Collaborators

CHOREOGRAPHERS:

Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner

New Work Award recipient Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner

Work: “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” 

 Music: 

The commissioned premiere explores the mystical by embracing the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  This widely celebrated artist is known for popularizing the literary style known as magical realism.  His use of fantasy within realistic situations creates a world of supernatural beauty and splendor that transports both the characters and readers to an enchanting world.  This beautiful tale chronicles the journey of a fallen angel stranded in a seaport village.  Garcia Marquez excamines how its inhabitants become obsessed and then disenchanted with the strange creature, ultimately questioning the divine superiority of the angel.  The story is about the tendencies of human nature and how we make sense of the world through individual perspectives that are always distorted by our own faulty lenses.  In Gutierrez-Garner’s interpretation, elements of animation, text projections, stirring movement vocabulary and landscape pieces give the tale a physical life with an abstract and poetic sensibility.

Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner is a teaching specialist and creative practitioner in the areas of both contemporary modern dance and American concert jazz technique. Gutierrez-Garner received her B.F.A. Summa Cum Laude at the University of Minnesota, and her M.F.A. as an Advanced Opportunity Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts. She has served as the Choreographer in Residence for the Minnesota Dance Theater, under the direction of Lise Houlton, and is a four- time winner of the Arizona Choreography Competition’s Professional Division. Original works by Gutierrez-Garner have been commissioned by numerous colleges and universities across the U.S. including Kent State University, University of Minnesota, Arizona State University, University of Oregon, University of Wisconsin and Middle Tennessee State University, as well as by professional companies including the Zenon Dance Company and Dulce Dance Company. Her work has been produced across the U.S in Minneapolis, MN (including the Southern Theater, the Fitzgerald Theater, the Walker Art Center, the O'Shaugnessey Theater, the Guthrie Lab), several Arizona venues (including the Herberger Theater, the Orpheum Theater, Tempe Center for the Arts and the Scottsdale Center for the Arts), New York City's Miller Theater, and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., has seen support from organizations such as the Jerome Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Walker Art Center, and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. She has taught on the dance faculties of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and Gustavus Adolphus College, among others, as well as the prestigious Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, Maine. She currently serves on the faculty of Western Oregon University.

Petr Zahradnícek

Milwaukee Ballet Guest Choreographer Petr Zahradnícek

Work: "Fall to Rise"
Music: Nico Muhly - Honest Music, Quiet Music

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
Confusius

Petr Zahradnícek is a native of the Czech Republic. After graduating from the Brno Dance Conservatoire, he joined the National Theater in Prague. In 1996 Zahradnícek moved to Germany where he danced with Theater Vorpommern, Salzburg Ballet and Stadttheater Wurzburg. In 2001 he decided to move to the United States where he danced with Colorado Ballet before joining Milwaukee Ballet.
Since joining Milwaukee Ballet in 2003, Zahradnícek has created many pieces for the Milwaukee Ballet, the Nancy Einhorn Milwaukee Ballet II Program and Milwaukee Ballet School & Academy. He has also choreographed three pieces for Ballet Memphis in Tennessee. In 2007, Petr Zahradnícek received a grant from the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of New York City Ballet. This summer, Petr took park in Danceworks' "Art to Art" collaboration with other local artists. Petr is a three-time finalist at McCallum’s Choreography Festival and his pas de deux, “1 Run 2,” was the winner of the Paid Engagement Award in 2011. This autumn, as part of this award, Petr will again present a full length program of his work at the McCallum Theater in California. 

Faculty Choreographer Professor Simone Ferro 

Work: "Magnetic Field"

A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Simone Ferro joined the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2001. She directed the Master of Fine Arts program in Dance for several years, and currently serves as Chair at the Department of Dance at the Peck School of the Arts. After a professional career as soloist with dance companies in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Geneva, Switzerland, she completed graduate work in dance at the University of Iowa. Simone has collaborated extensively with local dance, theater and opera companies, including the Milwaukee Ballet, the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Florentine Opera, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the Milwaukee Opera Theater, Danceworks Performance Company, Wild Space Dance Company and Theatre Gigante. She is a strong advocate for the Milwaukee and the Midwestern dance community where she collaborates with visual artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers and scholars of different fields. Her choreographic work encompasses a wide range of thematic approaches from social issues, from historical themes and women’s themes to the analysis of more intimate human relationships.  She is the recipient of several awards, including a UWM Graduate School Research Grant, an Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, a Research Growth Initiative (RGI) grant from the UWM Graduate School, and a Choreographic Fellowship from the Wisconsin Arts Board. Since 2004 she has travelled regularly to Brazil with her husband and research partner, Meredith W. Watts, to document and research the traditional Bumba-meu-boi folk festivities in the Northeastern state of Maranhão. This project has resulted in a number of choreographic works, conference presentations and papers related to the Bumba-meu-boi, including a recent publication in the Journal of Popular Culture. Over the years, Simone has accumulated more than thirty hours of interviews with local group owners, singers and aficionados in São Luis. She has posted dozens of two-to-four minute video-clips in her personal website (http://www.simoneferro.com/) where she has pioneered a repository of the Bumba-meu-boi as practiced in the state of Maranhão.

Katie Sopoci Drake

Faculty Choreographer Katie Sopoci Drake
Work: “Space-Time”
Music:     Maya Beiser - World to Come 1
     Zoe Keating - Zinc (Remix), Frozen Angels

“Space-Time” is the title group work in a suite of dances I have been developing since 2011 starting with a duet (Gravity) and solo (Event Horizon) that were set on Momentum Dance Company of Miami, FL for use in their 2011-2014 seasons. The suite explores the notion of Rudolf von Laban’s theories on Flow and their relationship to the 4th dimension known as space-time, the movement of celestial bodies, and human relationships.

The final group work, which was developed with and tailored to the UWM dance students, is focused on representing the motion and energy of four dimensions within a three-dimensional perspective.  We’ve played with detailed material that collapses down on itself and is constantly being drawn back in to the body versus free-flowing material that wants to reach out, larger, and wants to drift away.  How these scientific inspirations seem to mimic human interaction is no coincidence.  I’ve simply pulled out a movement or a look or a grouping here and there and voila, human relationships emerge from the chaos.

Katie Sopoci Drake is a professional dancer, choreographer and teacher specializing in Laban-based contemporary dance.  She has been on faculty at The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Nova Southeastern University, Miami Dade College-Wolfson, Miami Dade College-Kendall, Carthage College, and Lawrence University.  Currently a company member of Mordine and Company Dance Theater of Chicago, past company credits include Momentum Dance Company of Miami (2009-2012), Wild Space Dance Company of Milwaukee (2005-2009), and Rosy Simas Danse of Minneapolis (2001-2005).  Katie has also made appearances with Brazz Dance, Your Mother Dances, Vox Medusa, Soft Eyed Collaborations, Green T Productions, Zephyr Dance, The Florentine Opera, and The Minnesota Opera.  Her choreography has been performed by Momentum Dance Company, Wild Space Dance Company, Your Mother Dances, The Florentine Opera, Lawrence University Opera, Carthage College, Miami Dade College - Kendall Campus, Miami Dade College - Wolfson Campus, and Broward College.  Independent productions have been presented at The Southern Theater, Patrick’s Cabaret, Danceworks Performance Studio and The Milwaukee Art Museum.  Katie holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Graduate Laban Certification in Movement Analysis from Columbia College - Chicago, and a BA in Theater/Dance with a minor in Vocal Performance from Luther College.

Luc Vanier

Faculty Choreographer Associate Professor Luc Vanier

Work: "Miraculous Mandarin"

Music: Bela Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin Op. 19, Sz. 73 (BB 82)

Pianists: Johanna Schilling and Tamir Tokarski

Luc is an Associate Professor in the Dance Department at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts. Originally from Montreal, he studied at L'Ecole  Superieur du Quebec under Daniel Seillier.  In 1998, he retired from Ohio Ballet having danced a variety of roles such as the Workman in Kurt Jooss’ Big City, the Third Song of Tudor’s Dark Elegies, as well as the leads in Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and Paul Taylor’s Aureole among others.  Luc was also a company choreographer; his dance Square Play, with a score by Libby Larson, was presented as part of the company’s 1995 Joyce season in NYC.  He is the recipient of the 2009 Wisconsin Arts Board Award for Choreography.  His interactive work “Sur_Rendered” premiered with the Milwaukee Ballet January 2010 and in Summer 2012 created an evening length Somatophobia. He both received his MFA at the University of Illinois (top ten dance program in US News) and became a certified Alexander teacher in 2001.

His research on linking the Alexander Technique, developmental movement and Ballet is at the forefront of integrating somatic work into dance curriculum and has been presented at various conferences and workshops throughout the US, Russia, Australia and the Netherlands.  His book Dance and the Alexander Technique: Exploring the Missing Link was published June 2011 by the University of Illinois Press and recently mentioned in Dance Magazine and Dance Teacher.  Since 2011, his research continues as he certified as one of 27 AmSAT training course directors in the US.  His work is being recognized by the Center for 21^st Century Studies with a multidisciplinary grant. 

Luc also partners with Elizabeth Johnson as a dancer and Associate Director of the hybrid Ballet/Modern dance theater company Your Mother Dances.  For more information visit www.lucvanier.com.

COLLABORATORS:

Edwin Olvera

Edwin Olvera (Dancer - Magnetic Field) , a proud Wisconsinite, has spread his wings far and wide. His skill and ability has been of worldwide note as he has performed and taught in locations across the globe. After attending UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, Edwin joined the world renowned dance company, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, where he was an integral force in the choreographic and creation process over the course of four years. During this time, he was featured on countless television shows and commercial advertisements including Sesame Street, Born to Dance, and the NFL Channel. Edwin has collaborated with international artists Inbal Pinto and Basil Twist and has been featured in articles by both Dance and Dancer Magazine. His most current work includes choreography and artistic direction for an evening length performance in collaboration with the Emmy award nominated lighting and production company, IG Designs.

Johanna Schilling

Johanna Schilling (Pianist - Miraculous Mandarin) A Sheboygan county native, Johanna joined the Milwaukee Ballet staff in 2011 and is currently a free-lance musician in the greater Milwaukee area. As a high school senior, Johanna took first place in the Wisconsin 2005 MTNA Senior Piano Performance Competition and competed in the MTNA East Central Division Competition.  In 2010 Johanna graduated with a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Houghton College in western New York. While at Houghton she made her orchestral debut with the Houghton Philharmonia, performing Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. She received her Master of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in May 2012, where she studied with Judit Jaimes and Elena Abend. As a winner of the UWM 2012 Concerto and Aria Competition, she was honored to perform with the UWM Symphony Orchestra in April of 2012.

Noele Stollmack (Lighting Designer) has received international attention as a theatrical lighting designer for her collaboration with directors and artists including Meredith Monk, Ann Hamilton, Andrei Serban and Dr. Jonathan Miller. Her lighting has appeared on stage at such venues as The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Houston Grand Opera, and The Sydney Opera House. Noele has contributed to the development of significant lighting fixtures and products as a member of the product development teams for two of the principle theatrical lighting manufacturers in North America. Her ongoing work as a theatrical lighting designer and lighting product development consultant provides a significant resource for architectural lighting projects.

Kamil Tokarski

Kamil Tokarski (Pianist - Miraculous Mandarin) is a current UWM graduate student in piano performance. Born in Poland where he attended Arthur Rubinstein School of Music and Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Music Academy in Łódź, having complementary sessions in Chopin University in Warsaw. He received Wasie Scholarship for studying in United States of America where he transferred to Saint John's University in Minnesota receiving his bachelor's degree in 2010. Kamil Tokarski performed recitals in Poland, Czech, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, United States. He performed as a soloist with Saint Cloud Symphony Orchestra and received awards on national and international piano competitions both in Europe and United States.