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2008
Faculty Biographies
Ballet
Edward
Ellison
Espen
Giljane
Anna-Marie
Holmes
Nikolaj
Hübbe
Amanda
McKerrow
Stephen
Mills
Ramona
Pansegrau
John
Sauer
Felix
Ventouras
Contemporary
Alan
Hineline
Finis
Jhung
Milton
Myers
Helen
Pickett
Pam
Pribisco
Tim
Rushton
Nina
Watt
Stephen
Weinstock
Edgar
Zendejas
Cultural
Traditions: Flamenco
Soledad
Barrio
Amir
Haddad
Martín
Santangelo
Jazz
Mercedes
Ellington
Bill
Hastings
Terri
Klausner
David
Marquez
Steve
Marzullo
Jonathan
Phelps
Dan
Siretta
Chet
Walker
Choreographers'
Lab
Celeste
Miller
BALLET
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Anna-Marie
Holmes
Ballet
Program Director
June
9–22
Anna-Marie
Holmes, artistic director, choreographer, producer, teacher, and
celebrated ballerina, is an internationally acclaimed ballet luminary.
In1997 she received the Dance Magazine award for extraordinary
and lasting contribution to the art form. Her interpretations
of the Russian classics have been staged in more than 30 countries
on five continents. Le
Corsaire, which she staged for American Ballet Theatre, won
an Emmy and appeared on PBS' Great Performances. She
recently staged La Bayadere for the National Ballet of
Flanders, Raymonda for American Ballet Theatre and the
National Ballet of Finland, Laurencia pas d'Action for
the Joffrey Ballet, and Swan Lake for the Norwegian National
Ballet. Ms. Holmes travels
internationally to coach and teach at the Royal Ballet in London,
Le Ballet du Capitole in Toulouse, The Royal Danish Ballet, North
Carolina School of the Arts, and the National Ballet of Finland,
to name a few. In 2008, she will teach for the Royal Winnipeg
Ballet Company and School and coach their Sleeping Beauty,
restage Le Corsaire for American Ballet Theatre's Metropolitan
Opera House season and tour of Japan, restage a Raymonda
excerpt for the gala departure of Dinna Bjorn in Helsinki, and
guest teach throughout the United States and Europe. Holmes
performed at Jacob's Pillow in the 1960's marking the U.S. debut
of Le Corsaire. This is her eighth season as Ballet
Program Director at Jacob's Pillow.
Back
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Anna-Marie
Holmes
"This
is a place really to work for
the
summer and get better. To
prepare
for professional life,
…most
of them are going into
companies
in September all over
the
world."
—Anna-Marie
Holmes |
Stephen Mills
Ballet
Program Gala Choreographer
June
9–15
Known
for his innovative and collaborative choreographic projects, Stephen
Mills has works in the repertories of companies across the US
and around the world. From his inaugural season as Artistic Director
of Ballet Austin in 2000, Mills attracted attention from around
the US with his world-premiere production of Hamlet,
hailed by Dance Magazine as “...sleek and sophisticated.” The
Washington Post recognized Ballet Austin as “one of the nation's
best-kept secrets” in 2004 after Ballet Austin performed Mills'
world premiere of The Taming of the Shrew, commissioned
by and performed at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts in Washington, D.C. The Company was first invited to perform
at the Kennedy Center in January of 2002 with the Mills production
of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and at The Joyce Theater
(NYC) in 2004. In 2005 after two years of extensive research,
Mills led 13 organizations through a community-wide human rights
collaboration that culminated in the world premiere work Light
/ The Holocaust & Humanity Project, after which the Austin
Anti-Defamation League awarded Mills its 2006 Humanitarian Award.
In 1998 Mills was the choreographer chosen to represent the US
through his work, Ashes, at the Rencontres Chorégraphiques
Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris. Most recently,
Mills was awarded the Steinberg Award, the top honor at the Festival
des Arts de Saint-Sauveur International Choreographic Competition
for One/The Body’s Grace. Mills has created more than
40 works for companies in the US and abroad. His ballets are in
the repertories of such companies as Hong Kong Ballet, American
Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Atlanta Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet,
Washington Ballet, Cuballet in Havana, Cuba, BalletMet Columbus,
Dayton Ballet, Sarasota Ballet of Florida, Ballet Pacifica, Dallas
Black Dance Theater, Louisville Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Fort
Worth/Dallas Ballet, The Sacramento Ballet, and Kaleidoscope.
He has worked in collaboration with such luminaries as the eight-time
Grammy Award-winning band, Asleep at the Wheel, Shawn Colvin and
internationally renowned flamenco artist José Greco II.
As a dancer, Mills performed with a wide variety of companies
such as the world-renowned Harkness Ballet and The American Dance
Machine under the direction of Lee Theadore. He also performed
with Cincinnati Ballet and Indianapolis Ballet Theater before
becoming a part of Ballet Austin. Mills has danced principal roles
in the Balanchine repertoire as well as in works by Choo-San Goh,
John Butler, Ohad Naharin, Vicente Nebrada, Domy Reiter-Soffer
and Mark Dendy. In addition to his work as a choreographer, Mills
is a master teacher committed to developing dancers. He has been
invited as guest faculty at many pre-professional academies including
Goucher College; Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing
Arts in Dallas; Virginia School of the Arts; New Orleans Center
for the Creative Arts; Stephens College, and Point Park College
in Pittsburgh. Mills is a member of the national dance service
organization Dance/USA and has served both in leadership roles
and on the Board of Trustees for the organization. This will be
his second season teaching at Jacob’s Pillow.
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Ramona Pansegrau
Ballet Program Musical Director
June 16-22
Kansas City Ballet music director, Ramona Pansegrau has been called
one of the best ballet pianists in the world. Robert Joffrey said
of her ballet class, "The perfect music for every combination."
She was music director for Tulsa Ballet for nine years, and conductor
of the Tulsa Symphony orchestra for ballet performances before
she became the Kansas City Ballet music director in October of
2006. She was principal pianist/ solo pianist for ten years at
the Boston Ballet and tenured keyboard for the Boston Ballet Orchestra
for fifteen years. Miss Pansegrau was on the faculty at Aspen
Dance Festival for eleven years, served on the faculty of the
IV, V, and VII International Ballet Competitions, taught at the
Boston Conservatory, and guest conducted at the New England Conservatory.
As piano soloist for ballet, she has performed the piano concertos
of Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Gottschalk, Hindemith, and Chopin to name
a few, performing with many symphony orchestras, including the
Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra. Of her performances, the Boston
Phoenix stated "the music...brought to sublime heights by
pianist Ramona Pansegrau, allow[ed] you to experience the music
anew each time." Her arrangements of ballets are now in the
repertory of the Western Australia Ballet, Charleston Ballet Theatre,
Tulsa Ballet, and Louisville Ballet, and the San Carlo Opera House
in Italy. As conductor, Miss Pansegrau conducted the premiere
of the Tulsa Symphony in Tulsa, Oklahoma with full-length Sleeping
Beauty, starring Italian ballerina Viviana Durante. Her performances
were hailed as “giving life to the music and energizing the dancers”.
In Kansas City, her debut with the Kansas City symphony Orchestra
was reviewed as “turbocharged”. Miss Pansegrau comes to the Pillow
this season directly from conducting the Kennedy Center Opera
Orchestra in a new series entitled “Spring In Ballet”.
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Edward
Ellison
Ballet
Program Faculty
June
10–13
Edward Ellison is Founder and Artistic Director of the Ellison
Ballet – Professional Training Program, New York City’s most intensive
classical training for serious ballet students. He has traveled
the world as a dancer, teacher, ballet master, and choreographer.
As a former soloist with San Francisco Ballet, and a freelance
guest artist across the US and abroad, he has performed a wide
range of principal roles in the great classical repertoire of
the 19th century and in the masterworks of many 20th century neoclassical
and contemporary choreographers. He studied under many wonderful
teachers, but especially credits Larisa Sklyanskaya, Marius Zirra,
and Irina Jacobson with passing down to him a great depth of artistic
knowledge. Towards the conclusion of his performing career, his
deep interest in teaching led him to study pedagogy with Ms. Sklyanskaya,
and continued his study at the esteemed Vaganova Ballet Academy
in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the National Ballet School in Toronto,
Canada. Ellison has been Ballet Master for Boston Ballet, Norwegian
National Ballet, Alberta Ballet, and has taught at such companies
as: American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater,
Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and Houston Ballet. He has also taught
for many schools including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The
Joffrey Ballet School, Juilliard School, San Francisco Ballet
School, Steps on Broadway, and San Francisco Ballet School. His
original choreographic credits include Carmen, Chopin Pieces,
Offenbach Adagio, Perpetuum Mobile, Reverie, and Tchaikovsky Polonaise.
In his classes, Ellison employs a combination of detailed technical
insight, precise verbal and physical guidance to ensure proper
alignment and placement of the body, and artistic vision to excite
and advance the students’ journey. In developing his students’
artistry, he says, “My work is laced with the belief that my students
are capable of achieving extraordinary results. The sky is the
limit.” This is Ellison’s fourth season on faculty at Jacob’s
Pillow.
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Amanda
McKerrow
Ballet Program Faculty
June 16-22
Ms. McKerrow is one of America’s
most acclaimed ballerinas. She has the honor of being the first
American to receive a gold medal at the International Ballet Competition
in Moscow in 1981. Since then she has been a recipient of numerous
other awards, including the Princess Grace Foundation Dance Fellowship.
McKerrow was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and began her ballet
training at the age of seven at the Twinbrook School of Ballet
in Rockville, Maryland. She later studied with Mary Day at the
Washington School of Ballet, where she danced with the company
for two years and toured extensively throughout the US and Europe.
McKerrow joined the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) under the direction
of Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1982, was appointed a soloist in 1983,
and became a principal dancer in 1987. Her repertoire includes
the leading roles in Cinderella, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet,
Manon, La Bayadere, Coppelia, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty,
Swan Lake, La Sylphide, and The Nutcracker. She
has been acclaimed for performances of shorter works by George
Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Sir Frederick Ashton, Jerome Robbins,
and Juri Kilian. McKerrow has created roles in ballets by choreographers
such as Twyla Tharp, Clark Tippet, James Kudelka, Agnes DeMille,
Choo San Goh, and Mark Morris. She has also appeared as a guest
artist throughout the world. In 2000, together with her husband
John Gardner, McKerrow began working for the Antony Tudor Trust,
staging and coaching his superlative The Leaves Are Fading
around the country. She has also staged numerous other ballets
for professional companies and schools across the US. During her
last ten years performing as a principal ballerina with ABT, she
spent as much time as she could working with students and young
dancers. Since her retirement from ABT in 2005, McKerrow has devoted
the majority of her time to teaching and coaching this great art
form that she loves so much.
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Felix
Ventouras
Ballet Program Musical Director
June 9-15
Felix Ventouras has had his music performed at the Meyerson Symphony
Center, the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, and Mercyhurst College.
His most recent premieres occurred at the Music Festival of the
Hamptons, the Clark Studio Theater at Lincoln Center, and the
Joyce SoHo. In 2005, he collaborated with James Neel Music House
to compose music for a documentary about the Cherokee Trail of
Tears, featuring James Earl Jones as narrator. He has enjoyed
the honor of performing as keyboardist with the late Texas blues
guitarist Jack Morgan, and most recently at the Bluemont Concert
Series with “Boogie Man” Daryl Davis. As a ballet accompanist,
he has played for the Dallas Black Dance Theater, Morris Dance
Center, North Carolina School of the Arts Dance Department, and
in the summer of 2006, the Ballet Adriatico Festival in Ascoli
Piceno, Italy. He holds a BM from the North Carolina School of
the Arts, and is currently residing in Los Angeles working for
the American Youth Symphony.
Back to top
Nikolaj
Hübbe
Ballet Program Master Class Artist
June 19
Nikolaj Hübbe is Head Ballet Master with the Royal Danish
Ballet and a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.
He was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark. He began his dance
training at age 10 with the Royal Danish Ballet School and became
an apprentice with the Royal Danish Ballet in 1984, joining the
corps de ballet in 1986. In 1986 Hübbe was awarded the Silver
Medal in the Paris Ballet Competition, as well as the French Critics
Prize. He won first prize in the 1987 Eurovision Ballet Competition
and in 1988, the Royal Danish Ballet promoted him to the rank
of principal dancer. Hübbe danced many of the works in the
Royal Danish Ballet repertory, ranging from romantic leads in
Romeo and Juliet and August Bournonville's La Sylphide
to the neo-classical works of George Balanchine, such as Apollo
and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. Hübbe joined New York
City Ballet in July of 1992 as a principal dancer. He made his
debut with the company during its annual season in Saratoga Springs,
New York. His first performance was in Balanchine's Donizetti
Variations, a work that exhibits much of the clarity and
purity associated with the Bournonville style, in which Hübbe
was trained. Since joining New York City Ballet, he has performed
leading roles in over 20 of George Balanchine's works, including
Agon, Scotch Symphony, and Square Dance. He
has also performed in Robert La Fosse and Robert Garland's Tributary,
Sean Lavery's Romeo and Juliet, Peter Martins' The
Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, many of Jerome Robbins'
works, including Afternoon of a Faun and Gershwin
Concerto, and Richard Tanner's A Schubert Sonata.
Featured roles were created for Hübbe in six of Peter Martins'
works, as well as in works choreographed by David Allan, Anna
Laerkesen, Robert La Fosse, Stephen Baynes, Kevin O'Day, Jerome
Robbins, and Twyla Tharp. In 2002, Hübbe appeared in the
nationally televised Live from Lincoln Center broadcast "New
York City Ballet's Diamond Project: Ten Years of New Choreography"
on PBS, dancing in Mr. Martins' Jeu de Cartes and Them
Twos. Hübbe has appeared as a guest artist with companies
around the world. In July 2008, he will take over as Artistic
Director for the Royal Danish Ballet. While this is Hübbe’s
first season teaching at Jacob’s Pillow, he himself participated
in The School’s Ballet Project in 1985. The Ballet Project's performances
that summer marked his first US stage appearances. He also performed
at the Pillow in 2002 for its 70th Anniversary Gala program, dancing
an excerpt from Balanchine's Apollo with Darci Kistler.
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Stephen
Mills, Photo: George Brainard
Ramona
Pansegrau
Edward
Ellison,Photo:
Seth Affoumado
Felix
Ventouras, Photo: Cary Gallagher
Nikolaj
Hübbe, Photo: Martin Mydtskov
RØnne
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CONTEMPORARY
TRADITIONS
Milton
Myers
Contemporary Traditions Program Director
July
7-27
Milton
Myers currently teaches at The Ailey
School, The Juilliard School, and STEPS on
Broadway, and is resident choreographer and
instructor for Philadanco. His teaching credits include North
Carolina School of the Arts, Howard University, Marymount Manhattan
College, LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, Ballet
Stagium (Brazil), Batsheva (Israel), New Danish Dance Theatre,
and Ballet Hispanico as well as numerous festivals and universities
here and abroad. His choreography has earned recognition from
the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation’s
CAPS Choreography Award, United States Cultural Department, International
Association of Blacks in Dance, and Jacob’s Pillow. Mr. Myers
was a founding member, performer, and assistant to the director
with the Joyce Trisler Danscompany and the artistic director from
1980-1986. He has performed with and teaches for Alvin Ailey American
Dance Theatre. Mr. Myers teaches Pillow workshops abroad to select
dancers for Jacob’s Pillow scholarships. This year marks his 22nd
season mentoring dancers in The School at
Jacob’s Pillow.
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Milton
Myers, Photo: Márta
Fodor |
Helen
Pickett
Contemporary Traditions Program Repertory Faculty
July 7-13
Helen Pickett studied dance at the San Francisco Ballet School.
While in school, she performed with the San Francisco Ballet under
the direction of Michael Smuin and Lew Christensen, and later,
Helgi Tomasson. For over a decade, she performed, as a dancer
and actor, with Ballet Frankfurt, directed by William Forsythe,
becoming a principal in 1991. Pickett performed with The Wooster
Group, directed by Elizabeth Le Compte, from 1998-2005. She was
in the original cast of the OBIE award-winning House/Lights as
well as North Atlantic. Pickett choreographed her first piece,
Etesian, for Boston Ballet in 2005. She received a New York Choreographic
Institute Fellowship Award in September 2006 for a work in progress
created for Boston Ballet. Also in 2006, she choreographed for
The Sacramento Ballet and The Washington Ballet. Her commissions
for 2007-08 include Boston Ballet, Louisville Ballet, Aspen/Santa
Fe Ballet, Ballet X, Purchase University, and Fordham University.
During the past five years, she has collaborated, as an actress
and choreographer, with video artists Eve Sussman, Toni Dove and
Laurie Simmons. Pickett, who is a founding member of The Rufus
Corporation, played Queen Mariana in the company’s first film,
89 Seconds at Alcazar, which was directed by Sussman and shown
at the 2004 Whitney Biennial, and now is in the permanent collection
at Museum of Modern Art in New York. In February 2007, The Rufus
Corporation’s new feature length film, The Rape of the Sabine
Women, premiered in New York at the IFC Theater. She portrayed
Sally Rand in Dove's video installation and feature film, Spectropia.
Pickett choreographed for Simmons’, Music of Regret. Pickett teaches
in Europe and the US. As well as leading private workshops in
New York, she has taught Forsythe-based improvisation and/or ballet
for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Carte Blanche Company,
Fordham University, New York University, Manhattan Marymount College,
California Institute of the Arts, Pasadena School of Design, The
Actor's Studio Drama School, The School at the Mark Morris Dance
Center, The Wooster Group, (movement coach for Poor Theater),
The Cyber Arts Festival at MIT, Kunsthogskolen in Oslo, Boston
Ballet School, Purchase University, George Mason University, and
San Diego State University. Since 2005, Pickett has appeared as
a guest artist with the Royal Ballet of Flanders in the title
acting role of Impressing the Czar, choreographed by William Forsythe.
In July 2008, Pickett will perform this piece at State Theater
in New York. She will act in a new European feature film that
will start shooting in 2008. Pickett’s article Considering Cezanne,
was published in Dance Europe’s April 2006 issue.
Back
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Tim
Rushton
Contemporary Traditions Program Repertory Faculty
July 21-27
Tim Rushton was born in 1963 in Birmingham, England.
He was educated at The Royal Ballet in London and was an active
dancer, mainly at companies in northern Europe, until the mid-90’s.
He ended his career as a dancer at The Royal Danish Ballet in
order to focus on choreography. He gained rapid respect as a creator
of modern dance and was commissioned by many dance and ballet
companies. Over the years, Rushton has choreographed ensemble
pieces as well as solos, lavish productions and simple duets.
What could have been a controversial crossover from classical
ballet to modern dance has proved to be a fruitful amalgamation,
making Rushton one of Scandinavia’s leading choreographers today.
Rushton has received the Danish Reumert Prize three times for
his choreography: in1999, for Busy Being Blue, created for Dansescenen;
in2005, for Kridt, created for Danish Dance Theatre; and in 2006,
for Requiem, created for Royal Danish Ballet. Of his many other
works, he has created: Bach Suites, Passion (in cooperation with
the painter Michael Kvium), and Silent Steps (nominated for the
Reumert Prize), all for Danish Dance Theatre; Nomade, Dominium
(nominated for the Reumert Prize), and Sweet Complaint (also nominated
for the Reumert Prize), all for the Royal Danish Ballet, Night
Life, for The Scottish Ballet, Glasgow, and Carmina Burana, for
MBT Danseteater. “For me dance is a translation of feelings. It’s
another way of communicating that which starts where words stop.”
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Edgar
Zendejas
Contemporary Traditions Program Faculty
July 14-20
Edgar Zendejas is the Artistic Director and Founder of ezDanza,
a Montreal-based company dedicated to presenting his choreography.
He hails from Mexico City where he began his training at the Estudio
Profesional de Danza de Ema Pulido. His passion for dance soon
led him to the US, where he received a fellowship from the United
States International University. Shortly thereafter became a member
of the International Ballet Company of USIU. Prior to joining
Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal in 1993, Zendejas lived in Chicago
where he was a dancer in both Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and
Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. Zendejas has worked with several
choreographers who have inspired him to further his career, not
only as a dancer, but as a creator as well. Among these inspirations
are David Parsons, Twyla Tharp, Ulysses Dove, Mia Michaels, Crystal
Pite and Jennifer Muller. Zendejas was named Associate Choreographer
of Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, following several successes with
his choreography, namely the public and jury prizes for his work
entered in the professional competition at the ENCORE International
Dance Festival in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. This is his first
season teaching at The School at Jacob’s Pillow, though he performed
in the Inside/Out series in 2004.
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Alan
Hineline
Contemporary Traditions Program Ballet Faculty
July 15-20
Dynamic,
spontaneous, witty and exciting are only a few of the adjectives
that have been used to describe the work of Ballet Philippines
artistic director, Alan Hineline. A sought-after choreographer
and ballet master, Hineline's work has appeared in the repertories
of many companies in North America and has been received enthusiastically
in performances around the globe. In 1997, at the invitation of
artistic director Marcia Dale Weary, Hineline was named resident
choreographer for the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. During
his tenure he has created numerous ballets for this internationally
acclaimed school and company. His body of work can be seen in
the repertories of American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Pennsylvania
Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Dayton Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, The
Juilliard Dance Ensemble, Sacramento Ballet, Alabama Ballet, Ballet
Concierto de Cuba, and Utah Regional Ballet, among many others.
His work has been performed at the New York International Ballet
Competition, the Aoyama International Ballet Festival in Tokyo,
Japan, and the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi.
As a teacher, Hineline has instructed every level of dancer, from
beginner through professional. He is part of the faculty of the
Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and has been a guest faculty
member for among others, Ballet Academy East, The Juilliard School,
Atlanta Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Alabama Ballet,
and the Utah Regional Ballet. Along with these fine schools, he
has taught at the Jackson International Ballet Competition, the
Aoyama Ballet Festival, and numerous Regional Dance America (RDA)
festivals and at colleges and universities across the United States
. In 2008 he will be a faculty member of the Jacob's Pillow Summer
Dance Festival. As a dancer, his career spanned a broad spectrum
of traditions and styles. Hineline trained primarily in Dayton,
Ohio with Dance Theatre Dayton and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
and afterwards with Milton Myers and David Howard. His company
affiliations ranged from the classical with Eglevsky Ballet and
Nashville Ballet to modern with Joyce Trisler Danscompany and
Michael Mao Dance to post-modern with Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians.
Hineline sits on the national advisory board of Regional Dance
America and, for that organization, has served as an adjudicator
for several regions and as artistic director for the Craft of
Choreography Conference. Hineline is the founder and director
of the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet's choreographic initiative,
Choreoplan . Among his many awards is the Choo-San Goh
Award for Choreography from the Choo-San Goh and H. Robert Magee
Foundation; he has also received multiple National Choreography
Awards from Regional Dance America. Although this is his first
year teaching in the Contemporary Traditions Program, he was a
student at the Pillow in 1986 in the Jazz Project and performed
in with Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians in 1989 in the Ted Shawn
Theatre.
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Finis
Jhung
Contemporary Traditions Program Master Class Artist
July 8, 9, and 10
“Trainer extraordinaire, he teaches ballet dancers why they do
what they do.” — The New York Times. Since 1972, Finis Jhung has
been a mainstay of the New York dance scene. He has taught dancers
of the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey
Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance
Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, and Merce Cunningham Dance
Company, as well as star gypsies from Broadway, aspiring professionals,
and amateur adult beginners. While running his own studio until
1987, Jhung was also the founder, artistic director and choreographer
for Chamber Ballet USA. He has taught at all the major New York
studios as well as at various festivals, workshops, and ballet
competitions throughout the US and Europe. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii,
in 1937 of Korean-Scottish-English parentage, Finis graduated
with high honors from the University of Utah in 1959, where he
majored in ballet under Willam F. Christensen. After a six-month
tour of duty with the National Guard, Jhung joined the Broadway
and national companies of Flower Drum Song. He then joined the
San Francisco Ballet and danced in the Hollywood version of Flower
Drum Song. After becoming a soloist with SFB, Jhung joined The
Joffrey Ballet, touring Portugal, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Russia,
Iran, Afghanistan, India, and countless US cities. In 1964, he
joined The Harkness Ballet of New York, where he became a principal
dancer and toured France, Italy, Monaco, Rumania, Germany, Greece,
Egypt, Tunisia, and more of the US. Critics worldwide acclaimed
his brilliance and elegance. During his professional career, Jhung
studied with Valentina Pereyaslavec, Vera Volkova, Stanley Williams,
Erik Bruhn, Rosella Hightower, and David Howard. Jhung has been
the subject of numerous articles in national publications, and
was featured as a "ballet virtuoso" on Lifetime TV.
His life-long love of theatre and dance has led him to reevaluate
ballet teaching. His innovative teaching methods have proven to
make ballet easier to understand and more enjoyable to learn,
while preserving the essential qualities that make ballet a great
performing art. In that regard, Jhung has created 31 instructional
videos and 17 music CD’s for ballet teachers and students.
Pamela
Pribisco
Contemporary
Traditions Faculty
July
7–27
Born
in Ohio, Pamela Pribisco was a principal dancer with the Cleveland
Ballet, performing the works of George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille,
Leonide Massine, and Kurt Jooss. As a highly respected teacher
of classical ballet and pointe in New York City, she has taught
at the Joffrey Ballet School, Ballet Hispanico, the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Center, The School at Jacob's Pillow, and has taught
“yoga for dancers” at the New York City Ballet. Pribisco has served
as ballet mistress for the Cleveland Ballet and the American Ballroom
Theater, and most recently for Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte
Carlo, where she choreographed and staged many of the ballets
in their repertoire; she was profiled in The New York Times for
her work with the company. Currently Pribisco works with Complexions
Contemporary Ballet Company. She is also the creator of “Wigglewords,”
a fitness and literacy program for children and writes features
for Pointe Magazine advising young dancers on various aspects
of maintaining a career in dance. This is Pribisco's tenth season
on the faculty for The School at Jacob's Pillow.
Stephen
Weinstock
Contemporary
Program Musical Director
July
7–20
Stephen
Weinstock has been a dance musician for dozens of teachers and
studios, and has composed dance scores, co-taught choreography
workshops, and trained dancers in music history, vocabulary, and
score-reading. He has worked at UC Berkeley (David and Marni
Wood), The Oberlin Dance Collective (Margaret Jenkins), the Merce
Cunningham, Jose Limon, and Martha Graham studios, the Juilliard,
Marymount Manhattan, SUNY Purchase, NYU, and Princeton dance programs,
and at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Currently
he is on the faculty of the LaGuardia High School for the Performing
Arts Dance Department, where his scores for Adam Barruch's Passages
and Hypnogogia were presented at the 2006-7 dance
concerts. Mr. Weinstock has also composed operas, musicals, and
other theater scores. He won awards for the experimental
sound theater piece Mt. Quad and other scores for the
Eureka and Magic Theaters in San Francisco. He taught and
designed curriculum for many years at NYU's Musical Theater Writing
Program. His musical Rock and Roy, about the double
life of Rock Hudson, has been performed at New Dramatists in New
York and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. He worked as a
Teaching Artist for the Metropolitan Opera Guild. He earned
a Ph.D. in Dramatic Art from UC Berkeley, where he wrote a dissertation
on Stravinsky's theater work and Les Noces. Mr. Weinstock
is crossing over into writing with his forthcoming novel 1001,
based on the Arabian Nights, about a group of people who discover
they have shared 1001 past lives. He just completed a third
level Reiki Master training. He lives in New Jersey with
his educator/psychologist wife, Sarah St. Onge, his talented,
teenage son, Gabe, and his three cats, Zebeau, Otie (named after
Otis, Mass.), and Muesli.
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Helen
Pickett, Photo: Dominik Mentzos
Tim
Rushton, Photo: Dianna Nilsson
.JPG)
Edgar
Zendejas, Photo: jean Tremblay©
Alan
Hineline, Photo: Rosalie O'Connor
Finis
Jhung, Photo: Andrew Terzes
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CULTURAL
TRADITIONS
Soledad
Barrio
Cultural
Traditions Program Co-Director
June
23 – July 6
Soledad
Barrio was born In Madrid and has appeared as a soloist with Manuela
Vargas, Blanca del Rey, Luisillo, El Guito, Manolete, Cristobal
Reyes, and El Toleo, Ballet Espa ñol de Paco Romero, Festival
Flamenco and many other companies. She has performed throughout
Europe, Japan and North and South America with such artists as
Alejandro Granados, Isabel Bayón , Jesus Torres, Miguel
Perez, Belén Maya, Manolo Marin, Javier Barón, Merce
Esmeralda, Rafael Campallo, among others. She has won awards from
over 12 different countries around the globe for her excellence
in dance. She recently received a "Bessie" award for
Outstanding Creative Achievement. She is a founding member of
Noche Flamenca, which is based in Madrid and appeared at Jacob's
Pillow both in 2000 (in the Doris Duke Theatre) and in 2001 (in
the Ted Shawn Theatre). Alastair Macaulay wrote in his New
York Times review of Noche Flamenca's October 2007 performance
in New York, “Since starting as chief dance critic here in April,
I have encountered many dance companies, and many more individual
dancers...Of these there has been none I have been so glad to
discover as Noche Flamenca and, above all, its lead dancer, Soledad
Barrio. I can think of no current ballet dancer in the world as
marvelous as she.“ Barrio is married to co-founder and artistic
director Martín Santangelo, and they have two beautiful
daughters, Gabriela and Stella.
Martín
Santangelo
Cultural
Traditions Program Co-Director
June
23 – July 6
Martín
Santangelo is Artistic Director and co-founder of Noche Flamenca.
He studied with Ciro, Paco Romero, El Guito, Manolete and Alejandro
Granados. He has performed throughout Spain, Japan and North and
South America, appearing with Maria Benitez's Teatro Flamenco,
the Lincoln Center Festival of the Arts, and Paco Romero's Ballet
Español. He also appeared in Julie Taymor's Juan Darien
at Lincoln Center. He choreographed and performed in Eduardo
Machado's Deep Song, directed by Lynne Taylor- Corbett
He choreographed a production of Romeo and Juliet at
the Denver Theater Center. He has directed and choreographed Bodas
de Sangre, The Lower Depths, La Celestina,
A Streetcar Named Desire, amongst many other productions
in Spain and Buenos Aires. With Noche Flamenca, Santangelo has
successfully brought to the stage the essence, purity, and integrity
of one of the world's most complex and mysterious art forms without
the use of tricks or gimmicks. All aspects of flamenco; dance,
song, and music, are interrelated and given equal weight in the
presentations of Noche Flamenca, creating a true communal spirit
within the company - the very heart and soul of flamenco. In his
words, “Flamenco is a primal scream, an essential cry to express
the joy, sorrow, comedy and tragedy of individuals and groups
who are repressed by some form of limitation - social, economic,
spiritual, physical, etc. In an attempt, through singing, playing
and dancing, to free the soul from this oppression, we are impelled
onto a tough but beautiful road full of miraculous human complexity.
Flamenco is our vehicle.”
Amir
Haddad
Cultural
Traditions Program Musician
June
23 – July 6
Amir
Haddad has accompanied such artists as Joaquin Ruiz, Eliseo Parra,
Tomasito, Raimundo Amador, El Capullo de Jerez, Inma and Domingo
Ortega, Pepe Justicia, Carmela Greco, Enrique de Melchor, Juan
Parrilla, Antonio Canales, Toni Maya, Guadiana, José Menese,
Rafael Amargo, Gerardo Núñez, Lole and Naseer Shamma,
just to mention some. He
has toured in England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal,
Belgium, The Netherlands, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Scotland,
Poland, Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, Ireland, USA, Brazil, Mexico,
Morocco, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria and Colombia—performing
in venues such as the Royal Festival Hall (London), Barbican Centre
(London), Hot House(Chicago), Town Hall (New York), Teatro Bellini
(Palermo), Le Cabaret de Sauvage (Paris), Haus der Kulturen der
Welt (Berlin), Teatro Tivoli (Barcelona), Teatro Calderón
(Madrid), Festival de Jeréz 2007, Festival de la Buleria
Jeréz 2007, Teatro Libre (Bogotá), Tomb of the Kings
(Jerusalem), and many others.
JAZZ/MUSICAL
THEATRE DANCE
Chet
Walker
Jazz/Musical
Theater Dance Program Director
July
28–August 18
Chet
Walker has performed on Broadway since age sixteen, appearing
most prominently in the Bob Fosse musicals The Pajama Game,
Pippin, Dancin', and Sweet Charity. An international
director/choreographer, he originally conceived the Tony Award-winning
musical Fosse and The Seven Deadly Sins, which
premiered at Jacob's Pillow. He is the founder and artistic director
of 8&ah1 Productions Inc., a nonprofit musical theater company
based in New York; co-director of Companía Internacional
de Teatro Musical, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina; contributing
choreographer for Japan's CTV; and is currently working on two
new musicals entitled
The Reel: Valentino and Ain't That A Kick in the
Head: The Songs of Sammy Cahn. His recent international premieres
include Singin' in the Rain in Madrid, The Dancing
Man in Norway, and The Producers in Argentina
and Israel, which was nominated for an ACE Award for Best Choreography,
and won the Israel Theater Award for Best Choreography. He will
direct/choreograph Smokey Joe's Cafe for a national
tour. This past year he served as a cultural envoy for
the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs
in Belgrade, Serbia. This
is Walker's seventh year establishing scholarships for dancers
in Argentina, France, Greece, and Norway to study at The School
at Jacob's Pillow. Under his direction for the past seven years,
the Pillow's Jazz Program gained visibility and is being renamed
for the 75th Anniversary Season, as the Jazz/Musical Theater Dance
Program, in tribute to Jack Cole, one of Ted Shawn's Men Dancers
and credited as the father of American jazz dance.
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Jonathan
Phelps
Jazz/Musical Theater Dance Faculty
July 28 – August 18
Jonathan Phelps is a native of Harrisburg, PA. He studied at the
School of American Ballet, and is a BFA graduate from The University
of the Arts. Phelps’ performance credits include six years with
the acclaimed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, with which he
toured nationally and abroad. He has danced the leading role in
New York City Opera’s production of Carmina Burana and toured
with Donald Byrd/The Group and The Jamison Project. Phelps danced
with WALKERDANCE in Confessions Of Love and Jazz On Jazz, both
performed at Jacob’s Pillow. Phelps has appeared Off-Broadway
in the musicals Seduction, WABI, and Torched. Phelps appeared
in the workshop production of Valentino (The Musical) and Ain’t
That a Kick in the Head. Television credits include Great Performances,
Dance In America, and the documentaries Judith Jamison/The Dancemaker
and the Emmy Award-winning Hymn, A Tribute To Alvin Ailey. In
2006 Phelps appeared as a featured performer in the European tour
of The Dancing Man (A Tribute to Bob Fosse) and most recently
danced in Psyche’ with the Boston Early Music Festival. Phelps’
choreography is in the repertory of Northeast Regional Ballet
Association companies. He was awarded the National Choreographic
Award in 2000. Phelps has worked as the adjudicator for the Regional
Ballet Festivals including the first national festival organized
in 2007. He is an alumnus of the Carlisle Project Choreographic
Conference, and a Loew Fellowship recipient from the Society of
Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation to work with the
Broadway Theater Institute. Phelps works as an assistant to the
Director/Choreographer Chet Walker on several projects. He has
a rich history with Jacob’s Pillow: in 1988 and 1989, he was selected
by Judith Jamison to participate in The Jamison Project, with
which he appeared on the Ted Shawn Theatre stage for the first
time in 1989; in 1999, he performed with 8&AH 1 on the Inside/Out
stage; in 2001, he performed with 8&AH 1 in the Doris Duke
Studio Theatre; in 2002, he demonstrated for the Jazz Program
Audition at Juilliard, taught by Chet Walker; in 2002, he participated
in the Cultural Traditions Program: The Dunham Legacy, and in
2007, he was the rehearsal assistant for the inaugural Jazz/Musical
Theatre Dance Program.
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Soledad
Barrio, Photo: Telam
Chet
Walker, Photo: Mike van Sleen
Jonathan
Phelps, Photo: Michael LeRoy |
CHOREOGRAPHERS
LAB
Celeste
Miller
Choreographers
Lab Program Director
August
19–27
Celeste Miller is a choreographer, solo performer, writer, and
educator whose work is deeply influenced by the aesthetic issues
and politics of community involvement in the artistic process.
Ms. Miller integrates a myriad of paths into what makes her an
artist – whether creating solo works or setting pieces on a company;
collaborating on community-based arts projects or conducting school
residencies and training sessions for educators in arts integrated
education. Her choreographic work has been presented in arts centers
across the United States, and she has received numerous fellowships
and awards including those from the National Endowment for the
Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Guttman Foundation, and
Bruce J. Anderson Foundation. Most recently she worked as choreographer
on a two-year collaboration with Synchronicity Theatre on Women
& War, drawn from interviews with women who have been affected
by war. In her work with arts integrated education, Miller presents
at conferences and training institutes throughout the country.
Miller served as co-Artistic Director of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
for two seasons and is currently based in Atlanta, GA. A co-founder/developer
of Jacob’s Pillow’s Curriculum In Motion®,
she has served as Residency Artistic Director for the program
at Monument Mountain Regional High School and faculty for the
Choreographers Lab at The School at Jacob’s Pillow since 1994.
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Students
performing on the Inside/Out stage,
Photo: Christopher Duggan
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