2017 Vail Dance Festival Magazine

2017

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CONTENTS

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Letters

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The SCENE

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Welcome from the President & Artistic Director

Support, Connect, Experience, Network, and Enjoy

Thanks to You: Dollars @ Work

Artistic Expression for Today

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In Rehearsal A glimpse behind the scenes

Q&A

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Live music adds an essential dimension to the Festival

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L.A. Dance Project The art of genrebending collaboration

New Faces Welcome to the Festival

Michelle Dorrance

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2017 Artist-In-Residence brings curiosity, energy and musicality to the stage

Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC New York gets a taste of Vail’s adventurous spirit

*Choreography by George Balanchine ©The George Balanchine Trust.

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Catching up with Misty Copeland

Music of Dance

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Fringe Festival & Community Events

Start-ups of contemporary dance take the stage

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Photo by Martha Swope

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Choreographers’ Canon

30 American Dance Classics: Fancy Free & Serenade*

George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Martha Graham

31 UpClose: Jerome Robbins

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NOW Choreographers

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Women choreographers on center stage

Other Festival Details Dance venues, Intern program

32 International Evenings of Dance I & II 34 NOW Premieres: Celebrating Women Choreographers 35 Dance for $20.17 36 Dancing in the Park: Wonderbound 37 Dorrance Dance in ETM: Double Down

VAIL DANCE FESTIVAL OFFICIAL PROGRAM

38 Martha Graham Dance Company

26 2017 Performance Schedule

39 Closing Night Celebration with BalletX

27 Opening Night

41 Underwriters and Patrons

28 L.A. Dance Project

46 Featured Companies

29 Dancing in the Park: Colorado Ballet

49 Festival Artists 52 Thank You

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To Book your next Stay Please call 800-654-8312 Sonnenalp Hotel • 20 Vail Road, Vail, CO • www.sonnenalp.com • 970-476-5656

WELCOME

Dear Vail Dance Enthusiasts,

T

hirty years ago we welcomed our first audiences to the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater. A year later, the creation of this unparalleled performance space allowed us a unique opportunity to welcome the Bolshoi Ballet to the stage. This, in turn, set in motion the annual event we now know as the Vail Dance Festival, hosted at the Ford Amphitheater, the Vilar Performing Arts Center, the Avon Performance Pavilion, and in various public spaces across our entire community.

A great project, like the Vail Dance Festival, that can stand the test of time, needs a home and we certainly got more than we expected with the beautiful Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater.

Throughout its 29 years, Vail Dance has been an iconic illustration of collective generosity; an example of what happens when the private sector, municipalities, generous donors and nonprofits work together toward a common goal.

To our audience, our patrons, our supporters and our partners, we hope you enjoy the 2017 Vail Dance Festival – after all, it is YOU who created it.

Thank you,

Mike Imhof President & CEO Vail Valley Foundation

From the Artistic Director

W

elcome to the Vail Dance Festival of 2017, which marks the 29th year of our celebration of dance. It is our pleasure to welcome you for all the dancing on our stages, in the streets for our community programs, and in our classrooms for our magnificent arts education program Celebrate the Beat, which this year is celebrating its 10th anniversary serving Vail Valley schools year-round.

The creation of each Festival challenges us to bring together a balance of structure and spontaneity, reflecting the most important elements of dance’s legacy, while also pushing to create the new essential works of today. This year for example, we feature a program with American classic dances by the genius dance-makers Balanchine and Robbins, and also a selection of premieres, including a special night highlighting the work of female choreographers. We look to inspire and inform. To build off of tradition and contribute a new vernacular for our time. To pay tribute to the artists who have made history, and to provide a platform for today’s artistic dreams to become reality.

Our efforts do not end with our performance stages and neither do our efforts to ensure our work is accessible and that all are invited to be part of our spectacular cultural world. Through our Community Arts Access program, free Fringe Festival events, free lawn tickets for children, and in everything we do, we seek to encourage an audience that is as diverse, varied, and complex as the content of our performances. We seek to create a Festival for everyone. Our Festival would not be possible without the generous support of our donors, sponsors, partners, and you, our audience. To each of you who support us, in whatever way you can, I send my thanks on behalf of the Vail Dance Festival, the Vail Valley Foundation, and all of the artists who come to grace our stages every summer.

Thank you, thank you — and I look forward to seeing you for all of the dancing.

Damian Woetzel Artistic Director, Vail Dance Festival

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PUBLISHER

Shelley N. Woodworth MANAGING EDITOR

Wren Bova EDITOR

Sarah Silverblatt-Buser IDEA GUY

Mark Bricklin VAIL DAILY MAGAZINE DIRECTOR

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CONTRIBUTORS

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David Hakes COVER PHOTOGRAPHY

Michelle Dorrance & Lil Buck in 1.2.3.4.5.6. Photo by Erin Baiano.

Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles in Gore Creek, Vail. Photo by Patrick Fraser.

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DONOR SCENE

The Scene

SUPPORT · CONNECT · EXPERIENCE NETWORK · ENJOY

Join the SCENE – With a donation starting at $125, enjoy access to exclusive events to elevate your Festival experience. Join the SCENE today by contacting Martha Brassel at 970.748.5907 or via email at mbrassel@vvf.org.

LA TOUR LUNCHEON HONOREES Each year since 1999, the Festival has honored members of the community who have had a significant impact on the success of the Vail Dance Festival at La Tour Restaurant. This year, we are overjoyed to honor Priscilla Brewster.

PREVIOUS HONOREES Susan & Harry Frampton Betsy & George Wiegers Leni & Peter May Town of Vail Paul & Lourdes Ferzacca Sheika & Pepi Gramshammer Joanne & Jack Crosby Joan Whittenberg

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Oscar Tang Damian Woetzel Judy Berkowitz Katherine Kersten Allie Coppeak Marlene & John Boll Vail International Dance Festival Patrons

Jane & Phil Smiley John Paul & Eloise DeJoria/ Paul Mitchell Systems Giordano Family Mme. Sophia Golovkina Betty Ford

2016 Festival Photos Top L to R: Janet Pyle and Paul Repetto ■ Stephanie Williams, Claudia Schreier and Jeremy McQueen ■ Joanne Posner-Mayer, Maggie Morrissey, Howard & Judy Berkowitz Middle L to R: Nancy & Don Remey and their daughter Christy Remey Chin ■ Don Brownstein, Lisa and Marilyn Tannebaum on Opening Night 2016 with Damian Woetzel and the cast Bottom L to R: Priscilla Brewster with the Paul Taylor Dance Company ■ Sheika Gramshammer and Mary Wolf Photos by Brian Maloney.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Thanks To You: Your Dollars @ Work Ticket sales cover only 33 percent of the cost to produce the Vail Dance Festival. Donations to the Festival are tax-deductible and help make it possible for the VVF to provide high-caliber dance programming as well as these inspiring events and initiatives that enrich our community.

MASTER CLASSES Donations to the Festival support a master class series that provides aspiring dance students an opportunity to learn from the best artists in their field. Last year 280 students attended a 14-class series.

Photo by Erin Baiano

WORLD PREMIERES Since Damian Woetzel stepped into the role of Artistic Director in 2007, the Festival has made the creation of new works a priority. From 2007 to 2016, Woetzel commissioned 61 new works which carry the name of the Vail Dance Festival in perpetuity.

Photo by Erin Baiano

COMMUNITY ARTS ACCESS Launched in 2016, the Community Arts Access (CAA) program works to eliminate socioeconomic barriers to the arts by providing complimentary tickets to individuals and families.

Artwork courtesy of the Keith Haring Foundation

FREE LAWN SEATING FOR CHILDREN Children ages 12 and under are invited to attend Festival performances at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater with free lawn seating for all shows*.

In 2016, 1,075 kids attended the Festival for free, cultivating the next generation of dance lovers. (*When accompanied by a ticketed adult.)

���� Festival by the Numbers $3.7 million Economic Impact on Vail

120 Students in Celebrate the Beat Pop Hop Camp

3,589 Hotel Rooms

Booked for Artists & Staff

14 Commissioned World Premieres

8 Free Community Events 205 Volunteers 5,680 Volunteer Hours 536 million+ Marketing & PR Impressions

92% Attendees

Came to Vail Specifically for the Festival

Photo by Brian Maloney

Phyouture “Lil P”

Many Opportunities Exist to Support the Vail Dance Festival.

The Scholar-In-Residence program offers promising young artists the extraordinary opportunity to participate in the Festival through the eyes of a professional dancer. Mentored by the Festival Artistic Director and Festival artists, the program allows the Scholar-In-Residence to participate in the artistic and cultural life of one of the most unique and renowned dance festivals in the world.

Benefits: VIP Parking, Seating, Ticket Services, Invitations to Exclusive Social Events, Access to Closed Rehearsals & more!

2017 Scholar-In-Residence

M

emphis jooker Phyouture “Lil P” (Altavien Hart) made his Festival debut in 2016 with fellow jookers, Lil Buck, Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles and Keviorr “Tip Toe” Taylor in Dancing in the Streets and on the Dance TV program in the world premiere of WAIT. Phyouture “Lil P” returns as the 2017 Scholar-In-Residence, dancing with a variety of artists throughout the two weeks. According to The New York Times, “Like other Tennessee performers of this bravura form of hip-hop, he does heart-stoppingly audacious and individual footwork and feats of balance (in sneakers often on point) while dancing solos to loud rap. As I watched him in a jookin ‘battle’ in Memphis, I felt that grace itself was being radically redefined.”

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Contact Martha Brassel at 970.748.5907 or mbrassel@vvf.org.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

YOU & VAIL

���� Festival Fringe Events I

n addition to the performance schedule, the Festival provides numerous Fringe Festival events that engage our performers and nurture the community’s involvement and appreciation of dance.

Sunday, July 30 12pm Autograph signing with Festival Stars Vail Farmer’s Market

Monday, July 31 5:30pm Dancing in the Park: Colorado Ballet Avon Performance Pavilion at Nottingham Park

Sunday, August 6 12pm Tap vs Jookin’ Battle with Dario Natarelli & Scholar-In-Residence Phyouture “Lil P” Vail Farmer’s Market

Wednesday, August 9 5:30pm Dancing in the Park: Wonderbound

Avon Performance Pavilion at Nottingham Park

Thursday, August 10 12pm Dancing in the Streets: Martha Graham Dance Company Cross streets of Bridge and Gore, Vail

Friday, August 11 12pm Dancing in the Streets: BalletX Vail Village

Lil Buck & Tiler Peck at the Vail Farmer’s Market. Photo by Erin Baiano.

FIND YOUR RHYTHM

Film Screenings Monday, July 24 RESTLESS CREATURE Wendy Whelan

Vail Mountain School Followed by a panel discussion with Dr. Marc Philippon and guests. Sponsored by The Steadman Clinic and Steadman Philippon Research Institute. 5:30pm Reception | 6pm Film

Sunday, August 6 PS DANCE!

Cinebistro, Vail Followed by a panel discussion with executive producer Jody Arnhold, director Nel Shelby and Damian Woetzel. Please check our website for film screening time at vaildance.org.

Celebrate The Beat N

ow in its 10th year in Eagle County, Celebrate The Beat (CTB) provides the highest quality in-school and after-school dance programs for all children, improving their CTB performance with Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles. physical health and well-being, Illustration by Andrea Selby. inspiring them to believe in themselves, and establishing a standard of excellence that impacts all aspects of their lives. CTB uses dance and music to teach children to “learn how to learn,” and gives them a valuable life lesson: that energy, discipline, hard work, commitment, and focus can lead to success. For many children, CTB is a life-changing event; for all, it is an amazing experience they will never forget. Each summer, the Vail Dance Festival hosts a “Pop Hop” summer camp for 120 children, who then perform on stage at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater for the International Evenings of Dance program on Friday, August 4. CTB is directed by Tracy Straus and is a proud associate of National Dance Institute.

Carrie.Marsh@evusa.com CarrieMarsh.evusa.com (970) 331-0251

Support for the CTB performance provided by Donna & Donald Baumgartner and Nancy & Don Remey.

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Artistic F Expression for Today

BALLETX

Start-ups of contemporary dance take the stage

By Jennifer Geisman

K

nown for creating fresh vocabulary through collaborations across multiple movement genres, the Vail Dance Festival brings a world of possibility to its contemporary dance lineup.

Now in its 29th season, the festival, under the leadership of Artistic Director Damian Woetzel, champions new work as it showcases two contemporary ballet companies that express a surging creative energy. Philadelphia’s extraordinary BalletX returns to headline the Festival’s closing night with a program featuring Matthew Neenan’s acclaimed ballet The Last Glass, and Wonderbound, a genre-defying company based in Denver, will bring its edgy style to the magnificent outdoor stage in Avon for a free performance, introducing the troupe to Vail.

BalletX in Matthew Neenan’s The Last Glass.

Photo by Erin Baiano.

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or the Vail Dance Festival’s Closing Night this season, BalletX brings an energetic program anchored by one of their most popular dances created by co-founder Matthew Neenan.

Described by The New York Times as “one of the most appealing and singular choreographic voices in ballet today,” Neenan seduces the audience with strong characters and storylines throughout his work The Last Glass. With a 2010 debut at the Wilma Theater, The Last Glass is inspired by the wild street-parade sound of American indie-rock band Beirut. It is a ballet that slowly awakens like a city — part mysterious pageant, part raucous celebration.

The title The Last Glass refers to the song used in the seventh movement of Neenan’s piece, the song “Un Dernier Verre,” and the dancing throughout the piece has an expansive excitement that takes over the stage and spills over into the audience, which is swaying along to the enchanting music by the final song.

“I’m honored that Damian values The Last Glass,” says Neenan. “The work has become one of BalletX’s signature pieces as we’ve had the opportunity to perform it around the country since its Philadelphia world premiere in 2010.

What’s interesting for right now is that the dancers have held the same roles within the work for quite some time, so we are going to shake things up a bit with cast changes this year.

Everyone will be performing a different role to help keep the work fresh, and to gain a newfound perspective and excitement for the work.”

WONDERBOUND

C

omprised of 10 dancers from across the country and under the leadership of Garrett Ammon and Dawn Fay, Wonderbound will introduce itself to Festival audiences with a family friendly performance at the relatively new outdoor venue, Avon Performance Pavilion at Nottingham Park. Named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” this up-and-coming company is putting Colorado on the map of contemporary dance in America.

Wonderbound’s performance will feature one of their most talked-about pieces, A Dangerous Liaison.

“It’s such a pleasure to revisit this work again,” says Sarah Tallman, one of Wonderbound’s dancers. “There’s a tongue-in-cheek aspect to it that becomes interesting juxtaposed with the raw nature of the movement.”

In Liaison, humor and contemporary dance movement are presented with the Baroque music of Antonio Vivaldi and contemporaries.

“Bringing Wonderbound’s contemporary fare together with Baroque music is always a treasured experience: a truly unique blending of past and present,” says Ammon. “This show in particular is fantastic for anyone feeling a bit adventurous.”

A Dangerous Liaison is a daring, artistic work that brings out the dance company’s innovation, vulnerability, and courage, while showcasing their mastery of craft and choreography.

*Balanchine Choreography ©The George Balanchine Trust.

In Rehearsal 1: Unity Phelan and Jared Angle working on movement study with choreographer Claudia Schreier in NYC, in preparation for the 2017 Vail Festival.

2: Mentorship is an important component of the Festival, as depicted here at an UpClose rehearsal-style performance with Heather Watts coaching Tiler Peck and Herman Cornejo in George Balanchine’s Apollo*.

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Photo by Erin Baiano

3: Artist-In-Residence Andrea Selby offers a window into the rehearsal process through her action sketch of Robert Fairchild being coached by Heather Watts, whose quotes are featured in the drawing.

4: Lil Buck and Tiler Peck in rehearsal with Artistic Director Damian Woetzel at the Amphitheater in Vail.

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Photo by Erin Baiano

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Catching Up with

Misty Copeland Interview by Sarah Silverblatt-Buser

Damian Woetzel rehearsing Misty Copeland & Joseph Gordon in Vail.

Photo by Patrick Fraser.

S

ince first joining us in Vail in 2011, the world has watched Misty Copeland soar with grace and dignity, all while maintaining a commitment to opening doors and inspiring others to excel. In addition to her performances with American Ballet Theatre and as a guest artist around the world, Copeland recently released a book on health, Ballerina Body, launched a dancewear line, and co-curated the Kennedy Center dance program, Ballet Across America. We checked in with Copeland to hear about her artistry, inspirations, and what she’s looking forward to this summer.

Sarah Silverblatt-Buser: Since your first time at the Festival, you’ve done so much to push the dance world forward, so I was hoping to hear from you as, first and foremost, a dancer and an artist. What do you love about dancing and why?

Misty Copeland: Having an opportunity to do something that I haven’t been given an opportunity to do for most of my career is really freeing. I like being able to do things like Romeo & Juliet and Swan Lake where I can

be extremely expressive and individual in my approach and artistry, and really become a character.

SSB: Are there any composers or musicians you are especially moved or inspired by?

MC: I grew up with soul and R&B and hip hop, and I feel like when I’m not on stage,

working with Prince — when I met him, his presence, his belief in me — and then watching him perform and rehearse has had such a huge impact on me as a dancer and as a ballerina.

It opened my eyes to what’s possible and to not being afraid of taking chances … and it’s interesting that a rock star would do that for me.

SSB: When you speak of taking chances, what does that mean for you?

MC: When I think of myself and taking chances, it’s about letting myself go, like being so completely immersed in the moment and present.

SSB: And now that you’re returning to Vail, is there anyone or anything you’re looking forward to?

MC: I always have a really good time with the dancers from other companies … Damian [Woetzel] just has such an open mind and heart and is really open to bringing in people and giving them opportunities to grow and be seen as the dancer that they are capable of being.

Prince … opened my eyes to what’s possible and to not being afraid of taking chances”

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Misty Copeland that’s still so much a part of what motivates me, what kind of calms me down before I go onstage ... and really, I think, influences the way I perform as a ballerina.

SSB: That’s interesting, I’m always curious how our lives offstage inf luence the art we make on stage. Will you speak a bit more on that?

MC: Absolutely. I feel like when I started

(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

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Music of Dance Live music accompanying dance adds an essential dimension to the Festival

By Jennifer Geisman

Cameron Grant, Tiler Peck, Jared Angle, and Johnny Gandelsman. Photo by Erin Baiano.

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“

ee the music, hear the dance,” George Balanchine famously said, in a phrase capturing the interplay between the two creative fields and reaffirming the value of their synergy.

Balanchine’s genius as a choreographer was shaped by his early musical training, and his choreographic excellence reflects the notion of dance in service to music. Artistic Director Damian Woetzel grew up cultivating this relationship to music as a dancer at New York City Ballet, and carries it with him to the Festival, where live music is as much a staple as the breath-taking landscapes and incredible dancing.

This season will provide the richest offering yet, with a wide range of musicians appearing and a number of exciting musical challenges and partnerships.

On August 1, the Festival welcomes the Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra for the American Dance Classics program. For this initial collaboration, the orchestra will play for Colorado Ballet’s performance of Balanchine’s 1934 Serenade set to Tschaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, and for Jerome Robbins’ 1944 Fancy Free with its brash score by Leonard Bernstein.

The orchestra will be led by Kurt Crowley in his new role as the Festival’s first Music Director. Crowley comes to Vail, taking time off from his role as the Music Director and Conductor for Broadway’s mega-hit Hamilton, having first worked with the Festival as the Conductor for the ReMix NYC performances of Apollo last fall at New York City Center. He will also appear as a pianist on Opening Night, both International Evenings of Dance, NOW Premieres, and will work collaboratively with the many solo musical artists coming to Vail this year.

In another first time for music in the mountains, Vail Dance Festival welcomes Caroline Shaw as its inaugural Leonard Bernstein ComposerIn-Residence, a role conceived in honor of the 2018 centennial of his birth. Shaw is the youngest ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, performing as a violin soloist, chamber musician, and vocalist in the Grammy-winning ensemble Roomful of Teeth. While this summer serves as a pilot year for Shaw to begin the process of conceptualizing her new composition for the 2018 Festival, her intricate work has already been featured at the Festival in last summer’s Romance Study #4 by Silas Riener and Rashaun Mitchell. This summer, the modern dance choreographer Pam Tanowitz will use Shaw’s Entr’acte for her new work to be presented

during the NOW Premieres performance on August 7, an appropriate contribution to the evening’s all woman-made works.

Other musical highlights include Brooklyn Rider, the highly acclaimed and genre-defying string quartet, who return to Vail as Quartet-InResidence, performing on both International Evenings of Dance and NOW Premieres. Hailed as “the future of chamber music” (Strings), Brooklyn Rider offers eclectic repertoire in gripping performances that continue to attract legions of fans and draw rave reviews from classical, world, and rock critics alike. The quartet features Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen on violin, Nicholas Cords on viola, and Michael Nicolas on cello. San Diego Symphony Orchestra violinist Kate Hatmaker — who has performed at the Festival in previous seasons — will also join Brooklyn Rider on the August 4 International Evenings.

We also welcome back Kate Davis, who has been described as “a stunning musical talent” with “a rich, textured voice … and a lighthearted earnestness that one can only hope never fades.” Davis returns for Opening Night, both International Evenings of Dance, NOW Premieres and Dance for $20.17, and will collaborate with Artist-InResidence, Michelle Dorrance to create new works this season. Joining Davis in this creative meeting of dance and music are Vail newcomers Gabe Schnider on guitar and Savannah Harris on percussion.

Celebrated New York City Ballet pianist, Cameron Grant, rejoins the Festival again this season performing on several evenings including, American Dance Classics, both International Evenings of Dance, NOW Premieres and Dance for $20.17. Grant will also be an integral part of UpClose: Jerome Robbins, playing and sharing his experiences of working with the great dance-maker for many years at New York City Ballet.

The history of Robbins’ work is a history of musical collaborations, chief among them those with Leonard Bernstein with whom he shares the centennial birthday year of 2018. Their intertwined careers symbolize the possibilities for music and dance to enhance each other, serving as inspiration and example. The effort to bring music and dance together in Vail is in that spirit, and 2017 is a landmark year in that pursuit.

See the Music, Hear the Dance.”

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George Balanchine

L.A. Dance Project

The art of genre-bending collaboration

By Kimberly Nicoletti

David Adrian Freeland, Jr. Photo by Benjamin Millepied.

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A Dance Project director Benjamin Millepied is a high-energy man, compelled to move quickly his whole life.

Born in France to a modern-dance mother and a decathlete father, Millepied came to the United States in 1992 to attend the School of American Ballet’s summer program, joined New York City Ballet in 1995, and was promoted to principal in 2002, winning prestigious awards, choreographing new works and creating the Danses Concertantes company.

After leaving New York for Los Angeles in 2012, Millepied noticed that the L.A. dance scene was relatively quiet, and was inspired to form the L.A. Dance Project.

His goal was to both present new collaborative work by emerging and established artists and reimagine pieces from the past.

In pursuit of this goal, Millepied asks the dancers to use both ballet and modern dance techniques, creating innovative movement sequences through space. The work demands a modern dancer’s training for centering their weight with a ballet dancer’s training for lightness, creating a uniquely grounded quality, even when they dance on their toes.

As a choreographer and director, Millepied has found his voice by collaborating with a wide range of artists and designers, finding a sweet spot between classical and contemporary dance.

“We go outside of the usual frame,” Millepied says.

Part of that deviation stems from Millepied’s recent work in both short and feature-length films. Most notably, Millepied choreographed Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, where he met his wife, actress Natalie Portman. Prior to this, he choreographed in the traditional manner: building from the music he chooses, interweaving abstract and personal ideas into his accessible pieces. Now, working within the less rigid parameters of a film’s narrative and aesthetic, he has found new ways to approach the choreographic process.

Millepied is also interested in the dancers’ relationship with their environment, creating a dynamic that emphasizes revealing the humanity in dance and choreography. L.A. Dance Project ballet master and former New York City Ballet principal dancer Sebastien Marcovici says, “It’s very natural.

Nothing is forced; there’s no fake emotion.”

The company also incorporates various cultures and forms of multimedia into the process, working to expand what dance can be today. “I’m interested in dance as a whole,” says Millepied, “and I think the level of artistic collaboration is unique [to L.A. Dance Project].”

With a synergy of pop culture, subcultures and classical art, Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project touches many, connecting to audiences by presenting a shared vision of the human experience.

We go outside of the usual frame.”

Benjamin Millepied

L.A. Dance Project in Murder Ballades (top) and Hearts & Arrows.

Photos by Laurent Philippe. #VAILDANCE

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Photo ©Royal Opera House by Bill Cooper

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Photo ©Royal Opera House by Bill Cooper

Photo by Paul Kolnik

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Photo by Ken Browar & Deborah Oly

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New Faces

Photo by Gene Schiavone

Each summer, we roll out the red carpet for hundreds of incredible artists who come to our community and stages for an experience of a lifetime. The Vail Dance Festival proudly welcomes these artists for the first time in 2017.

1: Marcelino Sambé was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and is a soloist with The Royal Ballet.

Bindelglass Photography

Photo by Mira

2: Marcelo Gomes was born in Manaus, Brazil, and is a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. This is his first time performing in Vail in over a decade.

7: Andrea Gibson is a Boulder, Colorado-based poet and activist and was the first winner of the Women’s World Poetry Slam.

8: Miriam Miller was born in Iowa City, Iowa, and is a corps de ballet dancer with New York City Ballet.

4: Patricia Delgado was born in Miami, Florida, and is a former principal dancer with Miami City Ballet.

9: Gabe Schnider is a New York City-based guitarist and composer who recently graduated from the Juilliard School.

5: Savannah Harris is a drummer and writer who recently graduated from Howard University.

10: Cameron Dieck was born in Mount Kisco, New York, and is a corps de ballet dancer with New York City Ballet.

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6: Roman Mejia was born in Forth Worth, Texas and is a student at the School of American Ballet.

3: Francesca Hayward was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and is a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet.

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3

Photo by Doug McClure

Photo by Taylor Brown

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Since 1989, Vail Valley Academy of Dance has been a safe haven where students enjoy the freedom and discipline to evolve as artists and young adults. Whether they will dance for a living or simply dance through life, we give young people the foundation they

Photo by Cherie B. Tay Photography

Festival Music Director

need to achieve anything.

Photo: Kent Pettit

Kurt Crowley was born in Helena, Montana, and is the Music Director for Broadway’s mega-hit, Hamilton.

Grammy-winning Crowley is the first to take on the role of Music Director for the Vail Dance Festival.

“I express myself through movement, which has shaped me into the person I am today.”

— Michele

Enroll Now for 2017-18 Classes VailValleyAcademyOfDance.com

970-926-2820

The Carson Brierly Giffin Dance Library congratulates Photo by ` Moreno.

Composer-InResidence Caroline Shaw is the inaugural Leonard Bernstein Festival Composer-In-Residence and the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music. She has been commissioned by the Vail Dance Festival through the generosity of Leni & Peter May to compose new work for the 2018 Festival, beginning her process this summer in Vail.

DAMIAN WOETZEL

ON HIS SELECTION FOR CBGDL’S 2017 “LEGENDS OF DANCE” AWARD. Gene GeBauer, Celeste Grynberg, Maria Mosina, Deborah Reshotko, and Fran Page are also 2017 Legends honorees.

The Carson Brierly Giffin Dance Library is an endowed collection dedicated to the documentation and representation of the entire spectrum of dance, with an emphasis on Colorado and the American West.

Celebration is October 15, 2017 at the University of Denver.

For more information contact libraryevents@du.edu or 303-871-3958.

#VAILDANCE

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Michelle Dorrance and her company Dorrance Dance on stage in Vail, 2016. Photo by Erin Baiano.

Michelle Dorrance

The 2017 Artist-In-Residence brings curiosity, energy and musicality to the stage

C

By Sarah Silverblatt-Buser

atch her if you can: Michelle Dorrance is a tap dancer for the 21st century. From performances in San Francisco, Hong Kong, London, and a premiere event at the Guggenheim Rotunda in New York City, the Vail Dance Festival is fortunate to welcome her as our 2017 Artist-In-Residence. For two weeks, the MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant recipient infuses the Festival with her quick wit and nimble physicality.

Equal parts choreographer, mover, and music maker, Dorrance first made her mark as one of the only women cast members in the famed musical STOMP. And while the days using brooms and lighters to create complex rhythms may be largely behind her, Dorrance continues to pursue new music-making methods.

For ETM: Double Down, which will be presented on August 10 at Beaver Creek’s Vilar Performing Arts Center, Dorrance collaborated with longtime friend and company member Nicholas Van Young to incorporate his electronic tap boards, brilliantly building an instrument out of the dance floor to make music with a live band.

“The crux of my inspiration is music,” says Dorrance, “the music of our dancing, of tap dance, period.”

A deep respect for music has always characterized the Vail Dance Festival, so it is fitting that Artistic Director Damian Woetzel chose to

highlight Dorrance as a groundbreaking choreographer vitalized by sound. Curiosity is another feature shared by the Festival and Dorrance, who describes herself as being driven towards “experimentation, exploration, and collaboration with other artists.”

Recalling a project she did with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Dorrance recognized the opportunity as “a blessing to be able to work with those bodies and those sensibilities … creating percussive work for non-percussive dancers.”

Beyond genre-bending, Dorrance finds fascination in the wide range of gender roles and ambiguity available to tap dancers. “There is this great and strange partnership between men and women, women and women, men and men, that allows dancers to both dance in a social coupling form and then also side by side,” says Dorrance, “and it’s also really nice to live in a world of androgyny.”

With an improviser’s ability to make something out of anything, Dorrance’s creations for the stage embody a boundless notion of play. It is her reciprocal approach when working with collaborators, distilling mutual exchanges of inspiration into constant creative fuel, that reveals Dorrance’s bottomless well of potential. In this way, Dorrance and her eclectic company bring audiences to a new realm of imagining what is possible.

The crux of my inspiration is music”

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Michelle Dorrance

Artful Sol Gallery

Proudly we celebrate The Vail Dance Festival!

The gallery in Vail, Colorado worthy of time and investment. with a special acknowledgment to Lil Buck.

www.artfulsol.com | 970-476-1339 | 183 Gore Creek Dr. ste. 6 | Vail, Colorado USA

Vail Dance Festival:

ReMix NYC

New York gets a taste of Vail’s adventurous spirit

By Sarah Silverblatt-Buser

Tiler Peck, Lil Buck, Carla Körbes and Robert Fairchild.

B

eneath the Moorish, mosaicked ceilings of New York City Center, East Coasters attending Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC experienced the exceptional selections of dance and music that have come to define summers in Vail. Year-round Manhattanites enjoy stellar dance performances in a city that brings the best the world has to offer to the stage and boasts its own world-class companies. But the first days of November left even the most seasoned dance enthusiasts swept up by the expansive artistic vision to which Vail dance-goers are accustomed.

“Action-packed, stylistically eclectic and with deluxe casting,” praised The New York Times chief dance critic Alastair Macaulay of the thoughtfully constructed programs. In his 2016 yearend dance review, the critic singled out Sara Mearns’ ReMix performance of Alexei Ratmansky’s Fandango, stating “we’re lucky to live in times that produce creations and performances of this ilk.”

Like the Festival in Vail, each night was as dynamic as it was exceptional, with a repertory built off 10 years of programming under the artistic direction of Damian Woetzel.

“I found it particularly exciting to see the music and dance come together in the historic space at City Center,” reflected Woetzel. “It was thrilling to premiere pieces created in Vail, but unseen in New York, and then on the same program to present Balanchine’s 1928 Apollo on the stage where New York City Ballet performed it in the 1950s.”

Apollo was presented in its seldom-seen original version, depicting the birth of the god, and was made complete with Kurt Crowley, Music Director of Broadway’s Hamilton and the Festival’s first Music Director, leading a full orchestra in Stravinsky’s landmark score.

Live music added extra energy to an already dazzling lineup of dancers. Yo-Yo Ma, who first accompanied Lil Buck playing Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Swan in a now-viral video, reunited with the jooker for a Jookin’ Jam Session, and was joined by a collection of musicians, including members of the Silk Road Ensemble, the Catalyst Quartet, and Kate Davis.

Witnessing partnerships first cultivated in Vail was another highlight for New York audiences.

Among many, one remarkable moment was the reuniting of Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles and Fang-Yi Sheu, whose exquisite Anywhere on this Road exemplifies the adventurous, collaborative spirit that is central to the Festival’s identity.

When asked if audiences can look forward to new iterations of Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC, Woetzel hinted that the happening was “designed and even titled with the anticipation of taking this to other cities.”

We’re lucky to live in times that produce creations and performances of this ilk.”

The New York Times

Tiler Peck, Isabella Boylston, Misa Kuranaga, and Robert Fairchild in Apollo.

Yo-Yo Ma and Lil Buck.

All photos by Erin Baiano.

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Elevating careers, organizations and communities through higher education.

C o m m u n i t y L e a d e r s h i p A c a d e m y

The effectiveness of the class is immediate and actionable. The course exceeded all of my expectations and it was an outstanding, high-level experience, Claudine Locascio, Japan America Society, Denver, CO Graduates of the Duke Nonprofit Management Certificate Course

www.vailcentre.org

Programs supported by

����

NOW Premieres: Celebrating Women Choreographers

VAIL DANCE FESTIVAL

Avon Performance Pavilion at Nottingham Park

Opening Night

Dorrance Dance ETM: Double Down

Saturday, July 29 7:30pm

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail

L.A. Dance Project

Sunday, July 30 7:30pm

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail

Dancing in the Park: Colorado Ballet

Monday, July 31 5:30pm

Avon Performance Pavilion at Nottingham Park

American Dance Classics: Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free & George Balanchine’s Serenade Tuesday, August 1 7:30pm

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail

UpClose: Jerome Robbins

Wednesday, August 2 6:30pm

Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek

International Evenings of Dance I Friday, August 4 7:30pm

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail

International Evenings of Dance II

Saturday, August 5 7:30pm

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail

Isabella Boylston & Calvin Royal III. Photo by Erin Baiano.

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Monday, August 7 7:30pm

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail

Dance for $20.17

Tuesday, August 8 7:30pm Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail

Dancing in the Park: Wonderbound

Wednesday, August 9 5:30pm

Thursday, August 10 6:30pm

Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek

Martha Graham Dance Company Friday, August 11 7:30pm

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail

Closing Night Celebration with BalletX Saturday, August 12 7:30pm

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail

SATURDAY, JULY �� Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail 7:30pm

Opening Night This highlights performance kicks off the 29th Vail Dance Festival with a program ranging from tap improvisation and ballet to street dance and groundbreaking contemporary works. Headlined by tap dancer extraordinaire and 2017 ArtistIn-Residence Michelle Dorrance, the evening also includes audience favorites Lil Buck, New York City Ballet principal Lauren Lovette, live music from the phenomenal Kate Davis and a first look at the acclaimed L.A. Dance Project which will perform Hearts & Arrows along with a new work, In Silence We Speak, featuring Carla Körbes and former NYCB principal Janie Taylor.

“In quantity and quality … the Festival is as awe-inspiring as this town’s alpine scenery.” —The New York Times

Performance underwritten by

Lisa Tannebaum & Don Brownstein

Special thanks to John Hancock Insurance

Lauren Lovette.

Photo by Erin Baiano. #VAILDANCE

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SUNDAY, JULY �� Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail 7:30pm

L.A. Dance Project Vail welcomes L.A. Dance Project in its Festival debut. L.A. Dance Project was founded in 2012 by former New York City Ballet principal dancer and choreographer, Benjamin Millepied.

Over the past 5 years, this cutting-edge company has gained recognition for creating new work and reviving seminal collaborations from influential dance-makers. Don’t miss this exciting new company’s only full evening performance at the Vail Dance Festival.

“The intelligence and eclectic generosity ... are not in doubt. The dancers prove attractive, impressive, versatile.”

—The New York Times

PROGRAM:

Murder Ballades

Choreography by Justin Peck Music by Bryce Dessner

Martha Graham Duets

Choreography by Martha Graham Music by Cameron McCosh

On the Other Side

Choreography by Benjamin Millepied Music by Philip Glass

Performance underwritten by

Sherri & Robert L. Patton, Jr. and Linda & Stephen Waterhouse

Sponsored by EverBank

L.A. Dance Project.

Photo by Morgan Lugo.

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MONDAY, JULY �� Avon Performance Pavilion at Nottingham Park 5:30pm

Dancing in the Park:

Colorado Ballet The Festival welcomes back Colorado Ballet in a free family-friendly show on the extraordinary stage of the Avon Performance Pavilion at Nottingham Park. Colorado Ballet is known for its depth of repertory and versatility in artistry.

The program features excerpts from past and future productions and a variety of other classical and contemporary works that will showcase the company’s artistry and athleticism.

Come early and enjoy Nottingham Park before the show. Gates open at 4:30pm. Blankets, lawn chairs, picnics and commercially-sealed non-alcoholic beverages are permitted. Food and drink will also be available for purchase. Smoking is not permitted in the Town of Avon.

Please leave your pets at home.

The show opens with a special performance by Celebrate The Beat’s Celebration Team!

Photo by Erin Baiano.

Performance underwritten by Town of Avon

Colorado Ballet.

Photo by Allen Birnbach. #VAILDANCE

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TUESDAY, AUGUST � Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail 7:30pm

American Dance Classics:

Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free & George Balanchine’s Serenade Featuring cornerstone works of American dance performed by the extraordinary dance artists of today, American Dance Classics will open with Robert Fairchild, Marcelo Gomes, Daniel Ulbricht and Tiler Peck starring in Jerome Robbins’ acclaimed 1944 debut ballet, Fancy Free. Set to a rollicking Leonard Bernstein score, the ballet brings to life the adventures of three sailors on shore leave in WWII-era New York City.

The evening’s second half will feature Festival guest artists and Colorado Ballet in George Balanchine’s first American ballet masterpiece Serenade*, set to Tschaikovsky’s exquisite Serenade for Strings. Guest artists include Lauren Lovette, Misa Kuranaga, Unity Phelan, Jared Angle and Cameron Dieck.

Live music throughout the evening will be performed by the Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra conducted by Kurt Crowley, Music Director of Broadway’s Hamilton.

Performance underwritten by The Storr Family Foundation in memory of Carol Storr Special support for Fancy Free provided by Martha Head

Artists of Colorado Ballet in Serenade*. Photo by Mike Watson. *Choreography by George Balanchine ©The George Balanchine Trust.

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Jerome Robbins in Fanc y Free.

Photo by Alfredo Valen te.

PROGRAM:

Fancy Free

Choreography by Jerome Robbins Music by Leonard Bernstein

Serenade*

Choreography by George Balanchine Music by Peter Ilyich Tschaikovsky

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST � Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek 6:30pm

UpClose:

Jerome Robbins Hosted by Damian Woetzel

An all-star cast celebrates the launch of legendary choreographer Jerome Robbins’ centennial birthday year in a rehearsal-style performance hosted by Artistic Director Damian Woetzel, who worked closely with Robbins during his career at New York City Ballet.

The evening will focus on Robbins’ seminal works including Dances at a Gathering, The Cage, Afternoon of a Faun and the Leonard Bernstein collaborations West Side Story and Fancy Free.

“As a master of both ballet and Broadway, Jerome Robbins remains unsurpassed.” —The New York Times

Performance underwritten by

Anonymous

Elevate your evening by attending a pre-show reception in the May Gallery and post-performance dinner with the dancers at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek. Make your reservations by calling the Box Office.

Jerome Robbins rehearsing Damian Woetzel in Fancy Free, 1990.

Photo by Costas. #VAILDANCE

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FRIDAY, AUGUST � � SATURDAY, AUGUST � Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail 7:30pm

International Evenings of Dance I & II A magnificent cast of stellar dance artists from around the world takes the stage in these signature Festival performances. These two unique gala evenings of innovation and artistic collaboration include debuts and new partnerships by a selection of today’s foremost dancers.

“ ... at the Vail festival, it isn’t the high altitude that’s most dizzying. It’s the high level of dance.”

—The New York Times

FEATURED ARTISTS: Jared Angle New York City Ballet

Cameron Dieck

New York City Ballet

Underwritten by Dhuanne & Douglas Tansill

Underwritten by Martin Waldbaum

Lil Buck

2017 Artist-In-Residence Dorrance Dance

Memphis Jooker

Underwritten by Leni & Peter May

Isabella Boylston

American Ballet Theatre

Underwritten by Jane & Skip Netzorg

Jeffrey Cirio

American Ballet Theatre

Michelle Dorrance

Underwritten by Janet Pyle & Paul Repetto

Robert Fairchild

New York City Ballet

Underwritten by Senenne & Marc Philippon

Marcelo Gomes

Underwritten by Pixley & Ken Schiciano

American Ballet Theatre

Misty Copeland

Joseph Gordon

Underwritten by Mary Lujack and Sarah & Gracie Johnson

Underwritten by Genie & Robert Stine

American Ballet Theatre

Patricia Delgado

Underwritten by Michael Ritchie

Underwritten by Nancy Sands

New York City Ballet

Francesca Hayward

The Royal Ballet

Underwritten by Christine & John Bakalar

Friday’s performance underwritten by Marge & Phil Odeen.

Misty Copeland.

Photo by Nisian Hughes.

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Elena Heiss

Alma Flamenca

Underwritten by Kathy & William Hybl

Bill Irwin

Actor, Clown & Dancer

Underwritten by Martha Head

Carla Körbes

Underwritten by Mary Sue & Michael Shannon

Misa Kuranaga Boston Ballet

Underwritten by Nancy & Richard Lubin

Lauren Lovette

New York City Ballet

Underwritten by Malo & John Harrison

Roman Mejia

New York City Ballet

Underwritten by Lisa & Bruce Goldman

Miriam Miller

New York City Ballet

Underwritten by LaDonna & Gary Wicklund

Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles Memphis Jooker

Underwritten by Marcy & Gerald Spector

Tiler Peck

New York City Ballet

Underwritten by Donna & Donald Baumgartner

Unity Phelan

New York City Ballet

Underwritten by Joanne Crosby

Calvin Royal III

American Ballet Theatre

Robert Fairchild & Tiler Peck.

Photo by Erin Baino.

Melissa Toogood

Underwritten by Barbara & Christopher Brody

Underwritten by Peggy Fossett

Marcelino Sambé

Daniel Ulbricht

Underwritten by Jean & Tom McDonnell

Underwritten by Joan Whittenberg

The Royal Ballet

Devon Teuscher

American Ballet Theatre Underwritten by Carolyn & Gene Mercy

Pam Tanowitz Dance

FEATURED MUSICIANS: Brooklyn Rider

Quartet-In-Residence

Underwritten by Barbara Baldrey

New York City Ballet

Kurt Crowley

James Whiteside

Underwritten by Vikki & Michael Price

Underwritten by Sheika & Pepi Gramshammer

Vocalist

American Ballet Theatre

Festival Music Director

Kate Davis

Underwritten by Donna & Donald Baumgartner

Cameron Grant

Pianist-In-Residence

Underwritten by Rella & Monroe Rifkin

The children of Celebrate The Beat’s Pop Hop Camp will open Friday evening’s performance.

The CTB appearance underwritten

by Donna & Donald Baumgartner and Nancy & Don Remey.

Saturday’s performance underwritten by Jill & Kevin Plancher.

Sponsored by Volvo #VAILDANCE

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MONDAY, AUGUST � Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail 7:30pm

NOW Premieres:

Celebrating Women Choreographers NOW Premieres 2017 celebrates today’s women choreographers with a collection of new commissioned works from renowned female choreographers and performed by a stellar cast of artists from ballet, modern and contemporary dance.

The 2017 choreographers will include: New York City Ballet principal Lauren Lovette; neoclassical and contemporary ballet choreographer Claudia Schreier; Artist-In-Residence, MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant-recipient Michelle Dorrance; and acclaimed modern dance choreographer Pam Tanowitz.

Live music for the new works will be performed by musicians including: Brooklyn Rider; Kate Davis; Cameron Grant; Kurt Crowley; Gabe Schnider; and Savannah Harris. Also featuring spoken word artist Andrea Gibson. ���� FEATURED CHOREOGRAPHERS:

Michelle Dorrance

Claudia Schreier

Commission supported by Marvin Naiman and Margery Goldman Family Foundation

Commission supported by Malo & John Harrison and Jill & Kevin Plancher

Lauren Lovette

Pam Tanowitz

Commission supported by Jeff & Susan Campbell and Malo & John Harrison

Commission supported by Wendy Williams and Noel & Ben Kullavanijaya

Performance underwritten by Pam & Ernie Elsner Sponsorship for NOW Premieres provided by Virginia B.

Toulmin Foundation.

New works at the Vail Dance Festival supported by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Claudia Schreier.

Photo by Rosalie O’Connor.

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TUESDAY, AUGUST ďż˝ Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail 7:30pm

Dance for $20.17 A mixed-bill evening for everyone with guest artists from the 2017 Vail Dance Festival.

The second half of the evening features Colorado-based Wonderbound dance company with their hit, Divisions, performed with live music by the Flobots. Specially priced $20.17 reserved seating and $10.17 lawn tickets go on sale Saturday, June 17.

Performance underwritten by

Town of Vail

Additional support for Wonderbound provided by Bonfils-Stanton

Foundation

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail.

Photo by Jennifer Weintraub. #VAILDANCE

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST � Avon Performance Pavilion at Nottingham Park 5:30pm

Dancing in the Park:

Wonderbound This family-friendly performance by Wonderbound takes place at the magnificent outdoor venue of the Avon Performance Pavilion at Nottingham Park. Wonderbound dancers have performed at the Festival as part of Trey McIntyre Project, and the company has been named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.”

“ ... continually pushing the boundaries of traditional dance theater.”

—303 Magazine Come early and enjoy Nottingham Park before the show, gates open at 4:30pm. Blankets, lawn chairs, picnics and commercially-sealed non-alcoholic beverages are permitted. Food and drink will also be available for purchase. Smoking is not permitted in the Town of Avon and please leave your pets at home.

Wonderbound.

Photo by Amanda Tipton.

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PROGRAM: A Dangerous Liaison Featuring In Between Seams

by Sarah Tallman and For Pity’s Sake My Love

by Garrett Ammon

Performance underwritten by

Town of Avon

Additional support provided by Bonfils-Stanton Foundation

THURSDAY, AUGUST �� Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek 6:30pm

Dorrance Dance

ETM: Double Down Dorrance Dance captured the hearts of Festival audiences with their 2016 Vail Dance Festival premiere appearance. Dorrance 2.0 finds this thrilling contemporary tap company in Beaver Creek’s intimate Vilar Performing Arts Center in a special performance led by their founder and Vail’s 2017 Artist-In-Residence, Michelle Dorrance.

“ … the most exciting and original choreographer in tap today.”

—The New York Times

Performance underwritten by Mary Forrest Wolf

Dorrance Dance in ETM: Double Down.

Photo by Matthew Murphy. #VAILDANCE

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FRIDAY, AUGUST �� Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail 7:30pm

Martha Graham Dance Company The unparalleled Martha Graham Dance Company returns to the Festival in a program featuring Graham classics and new work created for the legendary company. The program will also present a world premiere Lamentation Variation created by Lil Buck in his first commission for a major dance company.

PROGRAM:

Dark Meadow Suite

Music by Carlos Chávez Choreography by Martha Graham

Lamentation

Music by Zoltán Kodály Choreography by Martha Graham

Lamentation Variation (world premiere)

Choreography by Lil Buck

Ekstasis

Music by Leland Engel Choreography

by Martha Graham

Satyric Festival Song

Music by Fernando Palacios Choreography by Martha Graham

Woodland

Music by Irving Fine Choreography by Pontus Lidberg

Performance underwritten by

Priscilla Brewster

Martha Graham Dance Company.

Photo by Hibbard Nash Photography.

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SATURDAY, AUGUST �� Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail 7:30pm

BALLET BALLET BALLET BALLET BALLET Closing Night Celebration with The enchanting dancers of BalletX bring the 2017 Festival to a rousing close with a celebration of song and dance.

PROGRAM TO INCLUDE:

The Last Glass

Music by Beirut Choreography by Matthew Neenan

New Work

Music by Son Lux Choreography by Jodie Gates

Performance underwritten by

Karen & John Arnold and Vail Valley Foundation Board of Directors

BalletX in Vail.

Photo by Patrick Fraser. #VAILDANCE

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VAIL

A necklace of white gold leaves clustered around a Brazilian aquamarine.

DAN TELLEEN

Creating Heirlooms Since 1970

VAIL VILLAGE 970.476.4760

FESTIVAL PATRONS

Presenters Circle The Vail Valley Foundation extends its sincere gratitude to the Presenters Circle patrons whose dedication has made it possible for the 2017 Vail Dance Festival to achieve an extraordinary level of success.

JUDY & HOWARD BERKOWITZ Judy and Howard Berkowitz have been supporters of the Vail Valley Foundation since its inception.

Their love for the art of dance and generous support have enabled the Vail Dance Festival to grow into the critically-acclaimed Festival it is today.

They are longtime members of the Friends of Vail program, and Judy serves on the Foundation’s Board of Directors and is Chairperson of the Dance Festival Committee. In New York, Judy serves on the Board of Rockefeller University, the New-York Historical Society, and chairs The Center for Educational Innovation.

Howard is the Chairman Emeritus of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is former Chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, current Chairman of the South Florida Advisory Board and is a Board Member of the New York City Ballet. Locally, he serves on the Board of the Steadman Philippon Research Institute.

OSCAR TANG FAMILY The Tang family has supported the Vail Valley Foundation at a leadership level since its inception.

In particular, Oscar was a founding supporter of the Vail Dance Festival and has continued his support for 28 years. Dividing his time between Vail and New York, Oscar is an emeritus member of the Vail Valley Foundation Board of Directors and is concurrently on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum and the New York Philharmonic. Agnes Hsu-Tang has taught at Brown and Stanford and has served as a cultural policy advisor to UNESCO and the United States Cultural Property Advisory Committee; she is a documentarian of two series on the Discovery and History networks. Agnes serves on the boards of the Metropolitan Opera and the New-York Historical Society. She is also the Co-Chair of Asia Society’s newly created Global Council on Arts and Culture. The Tangs are dedicated to supporting the arts, culture and education. They are members of the Foundation’s Cornerstone Friends program and also support the Foundation’s education initiatives. Most recently, the Tangs supported the documentary American Ballet Theatre: A History by the award-winning filmmaker Ric Burns.

BETSY & GEORGE WIEGERS Ardent supporters of the arts in New York City and Denver, the Wiegers are also extraordinarily generous in the Vail Valley, particularly to the Vail Dance Festival, Bravo! Vail and YouthPower365. Betsy serves on the Board of the Vail Valley Foundation, is a long time member of the Dance Festival Committee and is a former trustee of Bravo! Vail. George is the founder and creator of the University of Colorado Depression Center at the Anschutz Medical Center in Denver and is also a founder of the Deisseroth Laboratory for Brain Research at Stanford University. Their philanthropy in New York includes support of the New York Philharmonic, American Ballet Theatre and the New-York Historical Society. In Denver they support the Denver Art Museum and also contributed to the Liebeskind wing at the museum.

JEFF & SUSAN CAMPBELL Jeff and Susan Campbell started coming to the Vail Valley from Dallas when their children were first learning to ski and continued as they moved to London, San Francisco, and most recently to the West Village in New York City. Two of their children are now attending college in Colorado, and their Beaver Creek home has become the center of family life. They are avid dance lovers and longtime supporters of the Vail Dance Festival, the Vilar Performing Arts Center, and the New York City Ballet’s New Combinations Fund. Susan serves on the Board of Directors of the Vail Valley Foundation and Jeff serves on New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Board in addition to his full time job as CFO of American Express. The Campbells and their children are avid skiers, mountain bikers and outdoor enthusiasts.

#VAILDANCE

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FESTIVAL PATRONS

���� VDF Patrons It is with the support of our patrons that the Vail Dance Festival has become one of the greatest in the world. We are deeply appreciative of their generosity and investment in our mission. The list that follows represents patrons who gave a gift between September 1, 2016 and April 17, 2017. For gifts made after this date, please refer to the evening program inserts.

UNDERWRITERS CIRCLE Anonymous Priscilla Brewster Pam & Ernie Elsner Town of Avon Town of Vail Jody & John Arnhold Jody and John Arnhold are supporters of dance in New York City and longtime admirers of VDF’s Artistic Director, Damian Woetzel.

They are proud to support the Vail Dance Festival. Jody’s most recent project as Executive Producer of the documentary PS DANCE! Dance Education in Public Schools has excited educators across the country. The film has sparked a movement #DanceForEveryChild that seeks to implement quality dance education in public schools nationwide. Join us at psdancenyc.com and plan to see the film August 6 at Cinebistro.

Donna & Donald Baumgartner For more than 25 years Donna and Donald have enjoyed their mountain home in the Lake Creek Valley. They have been active supporters of both the visual and performing arts in their hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and have shared their passion locally through their support of the Vail Dance Festival. As true lovers of the art of dance, they rarely miss a performance during the two week Festival.

Lisa Tannebaum & Don Brownstein Lisa Tannebaum and Don Brownstein are longtime supporters of the performing arts in Vail and Connecticut. Lisa has a career as a harpist and Don is the founder of Structured Portfolio Management.

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Doris Duke Charitable Foundation In her will, Doris Duke expressed her interest in assisting “actors, dancers, singers, musicians and other artists of the entertainment world in fulfilling their ambitions and providing opportunities for the public presentation of their arts and talents.” Given this guidance and Doris Duke’s interests during her life, the foundation focuses its support on contemporary dance, jazz and theater artists, and the organizations that nurture, present and produce them.

Marge & Phil Odeen Marge and Phil have had a home in Vail for over 40 years. When not in Vail they live in McLean, Virginia and North Palm Beach, Florida. They have supported the Dance Festival for several years and both have been active in numerous cultural and charitable activities in the communities in which they live.

Jill & Kevin Plancher Jill and Kevin Plancher first enjoyed the Vail Dance Festival in 1993 when Kevin was a fellow at the Steadman Clinic in Vail. They have attended and supported the Festival each and every year since. Jill and Kevin live in Greenwich, Connecticut and have three (grown) children Brian, Jamie and Megan and a daughter-in-law Annie Knickman. Kevin has a private orthopedic practice in New York City and Greenwich and Jill is a family lawyer with Connecticut Legal Services. They are delighted to once again support the International Evenings of Dance and this year, also to provide special support for Claudia Schreier’s new commissioned work on August 7.

Carol Storr, Storr Family Foundation Carol Storr of Greenwich, Connecticut, along with her husband Hans G. Storr, supported New York City Ballet as long as memory (and

records) serve. She regularly attended City Ballet performances with a close group of girlfriends where she followed Damian Woetzel and Heather Watts’ careers. She also enjoyed and supported the Vail Dance Festival, planning her summer visits to her Vail home around the Festival. In Vail, Carol loved to meet and interact with so many of the dancers who she followed for years in New York. Carol passed down her love and appreciation of dance to her family and they are proud to honor her memory at the American Dance Classics performance on August 1.

Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation proudly carries forth its founder’s belief in fairness and equal opportunity for women in the performing arts. It funds the commission of new works by emerging female artists in choreography, symphony, opera and theater.

Linda & Stephen Waterhouse Linda and Steve Waterhouse are proud to support Damian Woetzel and the Vail Dance Festival.

They believe that only in Vail can one see the finest dancers and choreography in the world, in one venue, over a two week period. For Linda and Steve, this Festival is an education for the eye and an opportunity to experience the joy of dance - a beautiful “summer camp” for everyone!

Mary Wolf One of Mary Wolf’s fondest memories of the Vail Dance Festival was when President Ford graciously inquired about Mary’s pregnancy (her son Christopher is now 23) and introduced himself to Melissa (then 13) during intermission - the rest is history! Mary and her family have enjoyed and supported the Festival ever since, so much so that Mary moved permanently from Chicago to the Vail Valley in 2016.

DIAMOND DRESS CIRCLE Karen & John Arnold* Joanne Crosby Barbara & Robert DeLuca, Currents Fine Jewelry Peter Frechette^* Peggy Fossett Sheika & Pepi Gramshammer Malo & John Harrison Martha Head* Wendy Williams and Noel & Ben Kullavanijaya Nancy & Richard Lubin Mary Lujack and Sarah & Gracie Johnson Leni & Peter May* Jean & Tom McDonnell Carolyn & Gene Mercy Marvin Naiman and Margery Goldman Family Foundation Jane & Skip Netzorg Sherri & Robert L. Patton, Jr.* Martha & Terry Perl Senenne & Marc Philippon Vikki & Michael Price* Nancy & Don Remey Janet Pyle & Paul Repetto Mary Sue & Michael Shannon* Marcy & Gerald Spector* Dhuanne & Douglas Tansill * VVF Cornerstone Patron

PLATINUM DRESS CIRCLE Barbara Baldrey Christine & John Bakalar Barbara & Christopher Brody Lisa & Bruce Goldman Kathy & William Hybl Joanne Posner-Mayer Rella & Monroe Rifkin Michael Ritchie Nancy Sands Pixley & Ken Schiciano Susan & Jeffrey Stern Genie & Robert Stine Martin Waldbaum Joan Whittenberg LaDonna & Gary Wicklund GOLD DRESS CIRCLE Martin Atkin & Reid Balthaser Dierdre & Ronnie Baker Margo & Terry Boyle Diane & Jeff Brundage Ann Smead & Michael Byram Donae & Rob Chramosta Yvonne Chen Arlene Harris & Martin Cooper Linda & Berry Craddock Robert J. Croteau & Karen A. Nold Lois & Stephen Eisen

Julie & Bill Esrey Susan & Harry Frampton Jennifer & Richard Geisman Jane & Ray Heller Debra Herz Lorraine & Harley Higbie Raydean Acevedo & Walter Jenkins Alexia & Jerry Jurschak Elaine & Art Kelton Judy & Alan Kosloff Irmgard & Charles Lipcon Phil Livingston Helen McIntyre Larned A. Waterman & Paul S. Mesard Melanie & Allan Nelkin Karen R. Nagel Ronnie & William Potter Irene Shen Marla Steele Deana & Gerald Stempler Kelley & Brendan Synnott Joan Nissman & Judith Nissman Taylor Linda & Stew Turley Tina & David Wilson Ellen & James Wiss Margaret & Glen Wood Barbara & Peter Wright SILVER DRESS CIRCLE Anonymous Roxanne & Ed Anderson Brenda & Joe Adeeb Bonnie Andrikopoulos Wendy & Warren Blumenthal Rebecca & Howard Braverman Gleneen & Joseph Brienza Kaye Summers & Dan Carpenter Maryalice Cheney & Scott Goldman Margaret & Clayton Chessman Brenda & Thomas Curnin Renee & Jeffrey Epstein Micki & Larry Fletcher Stacey Frieder Margie & Tom Gart Vicky & John Garnsey Kelly & Michael Gottlieb Sharon & Tom Haverstock Ami & Scott Hudgins Bonnie Lee & Lawrence Kivel Gretchen & Charles Lobitz H. Carroll & Jonna Mackin Ferrell & William McClean Deborah Nunez Kathi Renman & Jim Picard Lisa & Kenneth Schanzer Fran Schulman Nancy & John Snyder

VAIL VALLEY Anonymous (2) Martha Brassel & Chris Anderson Ellen Arnovitz Nancy & John Austin Deborah & David Boillot Randolph Brown Christine & George Burns Bunnie & Jay Busch Clara Willoughby Cargile Allie Coppeak Chus de la Lama Fred Distelhorst Diane & Larry Feldman Erika & Matt Fitzgerald Norma & Morton Funger Miriam & Morris Futernick Elizabeth & Michael Galvin Stephanie & John Hanson Pamela & Richard Hinds Karin & Dean Johnson Lynn & Andrew Kaufman Ruth & Sidney Lapidus Ann & William Lieff Susan & Steven Lipstein Marjorie Marks Janet & John Meck Marka Moser Sandy & Fred Pack Carey & Tim Romer Nina Saks Jennifer & Irene Seda Nancy & Stanley Singer Mark & Kimberlee Sullivan Karen & John Weslar Patricia & Edward Wahtera Hanna Warren FAN CLUB Anonymous Janet & Bill Adler Lee Ann Allman Sheila & James Amend Catherine & Truman Anderson Carol Atha Marilyn Averill Zoe Baird Beth Barbre Elizabeth Benish Carrie Benway Alison Biggers Kathy & Jack Blair Marie & Steven Booren Diana Bradley Dr. Donna DeSimone & Dr. Stephen Brenman Barbara & Gary Bryson Judy & Arthur Canter Julie Carr Amy Shea & Joel Cawley Jerome Chaves

In Memoriam: Jack Crosby was a visionary and inspiration during the early days of the Vail Dance Festival. Jack served on the VDF committee, was a founding member of the Friends of Vail, the Vail Valley Foundation, and a supporter of the Vilar Performing Arts Center. He was the first recipient, together with President Ford, of the VVF’s Citizen of the Year award.

Pat & Pete Frechette were generous members of the Vail Valley Foundation and longtime supporters of the Vilar Performing Arts Center’s STARS education outreach program. Pete served on the Board of Directors of the VVF and the Frechettes received the VVF’s Citizen of the Year Award in 2015. They also provided vital support to many keystone community institutions including Roundup River Ranch, Walking Mountains and the Education Center at Betty Ford Alpine Gardens.

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FESTIVAL PATRONS Mary Lynn Cohagan Karyn Contino Maureen & David Cross Diane Bradshaw & Dr. John Demenkoff Nancy & Craig Denton Debra Devereaux Gregory Dickhens Sherry Dorward Barbara Dubin Mark Ettenger Carolyn & Don Etter Carole & Peter Feistmann Barbara & Lawrence Field David Folkes Carolyn & Reed Ford Becky & Bob Ford Inge Franberg Jim Francis Donald Freedman Eileen Friars & Scott Pyle Thomas Gendron Holly & Ben Gill Merrily Glosband Suzanne Greene Laurie & Jim Gregg Sharon Gurwitz Emy & Michael Halpert Jan Harkins Heather Hay Craig Held Ronne & Donald Hess Kimberley Hoch Daniel Hoeffel Betsy Hoke A. Jackson Holt Marilyn & Matthew Horween Loyal & Jill Huddleston Meredith & Roger Hutson Leslie Isom Alberta & Reese Johnson Liz Jones Terri Jones Ann Kennedy Robert Kidd Caroline Fisher & Bob Knous Katherine & Derek Konopka Irene & Gasper Lazzara Cynthia LeBreton Tracy & Brian Lenehan Alaine Lerner Helena & Peter Leslie Elspeth MacHattie Vicki & Roger Marce Karen Marisak Stephen Marquart Nancy & Michael McKeever Janet & John Meck Leslie & Charles Mishner Patricia Montgomery

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Elizabeth Chambers & Ronald Mooney Susan & Joe Morrill Emorene Morris Peggy Morse Daniel Murphy John Murphy Marcie Musser Sandy Newman Judy & Denny O’Brien Susan Stearns & Frank O’Loughlin JeriLynn & Gordon Ommen Hope & Greg O’Quin Sandy & Fred Pack Carlinda & Luis Quintero Barbara Reed, MD Rosalind Reed Nancy Reynolds Kenneth Robinson Suzie & Frank Robinson Lynn & Randy Rose Philip Rosenfeld Barbara & Howard Rothenberg Maria Rotunno Nancy Pennica & Wayne Ruting Jill Rutledge Jackaline Rutter Janet Schliefert Susan Schneider Carol & Stanley Shapiro Donna Whittington & Charles Singer Martha Skinner Diane Smith Ira Smith Terry Snyder Nancy Alexander & David Staat Linda & Timothy Stancliffe Judy & Robert Stiber Charles E. Stoopack Patricia & Jack Sturdivant Jill Tanenbaum Michael Tocci Ellen & Stephen Tower Thomas Trumble Laurian Unnevehr Brian VanStone Victor Vensas Judy & Phil Walters Nancy Warshofsky Diana & Bryan Watabe Bella Whelan Claudie & Richard Williams Mary Williams Bruce Wilson Colby Wilson SUPPORTING MEMBER Nancy Berkley Mary & Bill Cotton Susan Depue

Lillian Edwards Lauren Freedman Jennifer & Brad Greenblum Doris Dewton & Richard Gretz Rhonda Gross Gloria Heyer Sheila Kautt Sherry & Joe MacKinnon Linda McKinney Deborah & Fred Tresca Jennifer & Jake Van Beelen Michelle & Gerald Warshofsky Anne Wiedenmayer Warner Wims CONTRIBUTING MEMBER Anita Altman Tracy Broderick Karen Coats Kay Maune & David Elmore Luis Escalante Mariana Garza Cindy Hennessy Allyson Ludewig Kent Lupberger Julie Mazenko Betsy & William Nevin Nancy & Mauri Nottingham Bill Roberts Irv Robinson Sue & Michael Rushmore Susan Salomon Olivia Snider Carol & Roger Sperry Linda Wolcott ARTE DAVIES MEMORIAL Anonymous Katrina Ammer Heidi & Stephen Elzinga Lauren Gary Lee Jones Elaine & Art Kelton Marsha Landesman Marka Moser Heather Watts & Damian Woetzel IN HONOR OF JUDY BERKOWITZ Lois & Stephen Eisen Ruth & Sidney Lapidus IN HONOR OF GIL BOGGS Raydean Acevedo & Walter Jenkins IN MEMORY OF JACK CROSBY Clara Willoughby Cargile Allie Coppeak

IN MEMORY OF PAT & PETE FRECHETTE Allie Coppeak IN HONOR OF ABIGAIL & MORRIS FREIDIN Marilyn & Matthew Horween IN MEMORY OF ELIZABETH STOOPACK Charles E. Stoopack IN HONOR OF JOAN WHITTENBERG Allie Coppeak Martha Brassel IN HONOR OF DAMIAN WOETZEL Jody & John Arnhold Zoë Baird FOUNDATION SUPPORT Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Community First Foundation Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Eagle Valley Community Fund El Pomar Foundation National Endowment for the Arts Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation CORNERSTONE Karen & John Arnold Peter Frechette^ Martha Head Leni & Peter May Sherri & Robert L. Patton, Jr. Vikki & Michael Price Mary Sue & Michael Shannon Marcy & Gerald Spector Oscar Tang Family FRIENDS OF VAIL Phyllis & Steve Anderson Patricia & Sergio Arguelles Susan & Dale Benditz Judy & Howard Berkowitz Marlene & John Boll Kathy & Bjorn Erik Borgen Ron & Lisa Brill Charitable Trust Kelly & Sam Bronfman Patsy & Pedro Cerisola Renee & Todd Davison Marijke & Lodewijk DeVink Barbara & Thomas Dooley Julie & Bill Esrey Stephanie & Larry Flinn Susan & Harry Frampton Margie & Tom Gart Donna Giordano Georgia & Donald Gogel

Lisa & Bruce Goldman Lyn Goldstein Jeanne & James Gustafson Viviana & George Handtmann Judy Hart Angelo Rick Hayes Karen & Michael Herman Heather & Glenn Hilliard Kathy & Al Hubbard Mr. & Mrs. H. Anthony Ittleson Susu & George Johnson Diane Pitt & Mitchell Karlin Cynnie & Peter Kellogg Ruth & Sidney Lapidus Vicki & Kent Logan Patricia & Frank Lynch Shirley & William S. McIntyre Amanda & Neal Moszkowski Jean & Raymond Oglethorpe Molly & Jay Precourt Mary & Steven Read Sara & Eric Resnick J. Douglas Rippeto Maru & Jorge Rojas June & Paul Rossetti Lisa & Kenneth Schanzer Sydney & Stanley S. Shuman Ann Smead & Michael Byram Jim & Tammy Snee Sue & Martin Solomon Bill Stolzer James W. Taylor Denise O’Leary & Kent Thiry Deborah & Fred Tresca Debra & Ken Tuchman Barbara & Richard Wenninger Kristy & Bill Woolfolk EAGLE PROGRAM Holly Adams Bacca Foundation Liz Cronin Angela & Peter Dal Pezzo Georgia & Robert Hatcher Tara & Robert Levine Nicole & Steve Lucido Michele & David Mittelman Amy & Jay Regan Margie & Charles Steinmetz MEDALLION Anonymous Vicki & Dr. Garry Boxer Lisa Tannebaum & Don Brownstein Jeff & Susan Campbell Peggy Fossett Roberta & Michael Joseph Shelby & J. Scott Key Sarah & Peter Millett Kristen Nostrand-Junker & Steve Junker

Senenne & Marc Philippon Kerri & Steven Siegel William Sterett, M.D. Marjorie A. Swig Linda & Stew Turley Jan & Greg Winchester CHAMPIONS CIRCLE Anonymous (2) Sheldon D. Andrew & Jeffrey D. Byrne Ann Newman & Andy Arnold Marilyn Augur Jeanne & Joe Brandmeyer Mary Beth & Phil Canfield Kay & Thomas Clanton Jane & Reed Eberly Trish Fillo Joan Francis Laura & William Frick Elizabeth & Michael Galvin Sheika & Pepi Gramshammer Kiwi & Landon Hilliard Kathy & William Hybl Alexia & Jerry Jurschak Marlene & Ben Krell Almudena & Rodrigo Lebois Richard McVey Carolyn & Gene Mercy Alejandra & Tomas Milmo Vicki & Trygve Myhren Sissel & Richard Pomboy Paul Repetto & Janet Pyle Suzanne & Bernie Scharf Elaine & Steven Schwartzreich Janis & Ronald Simon Harvey Simpson Elizabeth & Rodney Slifer Brooke & Hap Stein Mark & Becca Stupfel Sally & Gregg Tryhus Jacqueline & Norman Waite Laura & Stephen Wehrle Marilyn & Ron Wollard

Vail Valley Foundation Board of Directors Andy Arnold John Arnold Hans Berglund Judy Berkowitz Sam Bronfman Susan Campbell Steve Coyer Andy Daly Ron Davis Matt Donovan Bill Esrey Johannes Faessler Tim Finchem Steve Friedman John Garnsey Margie Gart Donna Giordano Sheika Gramshammer Martha Head Michael Herman Beth Howard Al Hubbard B.J. Hybl Mike Imhof

DIRECTORS EMERITUS

Adam Aron Marlene Boll Bjorn Erik Borgen Berry Craddock Harry Frampton, Chairman Emeritus John Galvin George Gillett

Chris Jarnot George Johnson Alexia Jurschak Mark Kogan Doug Lovell Sarah Millett Ellen Moritz Kaia Moritz Bobby Patton Michael Price Eric Resnick Douglas Rippeto Dick Rothkopf Ken Schanzer Mike Shannon Stanley Shuman Rod Slifer Ann Smead, Chairman Hap Stein Kristin Tang Fred Tresca Stewart Turley Betsy Wiegers Gary Woodworth Pepi Gramshammer Steve Haber William Hybl Elaine Kelton Kent Logan Peter May Oscar Tang

Dance Festival Committee Members

^ recently deceased

Jeffrey Cirio performs in Vail. Photo by Erin Baiano.

Judy Berkowitz, Committee Chair Priscilla Brewster Susan Campbell Allie Coppeak Stacey Frieder Lisa Goldman Sheika Gramshammer Jane Netzorg Senenne Philippon Jill Plancher Linda Waterhouse Betsy Wiegers

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FEATURED COMPANIES evenings in traditional theater venues as well as site specific performances in nontraditional environments. New works by the company endeavor to be multidisciplinary collaborations with visual artists, musicians, designers, film directors and composers. L.A. Dance Project also promotes the work of emerging and established creators, contributing to new platforms for dance.

In 2016, L.A. Dance Project announced a three-year partnership with the renowned Joyce Theater in New York City, as well as a multi-year residency at LUMA Arles, Parc des Ateliers, Arles, a multidisciplinary arts center initiated by the LUMA Foundation Arles. Van Cleef & Arpels has been the premier sponsor of L.A. Dance Project since 2013. L.A. Dance Project will be the Company in Residence for the 17/18 season at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, in Beverly Hills.

Photo by Erin Baiano

BalletX Co-Founder, Artistic & Executive Director: Christine Cox BalletX, Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet, unites distinguished choreographers with an outstanding company of dancers to forge new works of athleticism, emotion, and grace. Founded in 2005 by Christine Cox and Matthew Neenan, and now under the direction of Cox, BalletX challenges the boundaries of classical ballet by encouraging formal experimentation while preserving rigorous technique. The company is committed to producing new works that bring the combined visions of choreographers and dancers to life and cultivate a collective appetite for bold, new dance.

DANCERS: Megan Dickinson Chloe Felesina Francesca Forcella Gary W. Jeter II Zachary Kapeluck

DANCERS: Stephanie Amurao Aaron Carr Julia Eichten David Adrian Freeland, Jr. Morgan Lugo Nathan B. Makolandra

Robbie Moore Rachelle Rafailedes Lilja Rúriksdóttir Janie Taylor Carla Körbes, Associate Artist Sebastien Marcovici, Ballet Master

Daniel Mayo Roderick Phifer Caili Quan Richard Villaverde Andrea Yorita

Photo by Erin Baiano

Brooklyn Rider

Photo by Laurent Philippe

L.A. Dance Project Artistic Director: Benjamin Millepied L.A. Dance Project was founded in 2012 by choreographer and dancer Benjamin Millepied, along with composers Nico Muhly and Nicholas Brittel, art consultant Matthieu Humery, and founding producer Charles Fabius.

L.A. Dance Project’s mission is to create new work and to revive seminal collaborations from influential dance-makers. Programs include full-length

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Hailed as “the future of chamber music” (Strings), Brooklyn Rider offers eclectic repertoire in gripping performances that continue to attract legions of fans and draw rave reviews from classical, world, and rock critics alike. In the 16-17 season, Brooklyn Rider released collaborative albums with mezzosoprano Anne Sofie von Otter and banjoist Béla Fleck, and performed at Carnegie Hall and the Opernhaus Zurich. The group also toured the U.S. with dancers Brian Brooks and Wendy Whelan, in a program titled Some of a Thousand Words, performing music by John Luther Adams, Tyondai Braxton, Philip Glass, Evan Ziporyn, and Colin Jacobsen.

MUSICIANS:

Violin Johnny Gandelsman, Colin Jacobsen Viola Nicholas Cords Cello Michael Nicolas

Photo by Matthew Murphy

Dorrance Dance Artistic Director: Michelle Dorrance Dorrance Dance aims to honor tap dance’s uniquely beautiful history in a new and dynamically compelling context, not by stripping the form of its tradition, but by pushing it rhythmically, aesthetically, and conceptually.

Street, club, and experimental dance forms – all of which are American dreams – awaken to the sound of furious rhythms and find their boundaries missing. Tap dance, America’s longest-standing indigenous jazz vernacular, is here to receive its due. Founded in 2011 by McArthur ‘Genius’ Michelle Dorrance, Dorrance Dance’s inaugural performance garnered a Bessie Award for “blasting open our notions of tap.” The company has performed at the Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, New York City Center, The Kennedy Center, Sadler’s Wells, Lincoln Center, The Yard, Works and Process at the Guggenheim, National Arts Center of Canada, Barcelona Tap Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, and many others to rave reviews.

Photo by Sue Daniels Photography

Colorado Ballet Artistic Director: Gil Boggs Established in 1961 by Lillian Covillo and Freidann Parker, Colorado Ballet is celebrating nearly 60 years of presenting classical ballet and innovative dance in Denver. Under the direction of Artistic Director Gil Boggs, Colorado Ballet presents more than 50 performances annually and the professional company consists of 30 dancers with diverse backgrounds from around the world, including Japan, Russia, Cuba, Canada, France, Ireland, Brazil, Italy, Ecuador, Mexico, and the U.S. There are more than 20 members in the Studio Company which provides young dancers with training and performance opportunities as a start into a professional career.

Each season, the Company enhances the cultural life of Colorado through a variety of professional performances, training at the Academy, and Education & Community Engagement programs. Colorado Ballet’s recent successes include record-breaking ticket sales, a new home in a thriving arts district in Denver, and winning the honor of producing the best-loved Nutcracker production in the country.

DANCERS: Dana Benton Chandra Kuykendall Domenico Luciano Yosvani Ramos Asuka Sasaki Sharon Wehner Morgan Buchanan Francisco Estevez Tracy Jones Christophor Moulton Kevin Gaël Thomas Joshua Allenback Ariel Breitman Arianna Ciccarelli Mackenzie Dessens Alyssa Fazekas

Kevin Hale Bryce Lee Fernanda Oliveira Sean Omandam Kristine Padgett Nicolas Pelletier Emily Speed Jeremy Studinski Sarah Tryon Ben Winegar Melissa Zoebisch Regan Kucera Francesca Martoccio Tyler Rhoads

DANCERS: Michelle Dorrance,

Artistic Director/Choreographer

Nicholas Van Young,

Co-Creator/Choreographer

Ephrat Asherie

MUSICIANS: Donovan Dorrance Aaron Marcellus

Elizabeth Burke Warren Craft Leonardo Sandoval Byron Tittle Gabe Winns Ortiz Gregory Richardson

Photo by Brigid Pierce

Martha Graham Dance Company Artistic Director: Janet Eilber The Martha Graham Dance Company has been a world leader in the development of contemporary dance since its founding in 1926. Today, the Company is embracing a vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham #VAILDANCE

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FEATURED COMPANIES alongside commissioned works by contemporary artists, offering rich contextual narratives and multiple points of access for audiences. Along with extensive touring, the Company’s wide range of digital presentations reaches audiences around the world. Since its inception, the Company has received acclaim in more than 50 countries and, as recently noted in the Washington Post, “features some of the most skilled and powerful dancers you can ever hope to see.”

DANCERS: Abdiel Jacobsen Lloyd Knight Ben Schultz Xin Ying Natasha M. Diamond-Walker Charlotte Landreau Lloyd Mayor Ari Mayzick

Lorenzo Pagano So Young An Laurel Dalley Smith Anne O’Donnell Anne Souder Leslie Andrea Williams Marzia Memoli

Photo by Joe Kusumoto

Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra The Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra is an established ensemble of professional musicians drawn from major symphony orchestras across the nation, in-residence each summer under the baton of Artistic Advisor and Conductor David Danzmayr. Flexible in both size and repertoire, the BMF musician collective enlivens the community with mainstage orchestral concerts as well as intimate chamber performances on trails, in homes, and throughout Summit County.

MUSICIANS:

Conductor: Kurt Crowley Violin I Kate Hatmaker, Hugh Palmer, Juliette Javaheri Violin II Adrian Pintea, Meghan Jones, Maya Cohon Viola Jan-Marie Joyce, Susan Pardue, Sadie deWall Cello James Holland, David Rosen, Alex Greenbaum Bass Nick Browne Flute Amy Casper Clarinet Ken Krause, Danny Goldman Bassoon TK DeWitt Horn Joe Assi, Mary Beth Orr Trumpet Tim McFadden, Steve Haefner Trombone John Allen, Jemmie Robertson, Tom Joyce Tuba Raúl Rodríguez Timpani Chandler Teague Percussion Rajesh Prasad

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Photo by Amanda Tipton

Wonderbound Artistic Director, Choreographer & President: Garrett Ammon Wonderbound is an American dance company that lives at the convergence of tradition and innovation, vulnerability and courage, and intimacy and openness. Under the leadership of husband-and-wife team Garrett Ammon and Dawn Fay, Wonderbound is committed to the development and sharing of collaborative artistic experiences. These undertakings have come to define Wonderbound, producing creations that erase boundaries between mediums and engage artists and audiences in candid explorations of the human experience.

DANCERS: Evan Flood Amy Fogarty Conner Horak Corbin Kalinowski Stephanie Moffett-Hugg Damien Patterson Morgan Sicklick Sarah Tallman Nayomi Van Brunt Ben Youngstone

FESTIVAL ARTISTS

Michelle Dorrance

Garrett Ammon

Jared Angle

Artistic Director Wonderbound

Lil Buck

Jeffrey Cirio

American Ballet Theatre

Artistic Director BalletX

American Ballet Theatre

Cameron Dieck

Da’Von Doane

Janet Eilber

Robert Fairchild

Memphis Jooker

New York City Ballet

Joseph Gordon

New York City Ballet

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Francesca Hayward

The Royal Ballet

New York City Ballet

Gil Boggs

Artist-In-Residence Dorrance Dance

Christine Cox

Artistic Director Martha Graham Dance Company

Elena Heiss

Alma Flamenca

Isabella Boylston

Artistic Director Colorado Ballet

American Ballet Theatre

Misty Copeland

Patricia Delgado

Marcelo Gomes

New York City Ballet

American Ballet Theatre

Bill Irwin

Carla Körbes

Actor, Clown & Dancer

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FESTIVAL ARTISTS

Misa Kuranaga

Lauren Lovette

Boston Ballet

Miriam Miller

New York City Ballet

Benjamin Millepied

New York City Ballet

Artistic Director L.A. Dance Project

Tiler Peck

Unity Phelan

Claudia Schreier

Andrea Selby

New York City Ballet

Choreographer

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New York City Ballet

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Illustrator

“Audacious” Adi Malcolm Alexa Maxwell Freestyle Dancer

New York City Ballet

Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles

Tap Dancer

Memphis Jooker

Phyouture “Lil P”

Scholar-In-Residence Memphis Jooker

Pam Tanowitz

Choreographer

Dario Natarelli

Calvin Royal III

Roman Mejia

School of American Ballet

Matthew Neenan

Choreographer

Marcelino Sambé

American Ballet Theatre

The Royal Ballet

Devon Teuscher

Melissa Toogood

American Ballet Theatre

Pam Tanowitz Dance

MUSICIANS Daniel Ulbricht

James Whiteside

Kate Davis

Andrea Gibson

Nancy McDill

Gabe Schnider

New York City Ballet

Vocalist

Pianist

Da’Von Doane dancing in Vail.

Photo by Erin Baiano.

Kurt Crowley

American Ballet Theatre

Spoken Word Artist

Guitarist

Music Director, Conductor & Pianist

Cameron Grant Principal Pianist

Savannah Harris Drummer

Caroline Shaw

Leonard Bernstein Composer-In-Residence

Kate Hatmaker

Violinist

Heather Watts and Carla KĂśrbes.

Vail Mountain School Rehearsal 2016.

James Whiteside rehearsing in Vail.

Photo by Erin Baiano.

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Thank You

Mary Lowman, Assistant Stage Manager CELEBRATE Erin Baiano, Festival Photographer THE BEAT STAFF Nel Shelby, Festival Videographer Tracy Straus, Artistic Director Brian Maloney, Special Events Kris Ashley, Vail Program Director Photographer Colleen Macomber, Teaching Artist GOLD SPONSORS Bob Ford, Chief Financial Officer Shelby Seier, Artistic Administration Tim Ribner, Musical Director Town of Vail Martha Brassel, Director of Development Assistant Jacob Liddard, Co-Music Director Vail Resorts Martin Nieves, Senior Festival Manager Joe Samala, Sound Assistant Volvo Julia Salerno, Lodging Manager Sean Hamilton, Sound Assistant II FESTIVAL INTERNS EverBank Erin Kelly, Transportation Manager Timothy Smith, Assistant Electrician Alyssa Thompson Shelley Woodworth, Marketing & Sarah Bahr, Wardrobe Assistant Angelina Pellini SILVER SPONSORS Public Relations Cameron Morgan, Social Media Christine Woolley Colorado Mountain Express Tom Boyd, Director of PR & Assistant Colby Wilson Korbel California Champagne Communications Alison Romer, Special Events Coordinator Dominique Terrell John Hancock Insurance Maggie Bevan, Marketing Manager Katherine Sayre, Membership & Indigo Sparks TriggerPoint Ruthie Hamrick, Marketing Manager, Development Michele Philippon VPAC Berneil Bannon, Volunteer Front of Naomi Furst COMMUNITY SPONSORS Alix Miller, Marketing & Digital House Coordinator Olivia Maggi FirstBank Media Manager Linda Nielsen, Transportation Olivia Rowe The Gallegos Corporation Melissa Bartoletta, Assistant Marketing Volunteer Coordinator Ryan Mikel Grey Salt Manager Cathy Heller, CAA Coordinator Shannon Mizell Vail Integrative Medical Group Heidi Elzinga, Assistant to the Raquel Walder Perch Vail President & CEO BOX OFFICE STAFF Eye Pieces of Vail Jennifer Craig-Geisman, Public Lauren Gary, Box Office Manager AMBASSADOR TEAM Skipper & Scout Relations Tim Felton, Assistant Box Office Manager Annie Cerovich, Coordinator The Squash Blossom/Jamie Wolf Greg Bloom, Sponsorship Sales Director Jan Sackbauer Alicia Chavez, Coordinator Crazy Mountain Brewing Company Jessica Stevens, Sponsorship Mark Strass Grace Anderson, Coordinator Berglund Architects Sales Director Sophie Ozaneaux Addie Maurer Sacha Kostick, Sponsorship Aidan Woodworth LODGING PARTNERS Account Manager GERALD R. FORD Alexa Dean Sonnenalp Hotel Lisa Babb, Hospitality Manager AMPHITHEATER STAFF Audrey Howell Manor Vail Lodge Lee Jones, VP of Development & Jennifer Mason, Director Calley Gottbehuett Christiania at Vail Membership Patrick Zimmerman, Production Manager Chapin Benway Sun Vail Condominiums Kristin Morgan, Membership & Peter Blosten, House Manager Clementine Perkins The Christie Lodge Development Director Eva Labine Hotel Gasthof Gramshammer Emily Sessler, Development Manager VILAR PERFORMING Finn Dippy Lodge at Vail Lindsey Breed, Membership & Donor ARTS CENTER STAFF Grant Maurer Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa Relations Manager Duncan Horner, Executive Director Harry Jaffe Erin Hall, Development Administrator Chris Henry, Director of Operations Jakob Herndler SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS Taylre Derby, Events & Development Erik Brown, Technical Director Jamie Lenehan Blue Moose Manager Dean Davis, Facilities Manager Katie Deck Greg Jones Helen Gies, Senior Accounting Manager Kimberly Hannold, Administrative Margeaux Stavney Holly Cole, Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine Kevin Rowe, IT Manager Coordinator Maya Stojkovich Jonathan Katz Dionne Drugan-Brown, Office Manager Chris Whitney, Food & Beverage Manager Olivia Pyke The Keith Haring Foundation Sarah Silverblatt-Buser, Festival Beth Pond, Development Officer Serena Kozusko Larkspur Coordinator Aja Vogelman, Assistant Technical Shyanna Maloney LaTour Russell Kaiser, Rehearsal Director Director Sydney Dietz Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa Michael Sheridan, Assistant to the Lauren Johnson, Front of House Talia Tyler PlumpJack Group Artistic Director Manager Taylor Petrowski Shelly & Chris Jarnot Kate Penner, New Media Editor Town of Avon Joseph Futral, Director of Production Tracey Van Curan, Foods of Vail Jenna Webster, Production Manager LIGHTING DESIGNER Vail Friends of the Dance Jim Leitner, Production Lighting Designer Vail Mountain School Lisa Leonhardt, Production White Bison Stage Manager Betsy Ayer, Guest Stage Manager he Vail Dance Festival gratefully VAIL VALLEY FOUNDATION/ Aaron Copp, Guest Lighting Designer acknowledges lighting designer Jim Leitner VAIL DANCE FESTIVAL STAFF Scott Calder, Master Electrician for 20 years of extraordinary service. Jim Mike Imhof, President & CEO Mark Valenzuela, Sound Engineer continues to showcase our dancers beautifully Damian Woetzel, Festival Jan Hiland, Wardrobe Mistress by orchestrating the natural light of the Amphitheater at dusk and Artistic Director Bryan Bauer, Assistant Stage Manager the eventual starry-filled night with precision and artistry.

Jim Leitner

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Choreographers’ Canon Celebrating American Dance: George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Martha Graham

By Claudia Schreier

Daniel Ulbricht in Fancy Free.

Photo by Sharon Bradford.

Tuesday, August 1 7:30pm

Robbins’ Fancy Free & Balanchine’s Serenade*

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail Friday, August 11 7:30pm

Martha Graham Dance Company Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail

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his summer, Vail Dance Festival presents two programs at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater that shine the spotlight on three 20th century creative geniuses who redefined American dance: George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Martha Graham. Spanning the worlds of ballet, Broadway and modern dance — and sometimes combining all three — these choreographers carved radically new paths that continue to resonate with audiences and influence artists of today.

GEORGE BALANCHINE: SERENADE*

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n a program celebrating American dance classics, what better choice than to present

the first ballet choreographed in America by the father of American ballet, George Balanchine?

Set to Tschaikovsky’s rapturous Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48, the seminal ballet premiered in 1934 with students of the School of American Ballet and has since become not only one of the cornerstones of New York City Ballet’s vast repertory, but one of the most-performed Balanchine ballets danced by professional companies, universities, and ballet schools across the world. This year, Vail Dance Festival welcomes Colorado Ballet to the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater stage to perform Serenade joined

by Festival guest artists. “Serenade was first performed outside under the stars in 1934, and in a sense it belongs on our stage” said Festival Director Damian Woetzel. “It is a ballet that is about the transforming nature of dance, and indeed it transforms our theater itself as the moon rises behind the stage and Tschaikovsky’s score fills the air.” Much has been written about the transcendent power of Serenade, though one need only hear the distinctive strains of descending notes washing over a pool of dancers bathed in blue to understand Balanchine’s genius. Vail audiences will have the added treat of hearing the score performed live by the

American Ballet 1935.

George Balanchine’s Serenade*.

Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra, which will be conducted by Kurt Crowley, the music director of Broadway’s Hamilton.

Serenade is iconic not only for its beauty and inextricable embodiment of Tschaikovsky’s score, but for its innovative merging of classical ballet technique and neoclassical ideals of harmony and equilibrium. In many ways Balanchine’s creative process for Serenade reflects celebrated 20th century American characteristics of spontaneity, adaptation, and perseverance. Said Balanchine of the ballet’s

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origins, “I started Serenade as evening classes to show how to be on the stage. I didn’t have any idea to produce anything. I happened to have seventeen dancers. And I placed them, almost looks like orange groves in California, you know? If I had only sixteen, even amount, there would be two lines. And now people ask me, why do you place them that way? Because I have seventeen.” Vail audiences might enjoy looking out for real-life moments that Balanchine incorporated into the choreography, such as a young dancer falling down and starting to cry, or another arriving late to rehearsal. Though the ballet went through various revisions over time, many of these original moments remain and are defining trademarks of the work.

Lincoln Kirstein, co-founder of the School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet, wrote of Serenade that “Balanchine, taking his inspiration from a new school in a new country, retained the lyrical atmosphere while projecting movement that was athletic — swiftly contemporary yet passionately youthful and idealistic. The ballet’s dramatic overtones, evolving from the music, evoke love, separation, loss, and rededication, but the imagery is rarely specific; there is no characterization of individual roles. If there is a star, perhaps it is the corps de ballet, which Balanchine, at the start of his American career, intended to strengthen past anonymity or any subordinate position.” (*Choreography by George Balanchine ©The George Balanchine Trust.)

JEROME ROBBINS: FANCY FREE

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trusted colleague of Balanchine and a prolific choreographic genius in his own right, Jerome Robbins epitomized and transformed the American dance scene from within. Festival Artistic Director Damian Woetzel’s own connections to Robbins run deep; handpicked from the School of American Ballet

by Robbins to join New York City Ballet in 1985, Woetzel became a young star of the company under his tutelage and had several original roles created on him by the dance icon. Woetzel’s personal history working directly with Robbins has been a strong influence on his work as a director: “I was fortunate to spend many years working with Jerry Robbins at New York City Ballet,” said Woetzel. “ His exacting standards were matched by his creative vision of what might be, and I am looking forward to celebrating Jerry and his work on the stage this summer.”

2018 marks the official kickoff of the Robbins Centennial, a richly deserved 100th birthday celebration heralding his extensive and unparalleled output, but it is hard to avoid starting the party a bit earlier. The impending festivities are all the more significant, given that it will also be the centennial of the great

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composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, whose influence on Robbins as a colleague and collaborator is inextricably linked to the choreographer’s legendary achievements.

Broadway fans may not know that two of the most famous Bernstein/Robbins collaborations on The Great White Way have their origins deeply rooted on the ballet stage. In planning their very first collaboration, Robbins and Bernstein wanted to infuse the work Carla Körbes in with a heavy dose of Martha Graham’s modern American Lamentation. sensibility and decided Photo by Erin Baiano. to depict what was, at the time, a typical WWII-era New York City scene: sailors on shore leave, exploring the sights and sounds. And thus, Fancy Free was born. Robbins’s 1944 debut ballet became an instant smash hit, receiving two dozen curtain calls at its premiere. The work put both young artists on the map, served as the inspiration for the full-length musical On the Town, and later led to their collaboration on the Broadway classic West Side Story.

On August 1, the Festival artists Robert Fairchild, Marcelo Gomes, Daniel Ulbricht, Tiler Peck and Alexa Maxwell will perform the work, accompanied by Breckenridge Festival Orchestra. Kurt Crowley will again take the conductor’s podium, which is a fitting tribute to Bernstein’s influence and score as Crowley shares not only Bernstein’s Harvard educational roots, but is also spanning the worlds of classical music and popular culture as the current Music Director of Hamilton on Broadway.

When once asked about his inspiration for Fancy Free, Robbins replied: “I thought, ‘Why can’t we dance about American subjects?

Why can’t we talk about the way we dance today, and how we are?’” Fittingly, upon his passing, The New York Times critic Anna Kisselgoff noted that “above all, he was a very American choreographer ... This genius for capturing the essence of an age was the Robbins signature.” Vail audiences will have the chance to delve deeper into the timelessness of the choreographer’s work during Woetzel’s popular UpClose event highlighting Robbins on August 2 (see sidebar).

MARTHA GRAHAM: THEN & NOW

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aking a highly-anticipated return to the Festival this year is Martha Graham Dance Company, a group whose namesake fundamentally changed the face of modern dance in America. The Company will present a full evening of Graham classics and new works on Friday, August 11, at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater.

Inherent in much of Martha Graham’s work is a pervasive physicality and attention to form, each movement punctuated with striking clarity. Unlike the dancers – whose stamina garnered from years of Graham technique training is essential to meeting the demands of the company’s repertory – audiences are left breathless by the awe-inspiring control the artists harness and release in explosive bursts.

This attention to the most minute of details in both movement and music results in an intoxicatingly rich experience for the audience.

When reviving seminal Graham works of the 20th century, Senior Artistic Associate and Rehearsal Director Denise Vale asks the company dancers to do their own historical research so that they can instill the work with as much of the original choreographic intent as possible. Through the viewing of archival photographs, video footage, and writings, the dancers internalize the history of the works and infuse each with renewed purpose.

One of the revived works on the program, Dark Meadow Suite (1946), is quintessential

Damian Woetzel with Robert Fairchild.

Photo by Teresa Wood.

Graham – powerful and gripping, sensuous and lyrical, evocative and meditative. The work was born somewhat as a byproduct; Graham had previously commissioned composer Carlos Chávez to create the score for her planned ballet Medea (which became Cave of the Heart), but then re-assigned the task to Samuel Barber to ensure the music would be completed in time. Chávez later submitted a full score, which Graham decided would instead be appropriate for Dark Meadow. The ballet was originally nearly an hour long, but will be presented in Vail as a suite arranged by Artistic Director Janet Eilber, who took the opportunity to shape the work in such a way that would allow for more audiences around the country to experience what she considers to be a pillar of the Graham repertory.

Dark Meadow Suite will be joined by two other classic Graham works, Satyric Festival Song (1932) and Deep Song (1937).

The latter, a solo work set to music

by Henry Cowell, is Graham’s choreographic reaction to the horrors and torments of the Spanish Civil War, and employs a white bench that echoes one used in her most wellknown solo, Lamentation (1930). In Deep Song, as with Lamentation, the dancer struggles with inner torment, coming to terms with an excruciating reality that is both personal and universal. In direct contrast, Satyric Festival Song is a joyful female solo work, one that can perhaps be interpreted as Graham’s self-parody of her customarily solemn choreographic voice. Set to lively music by Fernando Palacios, the work allows for the dancer to explore a sense of freedom and gaiety.

Though the chief mission of the Graham company is to preserve and present Graham’s original choreography, the artistic directors and board have made a concerted

effort in recent years to commission the work of living choreographers, both to honor the versatility of their artists and to keep pushing Martha Graham Dance Company into the future. For one of the Company’s most recent premieres, Mosaic, choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui draws on Sufi mysticism for his work set to traditional Middle Eastern music by Felix Buxton.

The score is interposed with audio clips of spoken commentary excerpted from news network airings, alluding to our troubling times. Here, ancient constructs and breaking news collide in a work that touches upon relatable themes of agitation and unrest.

In another move to meld classic and current, virtuosic Memphis jooker and Festival favorite Lil Buck will turn classicism on its head with the world premiere of his own Lamentation Variation, which will be the latest in a series of contemporary responses to Graham’s affecting solo mentioned above. Buck’s last collaboration at the Festival in 2016, Blooming II, saw him intertwine and transform his signature style with the classical technique of Kuchipudi dancer Shantala Shivalingappa. Both choreographic crossovers were devised by Woetzel, whose unconventional artistic pairings have become one of the hallmarks of the Festival under his direction. Woetzel first explored approaching Lamentation in new ways last year when he presented famed ballerina, 2015 Artist-In-Residence, and then-new mother Carla Körbes with the challenge of channeling both the essence of the Graham technique — a style of movement counterintuitive to that of classical ballet — and the grief of losing a child, a sensation a mother would consider her worst fear realized. This year, Buck’s response to what has become one of the most famous female solos in modern dance history will allow the work to be seen in new light, once again reflecting the Festival’s distinctive vision for pushing the boundaries of creative potential and merging past, present and future.

Above all, he was a very American choreographer ... This genius for capturing the essence of an age was the Robbins signature.”

The New York Times

UPCLOSE: ROBBINS In the unique UpClose rehearsal-style format, an all-star cast celebrates the launch of legendary choreographer Jerome Robbins’ centennial birthday year in a performance hosted

by Artistic Director Damian Woetzel, who worked closely with Robbins during his career at New York City Ballet. The evening will focus on Robbins’ seminal works including Dances at a Gathering, Afternoon of a Faun, and the Leonard Bernstein collaborations West Side Story and Fancy Free. The idea of the UpClose evenings is to allow the audience to see past the finished performances, revealing the world of “how it happens” with a free-flowing rehearsal atmosphere where the dancers and musicians work openly. Woetzel explains how this year’s UpClose will be especially appropriate to the mission of the series: “Robbins never wanted to see us ‘performing.’

Instead, he worked tirelessly to create a natural style as if the audience was simply looking in on a rehearsal.”

Joining Woetzel to explore this sophisticated idea and many other aspects of Robbins’ genius as a choreographer and director, will be an extraordinary cast of celebrated dancers who perform the Robbins repertory today at New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.

Damian Woetzel, Robert LaFosse, and Peter Boal rehearsing with Jerome Robbins.

Photo by Martha Swope.

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Women choreographers on center stage NOW Premieres celebrates women choreographers

By Kimberly Nicoletti

Lauren Lovette. Photo by Erin Baiano.

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ail Dance Festival is known for taking risks, offering opportunities to both up-and-coming and established artists to push their creative boundaries and further the art form.

Artistic Director Damian Woetzel’s commitment to working beyond what is customary is a value he sticks with, year after year.

The NOW Premieres program has been one way Woetzel puts to practice his message of artistic innovation. Purposefully, this year’s program features four women choreographers: Lauren Lovette, Pam Tanowitz, Claudia Schreier and 2017 Artist-In-Residence Michelle Dorrance. While new work created by women dance-makers has been a staple of the Festival’s creative output over the last decade of Woetzel’s artistic direction, this season he felt it was important to make a clear statement about the importance of female choreographers today.

Many industries have noticeably few women

in positions of power, and the dance world, especially ballet, is notably lacking women choreographers, despite the industry itself being comprised of more women than men. The large pool of potential female creative voices is a double-edged sword: with so much competition among women, men stand out more easily and receive more scholarships and chances to perform and grow both as dancers and dancemakers. As Lovette suggests, men don’t usually begin from such a place of insecurity, where she found herself after realizing how difficult it was to simultaneously focus on becoming a principal dancer while developing her skills as a choreographer.

This dearth of women choreographers, in addition to issues on diversity, has become a hot topic in the dance world, creating room for much needed action and dialogue. Lovette points out that critics tend to put more pressure on women choreographers, while Tanowitz

illuminates the obvious, saying, “It’s great that it’s being highlighted, but we’ve always been making work. The fact that we have to highlight it is the problem.”

LOVETTE: TO PRINCIPAL AND BEYOND

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auren Lovette reached her initial goal of becoming a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet two years ago. But her unbound creativity and endless appetite for challenge hasn’t let her settle with reaching just one goal.

“In some way, it helps to reach the top rank because then you’re not climbing,” she says.

“I’ve reached this goal; now I can pursue something else.”

Lovette is innately musical, and having grown up with the Balanchine technique, primarily takes inspiration from the music.

During her initial meetings with Woetzel to

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Above: Melissa Toogood performing choreography by Pam Tanowitz.

Photo by Christopher Duggan courtesy of the Guggenheim Museum.

Right: Pam Tanowitz. Photo by Brad Paris.

discuss music choice, Woetzel was supportive of her suggestions, but encouraged her to create something she couldn’t present anywhere else.

Secretly, Lovette wanted to choreograph to spoken-word poetry, emoting the powerful verse through movement to create an exquisite sign language.

Just as Lovette is gambling with her music choice, so, too, she says, is Woetzel by featuring her as a choreographer.

“Every time you put somebody young onstage, you’re taking a chance,” Lovette says. “He does that with dancers, and he’s doing that with choreographers.”

The choreographic process has taught her to be a leader, to speak up, something young girls – and even grown dancers – aren’t always encouraged to do.

“Every time I challenge myself … I come out the other side giddy,” she says. “I grow so much every time.”

For a young woman who suffered paralyzing stage fright as a snowflake in the corps de ballet, she’s learned to embrace the fear and pressure, using it as fuel to become even stronger.

“This is just another way to push myself professionally,” she says. “I want to say a lot of things. But this summer, I want to show through my new work how important art is for people; how we can find commonality with each other through a common awareness.”

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TANOWITZ: REMIXING HISTORY

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he saying goes: one needs to know the rules to break the rules, and it’s no different in choreography — at least according to Pam Tanowitz. Tanowitz describes her process as employing “line and energy and innovative movement and relationships between movement and music” to reshape what already exists.

As a modern dance-trained choreographer working with ballet dancers, her approach results in tradition redefined through experimentation. “It’s using the technique of ballet and performing it in a different way,” she says. “It’s very step focused, like ‘talking dancing.’ … I was trained as a modern dancer, so my approach using these ballet steps is me examining, me coming from the outside.” She questions choreographic assumptions, and describes it as “taking the air out of traditional steps.”

For example, she manipulates the syntax of traditional ballet vocabulary, accenting the landing instead of the initiation of a pas de chat, and then following it with a pedestrian

box step. In this way, she strips down steps and finds new patterns.

“The boundaries of dance excite me,” Tanowitz says. “Making a dance is not a new activity. In trying to do something choreographers have done for decades, I set myself up within these limits and push myself to make something new and engaging to audiences. I see myself in a continuum of history, not as an isolated artist — but sitting on a timeline with others who came before me. I stopped caring so much about where my work fits within the boundaries and just started to create work that incorporates history and asks questions of that rich history — to ask questions and to make dance to try and answer them.”

Though she begins rehearsing with a loose conceptual idea, she’s most interested in the process of working with the dancers to discover new movement patterns. “I want the dancers to come through,” she says. Tanowitz’s dances tend to stretch into one big, unfinished piece.

“Sometimes, a dance bleeds into another … but the dances always come out differently than what was in my head. I don’t think I’ll ever do

I see myself in a continuum of history, not as an isolated artist — but sitting on a timeline with others who came before me.”

Pam Tanowitz

Left: Claudia Schreier. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor.

Above: Michelle Dorrance. Photo courtesy of John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

the dance that’s in my head. Having the past and present rubbing up against each other and being in that space; that’s my interest.”

SCHREIER: WHEN MUSIC SPEAKS DANCE

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laudia Schreier first came to Vail as a Festival intern in 2007, and she returned in 2016 as a choreographer, presenting her new work, Solitaire for last year’s NOW: Premieres program. Guided by the music of Shostakovich and Schnittke, Solitaire was a romantic ballet turned subtly dark.

This year, her work takes on a much different energy, celebrating Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday year.

“It’s quintessentially American music,” she says. “It’s really colorful, and there’s a lot of layers to it, and I mean that in every way — the rhythm, the timbre, the influences.”

Schreier trained in classical ballet and has been choreographing half of her life. With music as muse, she repeatedly listens to a piece until the steps simply come, as opposed to placing dance on top of the music.

“By internalizing the music, you’re putting a step there because it has to be there, not because

you want it to be,” she says. “I put a lot of my love into respecting the music, and I think the dancers appreciate it.”

As a result, complexity characterizes her work.

“I’ve become more comfortable in my own sound and voice,” she says. “One of the gifts of starting young was I was able to work through imitation and develop into my own style — a progression of what feels more like me.”

And yet, she doesn’t believe in feeling “at your best,” because there’s always more work to be done. It’s a never-ending creative process that fits with all of what happens at the Vail Dance Festival.

“Every opportunity gives you the chance to reflect on how you approach the creative process, how you interact with dance,” she says. “By the time it hits the stage, it’s out of your hands; by the time it’s on stage, I’m already looking at how I can improve.”

I put a lot of my love into respecting the music …”

Claudia Schreier

DORRANCE: DANCING OUT HER OWN SOUNDTRACK

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ap dance has stomped back into the spotlight thanks to artists like Michelle Dorrance — our Artist-In-Residence and one of the most

sought-after tap dancers of her generation.

In 1997, she moved to New York City to perform with top tap companies as well as the hit musical STOMP. Now, Dorrance has established herself as an internationally recognized artist, and has founded her own company, Dorrance Dance.

Determined to create a dynamic company that excels both technically and conceptually, Dorrance’s mission involves enabling audiences to experience how far tap has come since its nostalgic jazz form from decades past. Taking inspiration from the sounds created by her own dancers, Dorrance wants to challenge audiences to recognize “the dance form equally as a musical form.”

Dorrance’s dynamism comes largely from how different each of her dancers are, and finds that difference essential to her own voice as a choreographer.

“I’m a little eccentric,” she says, “but I think I have some really beautiful and traditional movers inside of my work, as well as some kind of real oddballs, and I really value that contrast and that tension inside the company.”

STEPPING OUT

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reaking boundaries is an ethos built in to the Vail Dance Festival, and these exceptional choreographers — who happen to be women — are doing just that.

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DANCE FESTIVAL VENUES

Festival Internship Program

Photo by John-Ryan Lockman

GERALD R. FORD AMPHITHEATER

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elebrating 30 years in 2017, the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail is a spectacular outdoor venue that seats 1,260 guests in covered seating and an additional 1,300 on its expansive grassy hillside with a breathtaking view of the Rocky Mountains.

Gates to the venue open one hour prior to showtime. Lawn seating is available on a first come-first served basis. The Amphitheater is fully ADA compliant and provides special accommodations for those with limited mobility. Concessions with food and alcohol sales are available at the facility. Picnics, legless chairs and commercially sealed nonalcoholic beverages are permitted. Bike and stroller parking is available.

A complimentary express shuttle is available from the top levels of both Town of Vail parking structures. Limited paid parking is available onsite on a first come-first served basis and complimentary golf cart service is available from these onsite lots and shuttle stops.

The following are not permitted at the GRFA: • Cameras • Bicycles • Smoking • Recording Devices • Scooters • Lawn Chairs • Skateboards • Firearms • Outside Alcohol

VILAR PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

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ocated in the heart of Colorado’s Beaver Creek Resort, the Vilar Performing Arts Center is a 535-seat theater managed by the Vail Valley Foundation which presents a variety of year-round performances including Broadway musicals, concerts, family entertainment, comedy, dance, classical music and more. The intimate and inviting performance space of the VPAC was designed to exacting specifications to create perfect acoustics and unobstructed views from every seat.

Free summer parking is available in Village Hall or Villa Montane in Beaver Creek Village on a first come-first served basis. Free summer parking is also available at the base of Beaver Creek Resort with free performance shuttles running on a regular schedule.

AVON PERFORMANCE PAVILION at Nottingham Park

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pened in 2015 in the Town of Avon, the Performance Pavilion at Nottingham Park is a year-round cultural and entertainment venue for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, theater performances, educational events, private functions and more.

Open-air seating is available on an expansive grass-covered area and is perfect for audiences of all ages. Limited Dance Festival bleacher seating is provided and attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets, umbrellas and picnics to make the experience even better!

Beginning one hour before performances, food and drinks are available for purchase and public restrooms are located adjacent to the venue in Nottingham Park. Nearby free parking is available on Lake Street, West Beaver Creek Boulevard and at the Avon Rec Center. Vail Dance Festival performances will take place – rain or shine!

The following items are not permitted in the Performance Pavilion: • Firearms • Dogs • Smoking • Outside Alcohol

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Photo by Brian Maloney.

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ach year, the Vail Dance Festival engages ambitious undergraduate and graduate students to serve as members of the Festival team, working as interns, assistants and ambassadors to support a variety of key areas including artist hospitality, onsite hosting & promotions, media & communications, education & outreach, venue & rehearsal management, technical production & membership development.

The internship lasts three weeks and offers unparalleled behind-the-scenes exposure to some of the world’s greatest dancers and choreographers and a rare, fast-tracked immersion experience into the world of arts administration.

The Festival provides weekly compensation, lodging and a travel allowance for its intern and assistant program. The application process for 2018 Festival internships will begin in November.

The Festival’s Internship Program is underwritten

by Jody & John Arnhold in honor of Damian Woetzel’s commitment to inspire and educate the next generation.

For a complete schedule of events, artist information and to purchase tickets:

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