Christos Papadopoulos
Biographie Né en 1982 dans un petit village du Péloponnèse (Grèce), Christos Papadopoulos a étudié la danse et la chorégraphie au SNDO (School for New Dance Development) à Amsterdam, le théâtre au National Theatre of Greece Drama School (GNT Drama School) et les sciences politiques à l’Université Panteion (2000). Son écriture chorégraphique singulière se distingue par une dimension plastique très travaillée, des rapports entre corps et espaces ou mouvements et musiques particulièrement étroits et une importance du groupe choral. La nature ne cesse d’inventer une profusion de formes, de mouvements, de structures dont l’observation est source d’inspiration. Fasciné par la créativité des processus naturels, le chorégraphe grec Christos Papadopoulos conçoit une danse organique, qui transforme la manière dont les corps interagissent, s’organisent — élargissant la perception de leurs modes de relation. S’appuyant sur les mouvements simples du corps humain, il développe des expériences proches de la transe, impliquant tous les sens dans une immersion esthétique en plusieurs dimensions. Depuis 2003, il enseigne le mouvement et l’improvisation à l’école d’art dramatique du Conservatoire d’Athènes. Après avoir été chorégraphe assistant différents metteurs en scène, ses premières œuvres en 2016 et 2017 lui valurent rapidement une reconnaissance nationale et internationale.
ALEXEI RATMANSKY
ALEXEI RATMANSKY Photo: Fabrizio Ferri
Alexei Ratmansky was born in St. Petersburg in 1968 and received his ballet training at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. He danced as principal with the Ukrainian National Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet. While still an active dancer, he began a sensational career as a choreographer. Since then he has worked for the most important companies in the world, including the ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, the ballet of the Paris Opera, the Royal Ballet in London, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet, the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre or the San Francisco Ballet. He has also created choreographies for dancing stars such as Nina Ananiashvili, Wendy Wheelan, Diana Vishneva and Mikhail Baryshnikov. From 2004 to 2008, Ratmansky was the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, for which he created full-length ballets such as The Bright Stream (2003), The Bolt (2005) and Lost Illusions (2011). There he also produced Le Corsaire (2007) and The Flames of Paris (2008) as a combination of reconstruction and new production. From 2009 to 2023, he had been associated with the American Ballet Theatre in New York through a long-term contract as artist in residence. In 2023 he joined the New York City Ballet. In 2014 he staged Marius Petipa's Paquita for the Bayerisches Staatsballett. In 2022 the ensemble presented his choreography Pictures at an Exhibition as part of the three-part ballet evening Passages. With his choreography on three Tchaikovsky overtures, he creates for the first time a world premiere for the Bayerisches Staatsballett. His artistic work has been honoured with many awards. Starting with the Golden Mask for Dreams of Japan (1998), which he was subsequently awarded three more times (2004, 2007 and 2010). In 2005 Ratmansky received the Prix Benois de la Danse for Anna Karenina. This was followed in 2006 by the Dmitry Shostakovich Prize and a London Critics' Circle Award. In addition, he received the Bessie Award and the Dance Magazine Award in the USA, both in 2011. In the same year he was awarded the Dannebrogorden by the Danish Queen Margrethe II.
Wayne McGregor
'AN ADVENTURESOME EXPERIMENTER WITH A RESTLESS MIND, INTENT ON PUSHING HIS DISPARATE AUDIENCE, HIS COLLABORATORS AND HIMSELF.' Born in 1970, Wayne McGregor CBE is a multi award winning British choreographer and director, internationally renowned for trailblazing innovations in performance that have radically redefined dance in the modern era. Driven by an insatiable curiosity about movement and its creative potentials, his experiments have led him into collaborative dialogue with an array of artistic forms, scientific disciplines, and technological interventions. The startling and multi-dimensional works resulting from these interactions have ensured McGregor’s position at the cutting edge of contemporary arts for over twenty-five years.
Benjamin Millepied
Benjamin Millepied is a choreographer, filmmaker, and former principal dancer with New York City Ballet. He was born in Bordeaux, France and grew up in Senegal until age five, where he began dancing. At eleven years old, he began studying classical ballet with Vladimir Skouratoff at the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux. From 1990 to 1993, he attended the Conservatoire National Superieur de Lyon, where he continued his studies with Marie-France Dieulevin and Michel Rahn. He moved to New York to attend the School of American Ballet in 1993, studying under the direction of Stanley Williams and Adam Luders, and performed as part of the original cast of Jerome Robbins’ “2 & 3 Part Inventions.” Mr. Millepied joined New York City Ballet in 1995 and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2001. During his time with NYCB, Mr. Millepied performed a vast repertory of works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, and he originated roles in ballets by Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Mauro Bigonzetti, Angelin Preljoçaj, Peter Martins, and Jerome Robbins. Mr. Millepied began his choreographic career in 2001 and soon founded the pick-up troupe Danses Concertantes as vehicle for his choreography and commissions. In 2006, he served as a choreographer-in-residence at The Baryshnikov Arts Center and created the solo Years Later for Mikhail Baryshnikov. Since 2005, Mr. Millepied has choreographed for NYCB, Paris Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Berlin Staatsoper, The Mariinsky Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Geneva Ballet, and Dutch National Ballet. Over the years, Mr. Millepied has collaborated on new works with artists Mark Bradford, Christopher Wool, Barbara Kruger, Liam Gillick, Rodarte, Thierry Escaich, and United Visual Artists. Composer Nico Muhly and Benjamin have created six ballets together. In 2010, Millepied both choreographed and starred inDarren Aronofsky's award-winning film Black Swan. Mr. Millepied moved to Los Angeles in 2012 and co-founded the L.A. Dance Project with Charles Fabius. The company has since performed hundreds of shows at both prestigious theaters and non-traditional venues, and has commissioned multiple dance films. In 2018, Mr. Millepied found a new home for LADP at 2245. The space serves as both the company’s rehearsal and performance studios, as well as a residency space for dance artists in the community. In January 2013, Mr. Millepied was appointed to serve as the Director of the Paris Opera Ballet. While at the helm, Mr. Millepied created a dance medicine program at Paris Opera, launched a digital stage, and commissioned new works by William Forsythe, Jerome Bel, Wayne McGregor, Justin Peck, Crystal Pite, and Tino Seghal; he revived works by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Maguy Marin; and he invited Batsheva Dance Company for the first time at the Opera. Mr. Millepied resigned in 2016 to pursue his career as a choreographer and filmmaker. Directors Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai chronicle Millepied’s tenure at Paris Opera in their critically-acclaimed documentary Reset. Millepied recently finished production on his directorial feature debut, Carmen. The film will be released worldwide in 2022 by Sony Pictures Classics. Mr. Millepied has been awarded the prestigious Bourse Lavoisier Scholarship from the French government, a winner of the Prix de Lausanne, a recipient of SAB's Mae. L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise, and a United States Artists Wynn Fellow in Dance. In 2010 he was awarded the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.
Christopher Wheeldon, OBE
Photo copyright Angela Sterling CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON, OBE (Director & Choreographer) trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined The Royal Ballet in 1991. In 1993, he joined New York City Ballet and was promoted to Soloist in 1998. He was named NYCB’s first Resident Choreographer in July 2001. Since then, Mr. Wheeldon has created and staged productions for many of the world’s major ballet companies,San Francisco Ballet, The Bolshoi Ballet, The Mariinsky Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet and Hamburg Ballet among others. In 2007, Mr. Wheeldon founded Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company and was appointed an Associate Artist for Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. Mr. Wheeldon now serves as Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet.Mr. Wheeldon has created many works for the company, including the full-length Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale, both of which were co-productions with The National Ballet of Canada. Like Water for Chocolate is his latest full-length ballet for The Royal Ballet which had its premiere in June 2022. In 2012, his ballet Cinderella premiered at Het Nationale Ballet and is making its way to audiences worldwide. For the Metropolitan Opera, he choreographed Dance of the Hours for Ponchielli’s La Gioconda (2006) and Richard Eyre’s production of Carmen (2012) as well as ballet sequences for the feature film Center Stage (2000) and the musical Sweet Smell of Success on Broadway (2002). Mr. Wheeldon created a special excerpt for the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, and in April 2016, he was the Artistic Director for the Fashion Forward exhibition in Paris at La Musee Arts et Decoratif. In 2014, Mr. Wheeldon directed and choreographed the Broadway musical version of An American in Paris, which had productions in Paris, New York, and London and has tour extensively through America, China, Japan and Australia. The Joffrey Ballet presented the world premiere in 2016 of The Nutcracker reimagined by Mr. Wheeldon and in 2017 he directed and choreographed Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon starring Kelli O’Hara and Patrick Wilson at New York City Center. 2019 saw the premiere of Corybantic Games at The Royal Ballet and a re-staged version of Cinderella for the English National Ballet at Royal Albert Hall. Most recently, MJ The Musical opened on Broadway winning four Tony Awards, including Best Choreography. Among Mr. Wheeldon’s other awards are a Tony Award for Best Choreography for An American in Paris, an Outer Critics Award for Best Choreography and Direction for An American in Paris, the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, the American Choreography Award, the Dance Magazine Award, South Bank Show Award, multiple London Critics’ Circle Awards, and the Léonide Massine Prize for new choreography. Mr. Wheeldon’s productions of Cinderella and The Winter’s Tale received the Benois de la Danse, and he is an Olivier Award winner for his ballets Aeternum for The Royal Ballet and Polyphonia for Morphoses. In 2016, Mr. Wheeldon was named an O.B.E. and was made an Honorary Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Christopher is a dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom and resides in New York City with his husband, Ross Rayburn, and their dogs, Hattie and Theo.
JUSTIN PECK
Justin Peck is the Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor of New York City Ballet. One of the most acclaimed and in-demand choreographers of his generation, he has created more than 35 works for NYCB and other dance companies around the world. His artistic collaborators include composers Dan Deacon, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Sufjan Stevens; and visual artists John Baldessari, Jules de Balincourt, Marcel Dzama, Shepard Fairey, Karl Jensen, and Sterling Ruby; and fashion designers Tsumori Chisato, Prabal Gurung, Mary Katrantzou, Humberto Leon, and Dries Van Noten. Outside of NYCB, Peck has created ballets for the Paris Opéra Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Houston Ballet, and L.A. Dance Project, and his works have also been performed by Dutch National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Acosta Danza, Hong Kong Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Pennsylvania Ballet, among other companies. A native of San Diego, California, Peck studied at California Ballet before enrolling at the School of American Ballet in 2003. He was named an apprentice in 2006, joined the NYCB corps de ballet in spring 2007, and was promoted to Soloist in February 2013. His repertory as a dancer included ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon, among others, in addition to performing in his own works. Peck first choreographed as a student at SAB in 2005. He participated in a working session at the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of NYCB, in the fall of 2009, and received NYCI’s first year-long choreographic residency in 2011. He was named NYCB’s Resident Choreographer, the second in the Company’s history, in July 2014. Peck also served as a member of NYCB’s interim artistic team from December 2017 until his appointment as Artistic Advisor in February 2019, working closely with the artistic leadership on programming and choreographic commissions. Peck transitioned off NYCB’s dancer roster following NYCB’s 2019 Spring Season. Peck was the subject of the 2014 documentary Ballet 422, which followed him for two months as he created NYCB’s 422nd original ballet, Paz de la Jolla. In 2015, his ballet Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes won the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production and he is the recipient of the 2018 Ted Arison Young Artist Award. Peck won a 2018 Tony Award for his choreography for the Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. He is the choreographer of the upcoming film adaptation of West Side Story, directed by Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg.
Crystal Pite
In a choreographic career spanning three decades, Crystal Pite has created more than 50 works for dance companies in Canada and around the world. She is the founding artistic director of the Vancouver-based company Kidd Pivot, world-renowned for radical hybrids of dance and theatre that are assembled with a keen sense of wit and invention. Ms. Pite is known for works that courageously address such challenging and complex themes as trauma, addiction, conflict, consciousness and mortality; her bold and original vision has earned her international acclaim and inspired an entire generation of dance artists. Crystal Pite was born in Terrace, BC, and grew up in Victoria. She began her dance career as a company member of Ballet British Columbia (Ballet BC), then William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt. She made her choreographic debut in 1990 at Ballet BC, and since then has created works for such prominent companies as 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. She has also collaborated with Electric Company Theatre and Robert Lepage, and is currently Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater I, Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells in London. In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot, a company that strives to distill and translate universal questions into artworks that connect us to deep and essential parts of humanity. “Running through all of my work is the question of what moves us,” she says. Kidd Pivot tours internationally with critically acclaimed works such as Betroffenheit and Revisor (both co-created with playwright Jonathon Young), The Tempest Replica, Dark Matters, Lost Action, and The You Show. In 2008, Crystal Pite participated in the inaugural GGPAA Mentorship Program as the protégée of 2004 GGPAA laureate Veronica Tennant, former principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada. Crystal Pite is a Member of the Order of Canada. Her other awards and honours include the Benois de la Danse, Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal, two UK Critics’ Circle Dance Awards, three Laurence Olivier Awards, and an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.