alonzo King, on the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm.
Associate Artistic Director
ROBERT ROSENWASSER (Associate Artistic Director)
Robert Rosenwasser is a co-founder of Alonzo King's LINES Ballet. He shapes the aesthetic and artistic direction of each project at LINES Ballet, including conceptual design and production. In addition to his work with LINES, he has created costumes for Frankfurt Ballet, The Royal Swedish Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theater and Dance Theatre of Harlem. As Art Director for Kelsey St. Press, he collaborates with artists and poets including: Richard Tuttle, Kiki Smith, Laurie Reid, Anne Dunn, Kate Delos, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge and Barbara Guest. His work is found at the New York Museum of Modern Art in the department of Books and Illustrated Prints, at the Whitney Museum, and at the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library.
Composers & Musicians
BOUCHAIB ABDELHADI (Composer & Musician)
Bouchaib Abdelhadi, a native of Casablanca, Morocco, has had a distinguished musical career on both sides of the Atlantic. As leader of the Orchestre Abdelhadi, he performed throughout the Kingdom of Morocco in the 1980's. Since coming to the United States in the early 1990's, Bouchaib has been much sought out as a multi-instrumentalist (oud, Moroccan violin, percussion) and as a vocalist in Middle Eastern and North African traditions such as al-Ÿqa (Andalusian), Gnawa (Sufi trance), and Chaabi ("popular"). Recent career highlights include collaborating in 2002 with Pharoah Sanders on music for Alonzo King's LINES Ballet Company, and, in 2001, contributing to Omar Sosa's Grammy-nominated CD "Sentir". Bouchaib's live performances range from a US tour with Cuban jazz pianist Omar Sosa in 2002 to a performance with Stephen Kent and Trance Mission in 2001, and from playing at the 1998 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival to composing and performing Heart Song in conjunction with Alonzo King and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2003. His collaborations with Alonzo King also include Salt (2005) with the North Carolina Dance Theater, and Ocean (1994) and The Moroccan Project (2005) with LINES Ballet. Bouchaib played with DJ Cheb i Sabbah on the album "La Kahena", and enjoys working with artists from diverse musical traditions such as klezmer, Hindustani, jazz, and rock.
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ADLER FELLOWS
Founded in 1977 as the San Francisco Affiliate Artists-Opera Program, Adler Fellowships are performance-oriented residencies for the most advanced young singers and coach/accompanists. Under the guidance of San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley and Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald, the Adler Fellowship Program offers intensive individual training and roles of increasing importance in San Francisco Opera's main-stage season. Each year, a select group of exceptionally gifted singers from Merola Opera Program is invited to continue their education as Adler Fellows. With Merola participants selected from a pool of over 800 candidates, these young artists represent whom the classical music world can and should expect to see on celebrated opera house stages throughout the world in the very near future.
THE BAAKA: NZAMBA LELA (Musicians)
Nzamba Lela is a group of sixteen musicians from the Aka clan of the Mbuti in the Lobaye Forest of the Central African Republic. Mbuti music combines chant and simple instrumentation that are played against the backdrop of natural forest sounds. The two sets of sounds intertwine becoming a symbol of the essential nature of their culture. Nzamba Lela has performed in Europe and in festivals in Africa. In 1999 the group toured France and Switzerland for three weeks and in 2000 performed in France, Germany and a Brazilian festival in Salvador de Bahia that is curated by Gilberto Gil. Their work, Alonzo King writes, "like nature, is marked by depth, character, courage, intelligence, humor, love and a resonating sincerity that is steeped in truth. These are the same markings of all great art, both ancient and contemporary; and the same attributes that have inspired me from early on."
YASSIR CHADLY (Composer & Musician)
Yassir Chadly has been performing traditional Moroccan music since 1972, first in his native Morocco and then in the United States since 1977. His musical expression ranges from the melodic love songs of the Magreb and Egyptian traditions, to the powerful rhythms of the religious music of the Gnawa, the Sufi musicians originally from sub-Saharan Africa. His varied instruments include the oud (lute), the guenbri (a three-stringed bass-like instrument made from a camel neck), qarqabas (metal clackers from which the castanets are derived), bender, darbukkah, and taarija (percussion instruments native to Morocco). Yassir is well known as an inspired storyteller of the Sufi tradition in addition to his talents as a musician. He has recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Randy Weston, Stephen Kent, and Steve Coleman. He is featured on two recent Omar Sosa recordings, "Prietos" and "Sentir", and has performed with Mr. Sosa since 2001. Yassir has participated in other collaborative projects with Alonzo King, including Heart Song (2003) for the Ailvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Salt (2005) with the North Carolina Dance Theater, and Ocean (1994) and The Moroccan Project (2005) with LINES Ballet. He is also an Associate Professor at the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, CA where he teaches courses on Islam and Sufism.
Melody of China, a non-profit organization, is the premiere Chinese music ensemble based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The organization was formed in 1993 by a group of enthusiastic professional musicians from some of the most prestigious music conservatories in China. The ensemble has a two-fold mission: to promote Chinese classical, folk and contemporary music, and to provide quality entertainment through the synergy between an ancient cultural tradition and youthful, multi-colored American culture. Melody of China musicians have also performed internationally in many festivals, including engagements with the Berlin Philharmonic as well as the San Francisco Symphony.
HAMZA EL DIN (Composer & Musician) 1930 - 2006
Hamza El Din created a unique fusion of Arabic music with the indigenous music of his native Nubia. In his masterful hands the oud (the precursor of the lute in the West, pipa in China and biwa in Japan) becomes a virtuoso instrument as well as an accompaniment to his gentle and hypnotic singing. He has single-handedly created a new music, essentially a Nubian/Arabic fusion, but one in line with both traditions and informed by Western conservatory training. First discovered by Western audiences through his performance at the Newport Folk Festival and Vanguard recordings in 1964/65, his 1970 Nonesuch recording, Escalay: The Water Wheel is legendary among musicians and connoisseurs. His best-known recording in the U.S. is "Eclipse," produced and engineered by Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart. Hamza's music has also appeared in movie soundtracks from Egypt, Germany, Japan, and the US, including Francis Ford Coppola's The Black Stallion . Hamza has appeared regularly with the Kronos Quartet, which included Escalay: The Water Wheel on their chart-topping "Pieces of Africa" album. His compositions were performed by Maurice Bejart Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Molissa Fenley Dance Company.
Miguel Frasconi has been active as a composer and performer of new exploratory world music for more than twenty years. He has worked with many of new music's most respected innovators, including John Cage, Jon Hassell, Trichy Sankaran, and James Tenney. From 1977-86 he was a founding member of The Glass Orchestra, the internationally acclaimed ensemble featuring all glass instruments. Over the last few years, he has been composer and music director for many cutting-edge performances, including Larry Reed's film-like shadow play In Xanadu, Sten Rudstr?'s multi-media extravaganza Theater of Cruelty, and Remy Charlip's Harlequin, the children's musical recently performed with 600 singing and dancing children. He has created over two dozen dance scores and received a 1997 Isadora Duncan Dance Award for his work with Alonzo King's LINES Ballet. Frasconi also performs regularly with the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the Tibetan songwriter Techung, and his own Galapagos Project, and has performed in a concert in India for the Dalai Lama.
HAFIDA GHANIM (Composer & Musician)
Hafida Ghanim is a native of Beni Mellal in the Middle Atlas region of Morocco. She draws on the urban repertory of women's popular songs, as well as religious songs of the countryside. Hafida has performed in several collaborative projects with Alonzo King, including Heart Song (2003) for the Ailvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Salt (2005) with the North Carolina Dance Theater, and Ocean (1994) and The Moroccan Project (2005) with LINES Ballet.
ZAKIR HUSSAIN (Composer & Musician)
Universally acknowledged to be one of the world's leading virtuosos of Indian Classical percussion, Hussain is the son of the great Alla Rakha, master tabla player best known for his long association with Ravi Shankar. A child prodigy, Zakir displayed an uncanny ability to learn the intricacies of his father's art, and was touring by the age of twelve. In 1970, he came to the United States, and his virtuosity, combined with his youthful openness to new sounds made him a vital player in the creation of a new world music, one which blended old traditions with fresh ideas. Zakir continues to expand the boundaries of his musical universe, working with Jazz legends like John McLaughlin (in Shakti), Joe Henderson and Jon Handy. He continues to work in the Indian Classical tradition as well, and leads his own cross-cultural band, Rhythm Experience.
MIYA MASAOKA (Composer & Musician)
Miya Masaoka has created works for koto, laser interfaces, field recordings, laptop and video and written scores for ensembles, chamber orchestras and mixed choirs. In her pieces she has investigated the sound and movement of insects, as well as the physiological response of plants, the human brain and her own body. Within these varied contexts her performance work investigates the interactive, collaborative aspects of sound, improvisation, nature, and society.
Jim McKee is currently an active owner of earwax productions inc., San Francisco, which he co-founded in 1983. He received his Master of Fine Arts from The Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College in Oakland, California and his Bachelor of Music Education from Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Virginia. In addition to his sound design work, he has lectured at YLE Radio in Helsinki Finland, The Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in South Africa, Western Public Radio, San Francisco State, RTé Radio Ireland, CCAC and The College for Recording Arts.
JASON MORAN (Composer & Musician)
Jason Moran is a prolific jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and recording artist. He was recently named as a 2007 United States Artist Fellow and was honored as one of the “37 Under 36: America's Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences” by the Smithsonian. Moran was the youngest honoree of the New Work Commission by the San Francisco Jazz Festival. In 2000, Moran’s first album with his jazz trio The Bandwagon (with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits) was declared “an instant classic” by JazzTimes Magazine. In 2002, Moran released his universally acclaimed solo piano disc “Modernistic” and the Cork Jazz Festival awarded Moran the 2002 Guinness Rising Star Award. 2003’s “The Bandwagon,” culled from the trio’s six-day stint at New York’s Village Vanguard, earned the team of Moran-Mateen-Waits a title as “the best new rhythm section in jazz” (The New York Times) and prompted Rolling Stone to proclaim Moran “the most provocative thinker in current jazz.” He collaborated with video/performance artist Joan Jonas on “The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things,” performed at Dia Beacon. His 2005 composition for jazz sextet, “RAIN,” was commissioned by Jazz @ Lincoln Center. “Milestone: A Jazz Reality in 2 Acts” for jazz quartet and soprano was commissioned by The Walker Art Center in 2005. Moran has been a lecturer/instructor at Banff Center for The Arts, Denmark’s Vallekilde Jazz Camp, Skidmore, Manhattan School of Music, and The New School.
SAN FRANCISCO'S PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA (Musicians)
San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra has been dedicated to historically informed performance of Baroque, Classical and early-Romantic music on original instruments since its inception in 1981. Under Music Director Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia was named Musical America’s 2004 Ensemble of the Year, and, according to Los Angeles Times critic Alan Rich, has become “an ensemble for early music as fine as any in the world today.” The Orchestra performs an annual subscription season in four cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is regularly heard on tour in United States and internationally. The Orchestra has its own professional chorus, the Philharmonia Chorale, and also welcomes eminent guest conductors to its podium.
Violinist Kala Ramnath was rigorously trained in the classical tradition yet comfortably forges musical alliances with artists from around the globe, incorporating elements of jazz, flamenco and traditional African music into her rich and varied palette. Kala has performed at all the major music festivals in India, as well as the most prestigious stages throughout the world, including the Sydney Opera House and London ’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Kala’s also appears frequently on Hollywood film soundtracks including Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscar nominated “Blood Diamond”.
BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON (Composer & Musician)
Bernice Johnson Reagon is a composer, singer, historian, and author specializing in African American oral, performance, and protest traditions. She is founder and artistic director of Sweet Honey in the Rock, for whom she has composed numerous works. She is a Distinguished Professor of History at American University, and Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History. Her recent works include We Who Believe in Freedom: Sweet Honey In the Rock (Anchor Books, 1993) and We'll Understand It Better By and By (Smithsonian Press, 1992). She was conceptual producer and narrator of the Peabody Award winning twenty-six hour radio series Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions, produced by the Smithsonian Institution and National Public Radio.
RITA SAHAI (Composer & Musician)
Born in Allahabad, India, Rita Sahai was accepted at the age of nine as a disciple of renowned vocalist, Pandit Rama Shankar Mishra who groomed her in the romantic Benares Gharana style. After coming to the United States Rita continued her studies under the world famous sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan where she trained in the Seni Allaudin Gharana style, known for its creativity and purity of ragas. Impressed by her talent and passion towards music, Khan Sahib has given her the title "Gayan Alankar" (Jewel of Music). Rita, an acclaimed composer and performer, tours extensively throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and India. She is also in demand at recording studios at home and abroad where she graciously lends her voice to many diverse musical projects including laying down vocal tracks for Grammy Award-winning blue grass artist Bella Fleck and performing on Alonzo King's Sacred Texts, a CD of international music that won the Isadora Duncan award for music excellence.
PHAROAH SANDERS (Composer & Musician)
Pharoah Sanders began his career in New York in the early sixties, working with Charles Moffett, Don Cherry, and Sun Ra. Sanders became a member of the last Coltrane band, liberating from the saxophone not only the kinds of sounds fundamental to the jazz tradition, but producing timbres and voices from the traditions of African and Third World music. When Coltrane died in 1967, Sanders began leading groups that reflected what he and Coltrane had wanted to do, pushing the limits of what was then imagined as the jazz sound. Sanders drew from the pentatonic underpinnings common to African and Asian music to provide chant materials with pulsive rhythms. The fire of the blues that Sanders combined with the passion of the Afro-American church gave his music the intensity long referred to as "sanctified" by fellow musicians. In concert and on his numerous recordings, Sanders has lifted the hearts of his listeners in the way great gospel singers are famous for. A Grammy Award winner, Sanders has toured extensively throughout Europe, South America and West Africa.
Somei Satoh was born in 1947 in Sendai (northern Honshu), Japan. He has emerged as one of Japan's most internationally acclaimed and important composers of the post-Takemitsu era. He arrived at music not through the usual technical studies of harmony, counter point and orchestration, but rather as an outgrowth of the spiritual exercises of Shintoism and Zen Buddhism. To Shintoism he owes the sense of simplicity and essential purity that pervades his creations; by Zen Buddhism he was inspired to capture a sense of the infinite, the transcendent, the timelessly static. He began his career in 1969 following studies at the Nihon University of Art with "Tone Field," an experimental, mixed media group based in Tokyo. In 1972 he produced "Global Vision," a multimedia arts festival, that encompassed musical events, works by visual artists and improvisational performance groups. In 1980, he was awarded the Japan Art Festival Prize. He has written more than thirty compositions, including works for piano, orchestra, chamber music, choral and electronic music, theater pieces and music for traditional Japanese instruments. Recent commissions include pieces for the Kronos Quartet, Bang on a Can, and the New York Philharmonic, among others.
Leslie Stuck was musical collaborator for William Forsythe's Frankfurt Ballet from 1986 to 1990, during which he collaborated on several works, including In the middle, somewhat elevated (Paris Opera Ballet) and The Loss of Small Detail. Stuck composed the music for Forsythe's behind the china dogs (New York City Ballet), as well as pieces for Michael Simon, David Parsons, and Jirí Kylián (Tokyo Ballet). In 1990 he began working at IRCAM in Paris where he was Pierre Boulez's musical assistant for the premiere of ...Explosante-Fixe.... From 1993 to 1998 Stuck explored the control of computer music by dancer movement, which resulted in works for Tanzwochen Wien and the Kanagawa Arts Festival, both with choreographer Elizabeth Corbett. This period culminated in the interactive installation conFIGURING the CAVE, with video artist Jeffrey Shaw, which was commissioned for the permanent collection of Tokyo's ICC Museum, and exhibited at Karlsruhe's ZKM, Denmark's Louisiana Museum, and the ISEA in Paris. Beginning with Soothing the Enemy in 2000, Stuck composed several works for Alonzo King, including The Heart's Natural Inclination and Splash. In 2003 Cycling '74 released a CD of Stuck's music entitled Pas. Recent works include a ballet for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (with Lines Ballet alumnus Alex Ketley), as well as WD4 for Japanese choreographer Hiroshi Koike (Pappa Tarahumara), with whom he also created The Sound of Future SYNC for the Tokyo National Opera (NNTT).
Pawel Szymanski, renowned contemporary Polish composer, creates a type of music that he calls "surconventialist," with sophisticated technique and classical discipline. He has received awards from UNESCO as well as winning the Grand Prize of the Culture Foundation in Poland, and his works have been performed worldwide. After Alonzo King choreographed String Quartet to music by Pawel Szymanski in 1995, Lines Ballet commissioned him to compose a score (Compartment 2, Car 7) for the piece Szymanski's Vibraphone Quartet in 2003. He lives and works as a freelance artist in Warsaw.
ROY WHELDON (Composer & Musician)
Roy Whelden, violist da gamba and composer, is considered "a key figure in the world of new music" (Early Music America). He has received commissions for compositions in many diverse musical forms and styles: chamber music, songs cycles and choral works. Some of his compositions have been released on the New Albion label; these include Galax - music for viola da gamba (NA059) and Like a Passing River (NA072). Some recent works include Prelude and Fugue State (2004), a work commissioned by the violist, Hank Dutt, and the harpsichordist, Kathy Perl; and Ma (2005), a song written for the contralto, Karen Clark, and the Galax Quartet (two violins, viola da gamba and cello). Whelden was most recently heard in San Francisco providing incidental music for Bill Pullman's Expedition Six at the Magic Theatre. Future projects with the Galax Quartet include a concert with the mathematician and science fiction writer Rudy Rucker (in November 2007) and a concert honoring the career of poet Gary Snyder with new works for contralto and string quartet commissioned from an international group of composers (in May/June 2008).
Designers
ALAIN LORTIE (Lighting Designer)
With a career spanning more than 30 years, Alain Lortie continues to cover a lot of ground both creatively and geographically. Having started out working with multi-talented artists such as Michel Lemieux, Marie Chouinard and Edward Lock, he has since collaborated with a wide range of vocalists from both Quebec and Europe, such as Jean-Pierre Ferland, Diane Dufresne, Robert Charlebois, Bruno Pelletier, Peter Gabriel, Francis Cabrel, and Eros Ramazotti. A several-time winner of ADISQ's Lighting Designer of The Year award, Alain has worked with Luc Plamondon on Starmania (1993) and Notre-Dame de Paris (1998). As a result of his collaboration with Gilles Maheu and Carbone 14, he won a Masque des Éclairages at Quebec's 1996 annual theatre awards for his contribution to Les Âmes Mortes. A Dora Mavor Moore Award came his way in Toronto in 1997 for his work on François Girard's Œdipus Rex. The Cirque du Soleil has called on Alain's help in the creation of shows such as Soleil de Miniut (2004) and Delirium (2006), and his talents have taken him to Asia for productions such as the Shanghai Circus World's 2005 spectacle ERA. The following year brought Alain to Tapei for the production Musical Carmen and, in 2007, he was in Beijing collaborating on Musical Butterflies.
G. CHRIS GRIFFIN (Technical Director/Stage Manager)
Chris began working in technical production as a student, graduating with high distinction from UC Berkeley in theater and performance studies. He started his career as the technical director for Diablo Ballet and the California Theatre Center, in addition to freelance work all around the Bay Area. He toured internationally with the Ragazzi Boys Chorus. This is his third season with LINES Ballet.
AXEL MORGENTHALER (Lighting Designer)
Axel Morgenthaler is recognized in Quebec as one of the most innovative visual designers, appreciated for his talents as a lighting designer, as set designer and as a multimedia artist. Collaborating with internationally known artists and groups such as Le Cirque du Soleil, Alvin Ailey, LALALA Human Steps, Schauspielhaus in Vienna, the Stockholm Opera, Gilles Maheu, Lorraine Pintal and Sol LeWitt, Axel Morgenthaler has created multimedia concepts for dance, theatre, cirque and opera, in addition to his work on museum projects and architectural lighting designs.
His work was awarded Le Grand Prix de la Créativité Montréal in 2008 for La Vitrine Culturelle, the IESNA International Illumination Design Award for the design of the lighting signature of Le Quartier des Spectacles in Montreal, a Bessie Award in New York for best set and lighting design for Luna from O Vertigo Danse in 2004. Axel Morgenthaler also accepted the Prix Lumière from the IES (International Engineering Society) in 2004 and an International Illuminating Design Award from the IESNA in 2005 for best architectural lighting in Quebec. The Gascon-Roux prize was awarded to him in 2004 for the lighting design of Tristan et Yseult at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde and the musical Don Juan got him a Félix nomination for his lighting design. As a visual artist, Axel Morgenthaler is regularly asked to create permanent lighting art works that can be seen in Montreal: in the subway, at the Dorval Airport, at the W Hotel and at La Société des Arts Technologiques.
LISA J. PINKHAM (Lighting Designer)
Lisa J. Pinkham has designed lighting for the Birmingham Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Atlanta Ballet and Ballet West, among others. She enjoys a very successful relationship with the San Francisco Ballet, designing the lighting for many of the company’s ballets and work with such notable choreographers as Julie Adam, David Bintley, Val Caniporoli, Flemming Flindt and Stanton Welch. A frequent collaborator of Alonzo King for his LINES Contemporary Ballet, Pinkham has designed the lighting for many of King’s ballets and is a three-time nominee for the Isadora Duncan Award for Dance Lighting Design.
COLLEEN QUEN (Costume Designer)
Colleen Quen's designs are inspired by nature's motifs, Impressionist art and modern architecture. Practicing classic French couture techniques, she calculates a "body print" for each client, grounding her pieces with precious stitch work. Colleen Quen has been featured in InStyle, Town & Country, WWD and Modern Bride, and has worked on several pieces for Alonzo King LINES Ballet.
Her most recent imaginative undertaking, in collaboration with LINES Ballet’s Associate Artistic Director Robert Rosenwasser, is the creation of costumes for Alonzo King’s 21st-century vision of the historic ballet Scheherazade. Commissioned by the Monaco Dance Forum in honor of the Centenary of the Ballets Russes, this new Scheherazade draws on the rich and fantastical exuberance of Léon Bakst’s watercolor sketches and the history of the glamorous 1909 “Saison Russes” that captivated all of Paris by uniting haute couture and costumes for dance.
Before her career as a couturière, Quen graduated with an AA in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in 1986. She then focused on a ten-year design career for Wilkes Sport by Wilkes Bashford, Eileen West, Gap, Jane Tise/Karen Alexander and Joan Walters, and later studied at the Simmone Sethna School of French Couture. Graduating with a certificate in French Haute Couture in 1996, Quen began her own couture design business in 2000. A native of San Francisco, Colleen Quen is currently preparing her future international collections at her atelier.
ROBERT ROSENWASSER (Costume Designer)
ROBERT WIERZEL (Lighting Designer)
As a lighting designer, Mr. Wierzel has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds in theatre, dance, new music, museums and opera on stages throughout the country and abroad. He has done lighting design with The Lyon Opera Ballet for Bill T. Jones's Green and Blue, with The Virginia Opera on Julius Caesar, and Philip Glass' opera Les Enfants Terribles . He has collaborated with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co. (Bessie Award 1993 for sustained achievement in Lighting Design) on numerous projects over the past two decades, including Degga by Bill T. Jones, Toni Morrison and Max Roach and on The Telling , a piece by Bill T. Jones, Max Roach, and Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. He has worked with David Copperfield on his Broadway production Dreams and Nightmares , with Philip Glass on 1000 Airplanes on the Roof and Hydrogen Jukebox (1991 American Theatre Wing Award), Glimmerglass Opera, The Seattle Opera, The Canadian Opera, The Houston Grand Opera, choreographers Margo Sappington and J. Fregalette-Jansen, and is collaborating with Costume and Set Designer Eiko Ishioka on the Opera Chushingura for the Tokyo Opera. His theatre work includes productions at the McCarter Theatre, Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Guthrie Theatre, Hartford Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, and American Repertory Theatre, among others. He currently teaches Lighting Design at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
SANDRA WOODALL (Costume Designer)
A native of Oakland, Sandra Woodall is one of the best-known and most prolific designers in the Bay Area. She has worked with many of San Francisco's leading performing arts institutions, including American Conservatory Theater, Eureka Theater-where she designed the costumes for the original production of Angels in America-Magic Theater, and the Kronos Quartet, but she is most closely associated with dance. The recipient of five Isadora Duncan Awards, Woodall has collaborated with virtually every major choreographer based in the Bay Area, including Val Caniparoli, Margaret Jenkins, Alonzo King, K.T. Nelson, Michael Smuin, Helgi Tomasson, June Watanabe, Brenda Way, and the late Lew Christensen.
Woodall has also had a significant impact beyond the Bay Area. She has designed costumes for Ballet West, Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Joffrey Ballet, Houston Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Washington Ballet, Den Norske Opera Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and Singapore Dance Theatre, among many others. She recently worked as a visual collaborator on the eight-hour original production Dream Like a Dream , written and directed by Stan Lai and presented by Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. A Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan in 1999-2000, Woodall taught at the National Institute of Arts in Taipei and designed costumes for Shangri-La for the Performance Workshop during her residency. She has worked all over the world, and each culture has an impact on her designs: her set and costumes for Helgi Tomasson's Chi-Lin at San Francisco Ballet, for instance, were informed by her familiarity with Asian countries.
Actors
A distinguished actor of the stage and screen, Danny Glover is known for his work in both Hollywood blockbusters and serious dramatic films. A native of San Francisco, Glover attended San Francisco State and received his dramatic training at the American Conservatory Theatre's Black Actors' Workshop. He made his film debut in Escape from Alcatraz (1979). In the early '80s, Glover made his name portraying characters ranging from the sympathetic in Places in the Heart (1984) to the menacing in Witness (1985) and The Color Purple (1984). He reached box-office-gold status with the three Lethal Weapon flicks produced between 1987 and 1992. In 1998, Glover again reprised his role for the blockbuster-proportioned Lethal Weapon 4, and that same year gave a stirring performance in Beloved. On television, Glover played the title role in Mandela (1987), cowpoke Joshua Deets in the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove , legendary railroad man John Henry in a 1988 installment of Shelley Duvall's Tall Tales , and the mercurial leading character in the 1989 "American Playhouse" revival of A Raisin in the Sun.
Painters
IRENE PIJOAN (Visual Artist) 1953 –2004
Irene Pijoan was born in Switzerland and received an MFA from the University of California, Davis. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a SECCA VII Fellowship, and an Art Matters grant, she was awarded residencies at the Roswell Museum, New Mexico; Djerassi Foundation; and the University of Georgia. Her work has been exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Corcoran Museum, Washington, DC; the University of Art Museum, Berkeley; the Oakland Museum; Leo Castelli Gallery, New York; San Francisco Art Space; Palais des Congres, Montreux; and Raab Galerie, Berlin. Her estate is represented by the Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco.
RAYMOND SAUNDERS (Visual Artist)
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Raymond Saunders earned a B.F.A. from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He later studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the University of Pennsylvania, and eventually received an M.F.A. from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1961. Saunders works in many media, including watercolor, painting, drawing, collage, and assemblage. Saunders's work has been collected by Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Saunders currently teaches at the California College of Arts in Oakland, CA and is represented by the Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco.
Photographers
(bio forthcoming)
Marty Sohl has been documenting dance through her photography for over twenty years. A professional ballet dancer for ten years, Marty was inspired to learn photography as a means of staying involved in the dance world she loves. Marty has worked with numerous San Francisco Bay Area Dance companies. Her photos appear regularly in Dance Magazine, Opera News, and Pointe Magazine. Marty has photographed Alonzo King's Lines Ballet since 1982 and her images visually represent the Company's identity.
In 1996, Marty received the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Sustained Achievement for two decades of contribution to the San Francisco Bay Area Dance Community. Richard Philip, Executive Editor of Dance Magazine, described her studio work with these words: "Marty's early experience as a dancer gives her work a distinctly personal point of view... Her photos convey a strong instinct for timing and line. Knowing dance from the inside, she captures on film that exact moment at the peak of an arc of movement... She is a master of tone and texture and atmosphere, often working with great success in the darker hues, with a rich palette of contrasting bright colors that gives her work dramatic depth and intensity."
