Aspen Santa Fe Ballet
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Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (ASFB) is an American
contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in ...
company. It comprises eleven classically trained dancers. In addition to its domestic and international performances, the organization has a presentation program called "Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Presents", with summer and winter seasons that brings touring dance companies from around the world to both Aspen and Santa Fe. The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet has two official schools, one in Aspen, one in Santa Fe, and a year-round Mexican Folk Dance outreach program in both Colorado and New Mexico.


History

In 1995, at the invitation of Aspen Ballet Company and School founder Bebe Schweppe, Joffrey dancers Jean-Philippe Malaty and Tom Mossbrucker moved from New York City to embark on a vision of creating a professional dance company based in Aspen. The company started modestly with six dancers. Growth was organic. Friends in the field –
Gerald Arpino Gerald Arpino (January 14, 1923 – October 29, 2008) was an American dancer and choreographer. He was co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet and succeeded Robert Joffrey as its artistic director in 1988. Life and career Born on Staten Island, New Yo ...
,
Trey McIntyre Trey McIntyre (born November 12, 1969) is an American dancer and choreographer, who has a body of work that includes around 100 original dance pieces. He founded and acts as president of Trey McIntyre Project, a dance company that was based in B ...
, Septime Webre,
Dwight Rhoden Dwight Rhoden is an American choreographer and artistic director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet who began dancing at the age of 17 while studying acting. He has performed with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Les Ballet Jazz de Montréa ...
, offered start-up repertoire.
Moses Pendleton Moses Pendleton (born March 28, 1949) is a choreographer, dancer and the artistic director of MOMIX. MOMIX is a dance company that he formed in 1981 as an offshoot of the Pilobolus, which he had co-founded while a senior at Dartmouth College in 1 ...
's highly popular Noir Blanc was a seminal event for the young troupe. It launched a tradition of commissioning new work. An open, exploratory style emerged as Mossbrucker and Malaty tapped the creative scene in Europe where classical ballet was breaking from its boundaries. The athletic and adventurous American dancers found themselves at a crossroads of dance history. In 2000 the company began a co-venture with a presenting organization in Santa Fe and now perform under the name Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (ASFB) made its New York City debut at The
Joyce Theater The Joyce Theater (“The Joyce") is a 472-seat dance performance venue located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. The building opened in 1941 as the Elgin Theater, a movie house, and was gut-renovated and reconfigured in 1981-82 to re ...
in 2003 and has notably performed at
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Jacob's Pillow is a dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The organization is known for a Summer dance festival. The facility also includes a professional school and extensive archives a ...
and
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts (originally known as the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts and simply known as Wolf Trap) is a performing arts center located on of national park land in unincorporated Fairfax Count ...
. In 2004 ASFB made its international debut in Canada and France and in 2013 ASFB made its debut in Moscow, Russia.


Education

The School at Aspen Santa Fe Ballet includes a rigorous professional level ballet preparatory program, a critically acclaimed Folklorico program, as well as other community focused programs such as the Parkinson's Dance Program founded in 2013. The School at Aspen Santa Fe Ballet serves the communities surrounding the towns of Aspen, Basalt, and Carbondale in Colorado and Santa Fe, and Eldorado in New Mexico. Students in the youth programs perform in annual spring recitals, and alongside ASFB's professional dancers in The Nutcracker. To ensure that every child who wishes to dance can do so, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet awards over $30,000 in needs-based scholarships every year. The Folklorico Program is largely free to participants.


Staff

Bebe Schweppe, Founder, grew up in Augusta, Georgia, and started dancing at the age of 7 at Georgia Dance Theatre under Frankie Levy. At the age of eleven she was invited by Robert Joffrey to study in New York on a full scholarship. She moved to Aspen in 1975 and founded Aspen Ballet School in 1990, and Aspen Ballet Company in 1996. Jean-Philippe Malaty, Executive Director, grew up in the Basque region of France. After receiving his degree in dance, he accepted scholarships to study in some of Europe's most prestigious schools: MUDRA, Maurice Bejart's school in Brussels, and John Cranko's school in Stuttgart. At the invitation of David Howard, Jean-Philippe came to America to study at the David Howard Dance Center in New York City. Since then, Jean-Philippe has performed soloist roles with various companies throughout the country including Joffrey II, Los Angeles Classical Ballet,
Ballet Hispanico Ballet Hispánico is an American dance company based in Manhattan, New York. It was founded by the Puerto Rican-Mexican-American dancer and choreographer Tina Ramirez in 1970 and presents dances reflecting the experience of Hispanic and Latino ...
of New York, and the
Lyric Opera Lyric may refer to: * Lyrics, the words, often in verse form, which are sung, usually to a melody, and constitute the semantic content of a song * Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that expresses a subjective, personal point of view * Lyric, from t ...
of Chicago. He has been recognized by the U.S. government as an artist of extraordinary abilities and was granted a permanent resident status. Tom Mossbrucker, Artistic Director, started tap dancing at age four in his hometown of
Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...
. At age 14 he began his ballet studies with Jo Emery, and performed with her company, the Tacoma Performing Dance Company. His studies continued in New York at the
School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...
and the Joffrey Ballet School. He danced with Joffrey II before joining the
Joffrey Ballet The Joffrey Ballet is one of the premier dance companies and training institutions in the world today. Located in Chicago, Illinois, the Joffrey regularly performs classical and contemporary ballets during its annual performance season at Lyric O ...
, where he performed principal roles in over 70 ballets, and toured throughout the world. His favorite roles include those performed in ''
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'', ''
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'', ''
Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
'', and ''
The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaiko ...
''. He has appeared in television specials, and was featured in the Joffrey's Billboards, a full-length rock ballet set to music by Prince, which was released on videocassette. He danced with the
Atlanta Ballet Atlanta Ballet is a ballet company, located in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the longest continuously performing ballet company in the United States and the State Ballet of Georgia. History Atlanta Ballet was founded in 1929 by Dorothy Alexander as ...
and
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is a contemporary dance company based in Chicago. Hubbard Street performs in downtown Chicago at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance and at the Edlis Neeson Theater at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Hubb ...
.


Dancers

The dancers for the 2017–2018 season are: * Katherine Bolaños * Sadie Brown * Jenelle Figgins * Anna Gerberich * Emily Proctor Franc * Seia Rassenti * Austin Reynolds * Evan Supple * Anthony Tiedeman * Pete Leo Walker * Joseph Watson II


References


External links

*
Archival footage of ASFB performing ''Chameleon'' in 2008 at Jacob's Pillow

Archival footage of ASFB dancing Jiří Kylián's ''Stamping Ground'' in 2011 at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival

Archival footage of ASFB performing ''The Heart(s)pace'' in 2014 at Jacob's Pillow

Archival footage of ASFB performing ''Silent Ghost'' in 2016 at Jacob's Pillow

{{authority control Contemporary dance companies Dance in Colorado Dance in New Mexico Ballet companies in the United States Ballet schools in the United States Culture of Santa Fe, New Mexico 1995 establishments in Colorado Folk dance companies Performing groups established in 1996