Choreography by George Balanchine*
©The George Balanchine Trust

Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Original Scenery and Costumes by Rouben Ter-Arutunian

Premiere: November 20, 1951 | New York City Ballet
City Center of Music and Drama

George Balanchine preferred The Sleeping Beauty to Swan Lake, the first of Tchaikovsky’s three full-length ballets.When asked by Morton Baum of the City Center of Music and Drama, both Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein hesitated at staging Swan Lake for New York City Ballet and finally did so only as “insurance” that they would be allowed to mount a more daring piece in the future.

The performance of Swan Lake, a Balanchine® Ballet, is presented by arrangement with The George Balanchine Trust and has been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style® and Balanchine Technique®.

Service standards established and provided by the Trust.

*© The George Balanchine Trust

Choreography by Merce Cunningham
Music by John Cage | Improvisation III

Original Costume and Lighting Design by Mark Lancaster

Premiere: February 26, 1980 | Merce Cunningham Dance Company
New York City Center, New York

Duets is performed in agreement with the Merce Cunningham Trust.

Music by Igor Stravinsky | Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
(By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publishers and copyright owners)

Choreography by George Balanchine*
Original Scenery by Robin Wagner
Original Costumes by Karinska

Premiere: April 13, 1967 | New York City Ballet
New York State Theater, New York

Jewels is unique: a full-length, three-act plotless ballet that uses the music of three very different composers.Balanchine was inspired by the artistry of jewelry designer Claude Arpels and chose music revealing the essence of each jewel.Rubies is crisp and witty, epitomizing the collaboration of Stravinsky and Balanchine.

The performance of Rubies, a Balanchine® Ballet, is presented by arrangement with The George Balanchine Trust and has been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style® and Balanchine Technique®.

Service standards established and provided by the Trust.

*© The George Balanchine Trust

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchine is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet. He came to the United States in late 1933, at the age of 29, accepting the invitation of the young American arts patron Lincoln Kirstein (1907-96), whose great passions included the dream of creating a ballet company in America. At Balanchine’s behest, Kirstein was also prepared to support the formation of an American academy of ballet that would eventually rival the long-established schools of Europe.

This was the School of American Ballet, founded in 1934, the first product of the Balanchine-Kirstein collaboration. Several ballet companies directed by the two were created and dissolved in the years that followed, while Balanchine found other outlets for his choreography.Eventually, with a performance on October 11, 1948, New York City Ballet was born. Balanchine served as its ballet master and principal choreographer from 1948 until his death in 1983.

Balanchine’s more than 400 dance works include Serenade (1934), Concerto Barocco (1941), Le Palais de Cristal, later renamed Symphony in C (1947), Orpheus (1948), The Nutcracker (1954), Agon (1957), Symphony in Three Movements (1972), Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1972), Vienna Waltzes (1977), Ballo della Regina (1978), and Mozartiana (1981). His final ballet, a new version of Stravinsky’s Variations for Orchestra, was created in 1982.

He also choreographed for films, operas, revues, and musicals. Among his best-known dances for the stage is “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” originally created for Broadway’s On Your Toes (1936).The musical was later made into a movie.

A major artistic figure of the twentieth century, Balanchine revolutionized the look of classical ballet. Taking classicism as his base, he heightened, quickened, expanded, streamlined, and even inverted the fundamentals of the 400-year-old language of academic dance. This had an inestimable influence on the growth of dance in America. Although at first his style seemed particularly suited to the energy and speed of American dancers, especially those he trained, his ballets are now performed by all the major classical ballet companies throughout the world.

Merce Cunningham was a leader of the American avant-garde throughout his 70-year career and is considered one of the most important choreographers of our time. Through much of his life, he was also one of the greatest American dancers. With an artistic career distinguished by constant innovation, Cunningham expanded the frontiers not only of dance, but also of contemporary visual and performing arts. His collaborations with artistic innovators from every creative discipline have yielded an unparalleled body of American dance, music, and visual art.

Of all his collaborations, Cunningham’s work with John Cage, his life partner from the 1940s until Cage’s death in 1992, had the greatest influence on his practice. Together, Cunningham and Cage proposed a number of radical innovations. The most famous and controversial of these concerned the relationship between dance and music, which they concluded may occur in the same time and space but should be created independently of one another. The two also made extensive use of chance procedures, abandoning not only musical forms, but narrative and other conventional elements of dance composition—such as cause and effect, and climax and anticlimax. For Cunningham, the subject of his dances was always dance itself.

Born in Centralia, Wash., on April 16, 1919, Cunningham began his professional modern dance career at 20 with a six-year tenure as a soloist in the Martha Graham Dance Company. In 1944, he presented his first solo show and in 1953, formed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a forum to explore his groundbreaking ideas. Over the course of his career, Cunningham choreographed more than 150 dances and over 800 “Events.” Dancers who trained with Cunningham and have gone on to form their own companies include Paul Taylor, Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Karole Armitage, Foofwa d’Immobilité, and Jonah Bokaer. Cunningham’s lifelong passion for exploration and innovation made him a leader in applying new technologies to the arts. He began investigating dance on film in the 1970s and choreographed using the computer program DanceForms during the latter part of his career. He explored motion capture technology to create decor for BIPED (1999), and his interest in new media led to the creation of Mondays with Merce. This webcast series provides a never-before-seen look at the company and Cunningham’s teaching technique with video of advanced technique class, company rehearsal, archival footage, and interviews with current and former company members, choreographers, and collaborators.

An active choreographer and mentor to the arts world until his death at the age of 90, Cunningham earned some of the highest honors bestowed in the arts.Among his many awards are the National Medal of Arts (1990) and the MacArthur Fellowship (1985). He also received the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award in 2009, Japan’s Praemium Imperiale in 2005, and the British Laurence Olivier Award in 1985, and was named Officier of the Legion d’Honneur in France in 2004.Cunningham’s life and artistic vision have been the subject of four books and three major exhibitions, and his works have been presented by groups including the Ballet of the Paris Opéra, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, White Oak Dance Project, and London’s Rambert Dance Company. Cunningham died in his New York City home on July 26, 2009. Always forward thinking, he developed the precedent-setting Legacy Plan prior to his death to guide his company and ensure the preservation of his artistic legacy.(Photo by Mark Seliger.)

Michael Vernon started dancing at the Nesta Brooking School of Ballet in London before going on to study at the Royal Ballet School in London with such legendary teachers as Dame Ninette de Valois and Leonide Massine. He performed with the Royal Ballet, Royal Opera Ballet, and London Festival Ballet before coming to New York in 1976 to join the Eglevsky Ballet as ballet master and resident choreographer. He became artistic director of the Long Island-based company in 1989 and remained in that position until 1996.

Vernon choreographed numerous ballets for the Eglevsky Ballet, in addition to ballets for many other professional companies in the United States and worldwide, such as BalletMet of Columbus, Ohio, and North Carolina Dance Theatre. Mikhail Baryshnikov commissioned him to choreograph the successful pas de deux In a Country Garden for American Ballet Theatre (ABT). His solo S’Wonderful was danced by ABT principal Cynthia Harvey in the presence of President and Mrs. Reagan and shown nationwide on CBS television. He served as the assistant choreographer on Ken Russell’s movie Valentino, starring Rudolph Nureyev and Leslie Caron.

Vernon taught at Steps on Broadway in New York City for many years, working with dancers from New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and many other high-profile companies. He is an integral part of the Manhattan Dance Project, which brings New York-style master classes to all regions of the United States. He has been involved with the Ballet Program of the Chautauqua Institution since 1996 and is the artistic advisor for the Ballet School of Stamford. He is permanent guest teacher at the Manhattan Youth Ballet and has a long association with Ballet Hawaii.

Vernon has been a company teacher for American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He has guest taught in companies all over the world, including West Australian Ballet, National Ballet of China, Hong Kong Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Berlin Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, and Norwegian National Ballet. He has been a guest teacher for The Juilliard School and taught for many years at The Ailey School. He recently joined the panel of judges for the Youth of America Grand Prix regional semi-finals. For the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he is chair of the Ballet Department, Vernon has choreographed Endless Night, Jeux, Spectre de la Rose, and Cathedral, and has staged and provided additional choreography for the full-length classics Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. He has choreographed for many IU Opera Theater productions, such as Faust and the world premiere of Vincent.

Stuart Chafetz is a conductor with a dynamic podium demeanor and a refined sense of audience engagement. Increasingly in demand with orchestras across the continent, this season, he will be on the podium in Naples, Phoenix, Houston, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cincinnati, Hawaii, Columbus, Jacksonville, Buffalo, Louisiana, Grand Rapids, and more.

Previous conducting appearances include the orchestras of Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Florida, Houston, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Louisiana, Naples, New Mexico, Phoenix, San Francisco Ballet, and Virginia. Chafetz has had the privilege to work with renowned artists such as Chris Botti, George Benson, Richard Chamberlain, The Chieftains, Jennifer Holliday, John Denver, Marvin Hamlisch, Thomas Hampson, Wynonna Judd, Jim Nabors, Randy Newman, Jon Kimura Parker, and Bernadette Peters.

He previously held posts as resident conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and associate conductor of the Louisville Orchestra. As principal timpanist of the Honolulu Symphony for 20 years, Chafetz would also conduct the annual Nutcracker performances with Ballet Hawaii and principals from American Ballet Theatre. It was during that time that he led numerous concerts with the Maui Symphony and Pops.

In the summers, Chafetz spends his time at the Chautauqua Institution, where he conducts the annual Fourth of July and Opera Pops concerts with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, in addition to his role as the orchestra’s timpanist.

When not on the podium, he makes his home near San Francisco, Calif., with his wife Ann Krinitsky. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and a master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music.

Patricia Blair was born in New York City, began studying ballet at the age of 7, and began her performing career at 17. While a student at North Carolina School of the Arts, she was chosen to dance the role of Myrtha in Giselle alongside principal dancers Svea Ekloff and American Ballet Theatre’s Burton Taylor. In 1979, she joined the Eglevsky Ballet, under the direction of Edward Villella and then Michael Vernon. In 1984, while still dancing full time with the company, she became one of the organization’s ballet mistresses, rehearsing the repertoire of George Balanchine, Vernon, and guest choreographers. Throughout her years at Eglevsky Ballet, she was also an active teacher in New York, teaching classes for Eglevsky, Harkness House for Ballet Arts, and Steps NY, and volunteering to work with at-risk youth in churches and community centers. During off seasons, she performed as a guest artist developing new works with many New York choreographers, danced in musical theatre productions across the United States and on Broadway, and briefly entered the Los Angeles movie world with Pavanne for a Dying Princess, a solo dance film created especially for her.

In September 1987, on the recommendation of Balanchine repetiteur Victoria Simon, Blair was asked by Daniel Duell to stage several works for Chicago City Ballet’s fall season. After only three weeks, Duell invited her to stay and join his artistic team. She worked alongside Duell to form the plans for Ballet Chicago, a company created to reflect Duell’s vision. She served as ballet mistress for Ballet Chicago from 1988 to 1997, and was appointed director of The School of Ballet Chicago in 1995 and associate artistic director in 2002.

In addition to her work with Ballet Chicago, Blair gives master classes throughout the region and has been a guest teacher for Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle, Wash., Gem City Ballet in Dayton, Ohio, and in May 2007, had the honor of teaching at The School of American Ballet. She has a lifelong love for the ballets of George Balanchine and appreciates both the privilege of having performed them as well as the joy of passing them on to today’s dancers. She has been responsible for a large body of Balanchine repertoire at Ballet Chicago and has staged both his Serenade and Allegro Brilliante for St.Louis Ballet. This is her first time working with IU Ballet Theater.

Born in Sioux Falls, S.D., Paul Boos relocated to New York City at age 15 to study dance on full scholarship at the Harkness House. Afterward, he studied on scholarship at the American Ballet Theatre School and, finally, at the School of American Ballet (SAB). It was at SAB, while working extensively with both George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, that Boos developed an intimate understanding of the connection between music and movement. After dancing principal roles in Balanchine’s Symphony in C and Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering as part of the SAB workshop, Boos was invited by Balanchine to join New York City Ballet (NYCB) at the age of 18.

He went on to dance with NYCB for 13 years before launching into the international scene as a guest teacher, initially with the Royal Danish Ballet, where he taught for three years. In 1992, Boos was entrusted by the George Balanchine Trust to become a sanctioned repetiteur. Since then, he has gone on to stage ballets all over the world with such companies as the Paris Opera, Bolshoi, Maryinsky, La Scala, Joffrey, and others. This is his first collaboration with IU Ballet Theater.

Founder and artistic director of Ballet Chicago, Daniel Duell is a force in the development of American Classicism and is passionate about the advancement of ballet technique in its purest and most energetic form. As a dancer with the New York City Ballet (NYCB) from 1972 to 1987, he was taught and coached daily by George Balanchine. Quickly rising through the ranks, Duell was promoted to soloist in 1977 and principal dancer in 1979. He performed a wide-ranging repertoire, dancing leading roles in the ballets of Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, and Jacques d’Amboise, among others, including multiple works that were created for him. A Ford Foundation Scholarship recipient from the age of 13, Duell trained with the Dayton Civic Ballet and The School of American Ballet before being invited to join NYCB at the age of 19. In addition to his 15 years at NYCB, he was a featured guest artist for numerous companies nationwide and performed for several PBS Dance in America television programs. Duell has been choreographing since 1980 and has created works for Ballet Chicago, Ballet Hispanico of New York, Dayton Ballet, Harkness Dance Theatre, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and The School of American Ballet. He collaborated with WTTW Channel 11 in Chicago to design two programs: an Emmy Award-winning special (Outstanding Cultural Programming) on Ballet Chicago and Love in Four Acts, showcasing four Chicago choreographers selected by Duell. He received the 2000 Ruth Page Award from the Chicago Dance Community for his artistic direction of The Ballet Chicago Studio Company.

Duell is a frequent lecturer on ballet, music, and the arts, serves on several not-for-profit boards and advisory boards, and has been an adjudicator for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. He is also a repetiteur for The George Balanchine Trust and stages ballets across the United States. He conducts master classes in both the United States and Europe, including teaching engagements at The School of American Ballet, Indiana University, The University of Iowa, and the Bulgarian National Dance Academy in Sophia, Bulgaria. In spring 2011, he worked with the Royal Danish Ballet, teaching and coaching the company in preparation for its New York season. Duell taught again for The Royal Danish Ballet in preparation for the company’s spring 2012 Copenhagen performances of major Balanchine/Stravinsky ballets.

Patrick Mero is the head of lighting for Indiana University Opera and Ballet Theater. He has designed the lighting for Don Giovanni, Albert Herring, La Bohème, Tosca, L’Italiana in Algeri, West Side Story, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi. He has done extensive design work for the Jacobs School of Music Ballet Department and the African American Art Institute’s Dance Ensemble. In addition to his work on the Musical Arts Center stage, Mero’s designs have been seen in several Cardinal Stage Company productions, including, most recently, All My Sons, Romeo and Juliet, The Grapes of Wrath, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Inherit the Wind.Mero originally hails from Charleston, S.C., but calls Bloomington home.

Banu Ogan was born in Ankara, Turkey, and grew up in Bloomington, Ind., where she studied ballet with Lila Rosen Huse and won a National Society of Arts and Letters Career Award in Dance. In 1991, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1993 until 2000, she danced with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, where she originated roles in 10 new works. Since leaving the Cunningham company, she has performed in pieces by Boris Charmatz, Pam Tanowitz, Jonah Bokaer, Christopher Williams, Ashley Chen, Foofwa d’Imobilité, and Carrie Hanson/The Seldoms. Ogan has taught technique class and repertory workshops across the United States and in Canada, Spain, Switzerland, France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Israel, and Turkey, including master classes for Matthew Bourne’s casts of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, and for the Batsheva Dance Company. She spent 2004-05 as a full-time faculty lecturer at Columbia College, Chicago, taught for two summers at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and has been guest faculty at Yale University, the University of Michigan, and La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York City. Ogan has staged Cunningham’s dances for several professional companies and student groups, including Düsseldorf’s Ballett am Rhein, Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, Royal Swedish Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, New World School for the Arts, The Five Colleges in Amherst, Mass., Rutgers University, Marymount Manhattan College, and The Juilliard School. She served on the faculty of The Juilliard School from 2005 to 2014 and on the faculty of Marymount Manhattan College from 2008 to 2014. Currently, she is a freelance dancer and teaches ballet and modern dance at Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Ogan is honored to have been awarded a Merce Cunningham Fellowship for 2014.

Shawn Stevens is originally from Houston, Texas.At age 14, she attended Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts under the direction of Sydelle Gomberg. She continued her training at the School of American Ballet. In 1982, she was chosen by George Balanchine to join the New York City Ballet (NYCB). During her time with the company, she performed principal roles in Balanchine’s ballets, including Symphony in Three Movements, The Four Temperaments, and Symphony in C. She also danced in the original cast and performed principal roles in Brahms/Handel, choreographed by Twyla Tharp and Jerome Robbins. Stevens has worked with many other choreographers, such as Peter Martins, William Forsythe, Edward Villella, Ib Andersen, and Joseph Duell. During the 10 years she performed with NYCB, she danced in the TV programs Live from Lincoln Center with NYCB and Dance in America. She has also appeared as a principal dancer with the New York City Opera in Cinderella. In 1991, Stevens joined Twyla Tharp Dance, where she performed for five years. With Tharp’s company, she performed repertoire works as well as new works as a principal. She was asked to dance in the Cutting Up tour with Tharp and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Stevens’ film credits include I’ll Do Anything and In the Upper Room, both choreographed by Tharp. Stevens was personally invited to perform in Tharp’s hit Broadway musical Movin’ Out. She has been teaching ballet at several schools, universities, and companies throughout the United States. She is approved by The George Balanchine Trust to restage George Balanchine works and also stages works by Tharp through the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation.

Irina Ter-Grigoryan received her degrees of piano performance, pedagogy, and accompaniment in the former Soviet Union. She served as a faculty member at the Baku State Conservatory and as an accompanist for the Azerbaijan State Theater Opera and Ballet. She was selected from a small pool of musicians to accompany international and regional competitions representing the Soviet Union. During her time in the United States, Ter-Grigoryan has continued her work as an accompanist with the Temple Square Concert Series Recitals in Salt Lake City, Utah; the University of Utah; and Ballet West Co.; and as a collaborative pianist at DePauw University. She currently holds the position of accompanist and music director with the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Ballet Department.

Violette Verdy was a leading ballerina of the twentieth century, principal dancer for the New York City Ballet for 20 years, and former artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet and Boston Ballet.

Verdy has performed with over 50 companies on such stages as the Paris Opera, La Scala, Bolshoi Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre, Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, David H. Koch Theater, and the White House (by invitation of President Ford). She was a principal dancer with Ballets des Champs-Elysées and Ballets de Paris (1945-1956), London Festival Ballet (1954-1955), Ballet Rambert (1957), American Ballet Theatre (1957-1958), and New York City Ballet (1958-1977). She performed in over 100 different ballets with works by more than 50 choreographers, including those of the classical canon: Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Les Sylphides, Don Quixote, La Sylphide, Romeo andJuliet, Cinderella, and Coppélia. Ballets created especially for Verdy include Roland Petit’s Le Loup; George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Jewels, La Source, Sonatine, Liebeslieder Waltzer, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Episodes, The Figure in the Carpet, Electronics, Glinkiana, and Choral Variations on Bach’s “Vom Himmel Hoch”; Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering, In the Night, and A Beethoven Pas de Deux; and Balanchine/Robbins’ Pulcinella.

Verdy has worked as a teacher and coach with over 150 professional companies and schools worldwide and has visited many more around the United States while serving as a scout for the Ford Foundation and the School of American Ballet. She has been on faculty with the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 1996. The inaugural recipient of the Kathy Ziliak Anderson Chair in Ballet (2010), Verdy was also elevated to a Distinguished Professor (2005) and awarded the President’s Medal for Excellence (2013). She serves as principal guest teacher to the School of American Ballet, New York City, and as artistic advisor to the Académie Américaine de Danse de Paris. She has also been invited to teach at the Paris Opera Ballet for the last several summers.

Verdy has many firsts to her credit, including the first female to be artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet (1977-1980), the first non-Russian female to be invited to teach at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow since the Russian Revolution of 1917 (2004, 2005), and the first to hold a university faculty chair position solely for ballet.

Verdy has appeared on stage and film and was featured on British, French, Canadian, and American television. Appearances include the title role in Ludwig Berger’s film Ballerina (1949) and Jacqueline Audry’s film Olivia (1950); Montherlant’s play Malatesta with Jean-Louis Barrault (1950); MGM’s film The Glass Slipper (1955); NBC’s Bell Telephone Hour, Dinah Shore Show, and The Mike Douglas Show; CBS’s Carol Burnett Show; CBC’s The Still Point and The Nutcracker (by Neumeier); BBC’s Music for You and Turned Out Proud; PBS’s tribute to George Balanchine, Dance in America, and American Masters’ Jerome Robbins – Something to Dance About; Dominique Delouche’s Comme les Oiseaux (2009) and Balanchine in Paris (2011); and the documentary Budding Stars of the Paris Opera Ballet (2013).

Verdy has published children’s literature, including Of Swans, Sugarplums and Satin Slippers: Ballet Stories for Children (1991) and Giselle: A Role for a Lifetime (1970). She has been the subject of two biographies: Ballerina: A Biography of Violette Verdy by Victoria Huckenpahler (1978) and Violette Verdy by Dominique Delouche and Florence Poudru (2008), and of three documentaries: Rebecca Eaton’s Violette: A Life in Dance (1982), Dominique Delouche’s Violette & Mr. B (2001), and the VAI documentary Violette Verdy: The Artist Teacher at Chautauqua Institution (2009). She was on the cover of the March 16, 1959, edition of LIFE magazine.

Verdy has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions. Most notably, she was awarded two medals from the French Government—the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 1971 and Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’honneur in 2009. She holds honorary doctorates from Goucher College, Boston Conservatory, and Skidmore College. In 1992, Pont l’Abbé, France (Verdy’s hometown), named its new theater auditorium in her honor. In 2000, she was the recipient of Chautauqua Institution’s Kay Logan’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2001, she was awarded the Gala XV Women of Distinction Award from Birmingham-Southern College and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Ballet Teachers in Higher Education CORPS de Ballet, Inc. In 2003, the School of American Ballet awarded her its Artistic Achievements Award, and in 2007, she received the Ballet2000 Irène Lidova Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2009, the School of American Ballet honored Verdy with the Mae L. Wien Faculty Award for Distinguished Service, and in 2011, she received the Jerome Robbins Award.

A native of China, Guoping Wang trained at the Shanghai Dance Academy and in the graduate program at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He performed with the Shanghai Ballet Company, Ballet Chicago Company, Colorado Ballet, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and many other companies. He worked with the Shanghai Ballet Company for 11 years before coming to IU. Wang has performed in many countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Israel, England, Scotland, Italy, Portugal, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and in many U.S. states. From 1995 to 2002, he performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has taught at Cincinnati Ballet Company and School, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Gus Giordano Dance Center, Joffrey Ballet Company Apprentice Program, Salt Creek Ballet of Chicago, North Shore School of Dance, Ballet Chicago, Butler University, Ping Academy of Dance Canada, Kaleidoscope Company Indiana, Alwin School of the Dance in New Mexico, Dance Interlochen Center for the Arts, Rochester Ballet Company in New York, and many other ballet schools. Among the many roles he has danced are Coppelia for Ballet Chicago and The Torch Bearer for the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, both in 1997. He received the Ruth Page Award for outstanding dance achievement. Wang has been on the faculty of the School of Ballet Chicago and is a teacher and coach for Indiana University Ballet Theater.

Margaret Andriani began her ballet training at Kansas City Ballet at the age of eight. At the age of 13, she joined the Kansas City Youth Ballet under the direction of Alecia Good-Boresow, Kimberly Cowen, and Hyuk Ku-Kwon. Throughout her time at Kansas City Ballet, she was able to perform alongside the company as a corps member in Todd Bolender’s The Nutcracker, George Balanchine’s Serenade, and Victoria Morgan’s Cinderella.For the 2013-2014 season, she was the company’s student apprentice under the direction of Devon Carney. She has spent summers training at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Indiana University, and Ballet Austin. Currently, Andriani is a freshman at IU pursuing a major in ballet and an outside field in arts management. She is a recipient of the Jacobs School of Music Young Artist merit award and the Jacobs School Music Faculty Award.

Aaron Anker was born in Portland, Ore., and began his dance training at the age of four in Ashland, Ore. Upon moving to Virginia, he began formal ballet training at age 10 under the direction of Lisa Snape Avery. He attended summer programs at The Rock School, Carolina Ballet, Chautauqua Institution, and Boston Ballet, and has trained under many prestigious teachers, including Suzanne Farrell, Violette Verdy, Patricia McBride, and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. Anker has been featured in principal roles at Indiana University in George Balanchine’s Donizetti Variations, Emeralds, and The Four Temperaments, Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies, Violette Verdy’s Variations for Eight, Nicolo Fonte’s Left Unsaid, and Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, as well as in the role of Amore, a character created by director Tom Diamond in his production of the opera Xerxes. He has also performed roles in George Balanchine’s Western Symphony and August Bournonville’s Tarantella. Anker is currently a junior at Indiana University studying ballet and biology.

Mary Elizabeth Bastian was born and raised in Rochester, N.Y. From the age of 7 through 18, she attended The Draper Center for Dance Education School under the artistic director of Jamey Leverett. While attending summer intensives at Draper Center, she also attended Boston Ballet Summer Intensive and San Francisco Ballet Summer Intensive. She was awarded the Scholastic Arts Spotlight through WROC and Fox Rochester, and The Harry Karpinksi Scholarship through BOCES United Professionals. Bastian has competed in the Youth American Grand Prix, placing in both Contemporary and Classical categories. She was awarded Regional Outstanding Dancer for New York City Dance Alliance and was invited to compete at Nationals on Scholarship in New York City, where she won a dance education scholarship. Bastian has performed with the Rochester City Ballet as a trainee in Cinderella, The Firebird, The Nutcracker, The Blood Countess, and Serenade.She is currently a sophomore at the Jacobs School of Music.

Bella Calafiura began her ballet training at the age of three in Port Richey, Fla., under Gillian Davis, where she completed all the Royal Academy of Dance Grades and Vocational Syllabi with the mark of distinction. In 2009, she was a semi-finalist in the Geneè International Ballet Competition in Singapore. In high school, she went on to train at the Patel Conservatory at the Straz Center for Performing Arts under Peter Stark and Ivonne Lemus. Calafiura spent her summers training at Houston Ballet, Orlando Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, and Paul Taylor Dance Company. This past summer, she was an intern at Broadway Dance Center and completed its Summer Professional Semester. Since being at IU, she has enjoyed dancing featured roles in Paul Taylor’s Company B, Twyla Tharp’s Sweet Fields, and this past spring’s Bournonville Suite. Calafiura is a recipient of the Ken C .Whitener Jr. Fund for Ballet Excellence and is working toward her outside field in arts management.

Andrew Copeland began studying ballet in 2001 and trained at Rowland School of Ballet in Kingwood, Texas, and Akiko Ballet Studio in Japan. He attended Ballet West for two years, Oklahoma City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Portland Festival for a summer intensive with full scholarship. He is a recipient of the Premier Young Artist Scholarship from the Jacobs School of Music as well as the United Airlines Scholarship. He is a member of Hutton Honors College, Founder’s Scholars at IU, and Phi Eta Sigma and Alpha Lambda Delta honor societies. With IUBT, Copeland has performed in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker as Arabian and Paul Taylor’s Airs. He is currently a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Biochemistry.

Austin Dowdy was born in Tampa, Fla.He began his formal training at the age of 14 with Orlando Ballet School directed by Peter Stark, where he achieved many classical titles at the Youth America Grand Prix. Two years later, he moved to New York and studied under Darla Hoover at Ballet Academy East. During his time there, he danced George Balanchine’s the Nutcracker™ and Raymonda Variations, among original works by Daniel Ulbricht and Jonathan Stafford, principals of the New York City Ballet. Additional studies include the School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Orlando Ballet School, each on full scholarship. Since coming to Indiana University, he has danced featured roles such as Waltz of the Flowers, Trepak, Chinese, and Harlequin Doll divertissements in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker and the Melancholic theme in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, as well as various supporting corps de ballet roles.

Tyler Dowdy is a sophomore at Indiana University. Originally from Tampa, Fla., he began formal training at Next Generation Ballet under the direction of Peter Stark. While there, he appeared in Swan Lake, Cinderella, and The Nutcracker. Since arriving at IU, Dowdy has performed in The Nutcracker as the Nutcracker, as well as in Trepak and Chinese. He also has danced George Balanchine’s Donizetti Variations.

Eli Downs is originally from Washington, D.C., and has trained at The Washington School of Ballet under the direction of Kee Juan Han. He was also coached by former Paul Taylor dancer Constance Dinapoli. Downs has performed in many roles, such as the Nutcracker Prince in Septime Weber’s The Nutcracker, pas de trois in Don Quixote, and second solo in Paul Taylor’s Aureole. He has attended summer intensives at American Ballet Theatre, The Washington School of Ballet, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. He is currently a freshman pursing a degree in ballet and communications.

Rachel Duvall is a senior at Indiana University. She is from Mission Hills, Kan., and trained at the Kansas City Ballet School, where she was an apprentice with the Kansas City Ballet for the 2010-11 season. She has attended summer programs with The School of American Ballet, San Francisco Ballet School, and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. While at Indiana University, she has performed in Concerto Barrocco, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Appalachian Spring, The Four Temperaments, Western Symphony, and Divertimento No. 15. Duvall is also studying business while at IU.

Elizabeth Edwards is currently a senior at IU, graduating in May with a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Biology. Her training began at age eight with the Atlanta Ballet Center for Dance Education, where she graduated from the pre-professional division. She has attended several summer ballet programs, including Chautauqua, Pacific Northwest, Houston, Atlanta, and one of her own design with Dora Manela. During her time at IU, Edwards has been featured in Balanchine’s Emeralds as Sicilienne and in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker as the Snow Queen. She is a foundation scholar and a member of the Hutton Honors College.

Colin Ellis is a sophomore from McHenry, Ill. He began his classical training at age five with the Judith Svalander School of Ballet on full scholarship. He has attended summer intensive programs with American Ballet Theatre, The Bolshoi Ballet Academy in New York City, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Ballet Chicago, all on merit scholarships. He was in the corps de ballet in the 2010 movie Life Lessons. He was awarded a third-place prize at the 2012 Carey Rose Winski Dance Scholarship Competition and is a recipient of the 2013 Woodstock Fine Arts Scholarship. In 2014, Ellis won third place in the National Society of Arts and Letters Classical Ballet competition. So far with IUBT, Ellis has performed in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, Paul Taylor’s Airs, Anthony Tudor’s Dark Elegies, and Balanchine’s Emeralds. A recipient of the Premier Young Artist Award at the Jacobs School of Music and a member of Hutton Honors College, he is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Arts Management.

Bethany Green is a junior at the Jacobs School of Music. Starting at the age of three, she trained at Southold Dance Theater in South Bend, Ind., under the direction of Erica Fischbach. While at Southold, she danced in many full-length ballets as well as in original choreography, performing roles such as Myrtha in Giselle and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. She has competed in the Youth America Grand Prix both as a soloist and in ensembles, placing in the top 10 as a classical and contemporary soloist and advancing to the New York finals.Green has attended summer intensives with American Ballet Theatre and Pacific Northwest Ballet, and has also trained under such esteemed instructors as Kimmary Williams, Jacob Rice, Anna Reznik, and Alexei Kremnev. She spent this past summer in Barcelona, Spain, interning as a dancer and administrative assistant with Centro de Danza Maxime d’Harroche. In her time at IU, she has had the privilege of performing in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments and Western Symphony, as well as in the Kingdom of the Shades from Marius Petipa’s La Bayadere.

Cara Hansvick is a sophomore at Indiana University who was awarded the Dean’s Scholarship to study Ballet and Arts Administration. She grew up in Evanston, Ill., and began dancing at Dance Center Evanston under the training of Bea Rashid. She studied the Cecchetti Technique and passed the first six grades of the method. She attended annual workshops and was awarded a full merit scholarship to its summer program in 2008. She attended the Milwaukee Ballet summer intensive in 2010, received a partial scholarship to the Point Park University Summer Intensive in 2012, and attended the Alonzo King LINE’s Ballet summer intensive in 2014. Hansvick apprenticed with Elements Contemporary Ballet in Chicago and was given an opportunity to perform with the company during her senior year. She also had the privilege to work with Chicago dance professionals such as Stacy Joy Keller, Mike Gosney, Victoria Barlow, and many more. She was a member of the Evanston Dance Ensemble and danced leading roles during her junior and senior years. At IU, Hansvick has performed in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, Marius Petipa’s La Bayadere, and George Balanchine’s Emeralds, and performed a solo in Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies.

Alexandra Hartnett is a junior from Malvern, Pa., studying ballet performance and informatics. She began her training on scholarship in The Rock School for Dance Education’s Professional Development program, working with distinguished ballerina and coach Mariaelena Ruiz. During the summers, Hartnett continued her training at The School of American Ballet (2008-09) and on scholarship at Pacific Northwest Ballet (2010), Boston Ballet (2011-12), and Valentina Kozlova Dance Conservatory of New York (2013). She was a second-round top-12 finalist in the first Annual Boston International Ballet Competition (2011). In 2011, Hartnett was honored to be the award recipient of the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts: YoungArts and Presidential Scholars Program. Upon graduation from high school, she danced as a company artist with Ballet Arizona for the 2011-12 season before coming to IU. She is a recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship from the Jacobs School of Music and is a member of Hutton Honors College, Founder’s Scholars, IU Dance Marathon Marketing Committee, and Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity for Women. Since being at IU, Hartnett has performed principal roles in Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring, Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, Violette Verdy’s Variations for Eight, Marius Petipa’s La Bayadere, and George Balanchine’s Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, Divertimento No. 15, and Western Symphony.

Glenn Kelich comes to Indiana University from Arcadia, Ind. He began taking ballet at Indiana Ballet Conservatory (IBC) as a sophomore in high school. At IBC, he studied under the direction of Alyona Yakovleva-Randall, Tatiana Pali, Alexei Moskalenko, Sergey Sergiev, and Hailey Argan, and performed principal roles in its fall ballet, Pointe to the Cure, The Nutcracker, and Cipollino. Other training he has received includes summer intensives on scholarship at the Joffrey Ballet, The Rock Ballet School, and Ballet West Academy, while also being accepted to the San Francisco Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. This past spring, Kelich was awarded the gold medal at Youth American Grand Prix in classical variations performing Don Quixote, moving him onto the finals in New York. He is a freshman ballet major with an outside field that is yet to be determined.

Natalie Nguyen, a senior at IU, was born and raised in Orange County, Calif.There, her early ballet training began with Michelle Hamilton and Norma Hamilton. She later continued her studies at Maple Conservatory of Dance in Southern California, where she performed in ballets such as Balanchine’s Valse Fantaisie, Coppelia, The Nutcracker, Cinderella, and excerpts from Raymonda and Swan Lake. Nguyen has been offered scholarships to summer programs such as Pacific Northwest Ballet, Washington Ballet, and Ballet Austin; she has attended programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. Nguyen has participated in competitions including Youth America Grand Prix for several years and the Prix de Lausanne in 2010. At IU, she is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Applied Health Sciences and a minor in Psychology.

Allison Perhach, a junior from Leesburg, Va., began her serious ballet training at The Loudoun School of Ballet under Maureen Miller and Sharon Mercke. There, she performed roles such as Odette/Odile, Sugar Plum Fairy, and Aurora, as well as a variety of contemporary work. With IU Ballet Theater, she has performed in Bournonville’s Tarantella; Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Western Symphony, Divertimento No. 15, Donizetti Variations, and the pas de trois in Emeralds; as a featured dancer in Paul Taylor’s Airs and as the fourth soloist in Tudor’s Dark Elegies; and in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker as the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Arabian female. A member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and a Jacobs School of Music Premier Young Artist scholarship recipient, Perhach is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Arts Management.

Matthew Rusk was born in Tucson, Ariz., and trained at Tucson Regional Ballet and the Ruth Page School of Dance in Chicago before moving to Houston, where he graduated from the High School for Performing and Visual Arts with honors in dance. He also trained at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy, where he performed in The Nutcracker and Stanton Welch’s Studies. Over the past several years, Rusk has attended summer programs at Ballet Chicago, The School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Boston Ballet School. Now a senior at IU, he has performed the Cavalier, Snow Cavalier, Arabian, and Drosselmeyer in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, Phlegmatic in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Solor in La Bayadere Act II (Kingdom of the Shades), the lead male in Balanchine’s Emeralds, and roles in Violette Verdy’s Variations for Eight and Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15. He is a recipient of the Premier Young Artist scholarship from the Jacobs School of Music.

Imani Idell Sailers is a native of Chicago, Ill. At the age of three, she began her dance training at the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center (CMDC) under the direction of Homer Hans Bryant. Some of her highlights to date include dancing at the White House for First Lady Michelle Obama’s 2010 Inaugural White House Dance Series, performing in Memoria (1979) with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and performing as Wili in Giselle Act II with José Carreño and Julie Kent. Sailers has competed in several dance competitions, including the Youth America Grand Prix and the Carey Rose Winski Dance Scholarship Competition. She has performed variations and roles such as Odile from Swan Lake, Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker, and Kitri from Don Quixote. While at IU, she won first prize in the 2014 ballet competition for the National Society of Arts and Letters-Bloomington Chapter. Sailers has spent her summers attending workshops and dance intensive programs at her home studio as well as at The School at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Hartt School, English National Ballet USA, José Carreño Dance Festival, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Giordano Jazz Dance World Congress. As a sophomore at IU, she is a Hudson & Hollands Scholar and a member of the Hutton Honors College. She is also a National Achievement Scholar through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Sailers is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Political Science and a minor in French.

Kenneth Shelby, 21, is a junior at Indiana University pursing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance. He first gained his passion for dance while in his former dance group, Anointed Praise, at church, watching his older sister and cousin, Allicia Gonzalez and Alexys Cobb. Then in fourth and fifth grade, he attended Perkins Elementary, where he first gained his ballet training with some influences of tap and jazz. Afterward, he went to John Hopkins Middle School in the magnet program for dance; for three years, he studied in the Vaganova method of ballet and character. He attended the magnet program Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School, studying in the Vaganova method and the Horton Technique. In those four years, he worked with great artists such as Ferdinand De Jesus, Erik Wagner, Helen French, Christopher Fleming, Amy Raymond, and Carmen Rozestraten.

Raffaella Stroik is a sophomore from South Bend, Ind. She trained at Southold Dance Theater under the direction of Erica Fischbach. There, she danced leading roles such as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker and Swanhilde in Coppelia. At Indiana University, she has danced principal roles in Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies and George Balanchine’s Emeralds. She has competed in the Youth America Grand Prix and attended the New York City finals as a soloist. Stroik has participated in American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive in New York City, Boston Ballet’s Summer Dance Program, and Ballet West’s Summer Intensive on full scholarship. She has also studied with Fabrice Herrault and Sofiane Sylve.

Leslie Theisen is a senior from Rochester Hills, Mich. She began her pre-professional ballet training at the age of eight at Rochester School of Dance under the direction of Cornelia Sampson. There, she trained with Michael Anderson and Deborah Dawn of the Joffrey Ballet. At 16, she began training with Amanda Knox and Addison O’Day at the Link School of the Arts under the direction of Betty Mitchell. Over the years, she has attended summer courses at The School of American Ballet and San Francisco Ballet School, as well as the Complexions Contemporary Dance Intensive. She participated in the regional Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) in 2008, winning first place in the contemporary division and third place in the classical division. In 2010, she placed in the top 12 for both contemporary and classical divisions at the regional YAGP and went on to compete in the New York City finals. At Indiana University, she has received the IU Excellence Scholarship as well as the Jacobs School of Music Dean’s Scholarship. She is part of Hutton Honors College and is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet with an Outside Field in Pre-Pharmacy and a minor in Spanish.

Katherine Zimmerman is a senior from Chester Springs, Pa. She began her training under the direction of Lisa Slagle and Thomas Nicholson at the Ballet Academy of Texas. After moving to Pennsylvania, she continued training at Chester Valley Dance Academy with Kimberly Martin and at the International Ballet Theater with Alexander Boitsov. She has attended summer intensives including the Joffrey Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Kaatsbaan Extreme Ballet, and The Rock School. In 2011 and 2012, Zimmeran competed and placed in the Youth American Grand Prix regionals in Philadelphia and continued on to the New York finals. While at IU, she has enjoyed performing featured roles in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, Violette Verdy’s Variations for Eight, and George Balanchine’s Emeralds and Divertimento No. 15. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Business.