Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Staged by Benjamin Bowman
Music by Donald Knaack
Coda by David Kahne
Original Lighting Design by Jennifer Tipton
Original Costume Design by Santo Loquasto

Premiere: July 6, 2000 | Twyla Tharp Dance
Page Auditorium, Durham, N.C.

Choreography by George Balanchine*
Staged by Nilas Martins
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach

Premiere: October 11, 1941 | American Ballet Caravan
Teatro Municipal, Rio De Janeiro

©The George Balanchine Trust

*One of Balanchine’s greatest masterpieces, Concerto Barocco is music made visible as two elegant yet dynamic lead ballerinas each depict one of the instrumental soloists in a virtuosic double violin concerto.

Music by Johann Sebastian Bach
Orchestrations by Anton Webern and Frank Michael Beyer
Choreography by Paul Taylor
Reconstructed by Constance Dinapoli
Costumes designed by Gene Moore
Lighting by Jennifer Tipton
Recreated by Aaron Bowersox

(First performed by the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1986)

Preservation made possible by generous contributions to the Paul Taylor Repertory Preservation Project with major support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The costumes for Musical Offering are being used by arrangement with The Juilliard School, New York, N.Y.

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.

Paul Taylor is the last living member of the pantheon that created America’s indigenous art of modern dance. At an age when most artists’ best work is behind them, Taylor continues to win acclaim for the vibrancy, relevance, and power of his recent dances as well as his classics. As prolific as ever, he continues to offer cogent observations on life’s complexities while tackling some of society’s thorniest issues. He may propel his dancers through space for the sheer beauty of it or use them to wordlessly illuminate war, spirituality, sexuality, morality, and mortality.

Taylor was born in 1930 and grew up in and around Washington, D.C. He was a swimmer and student of painting at Syracuse University in the late 1940s until he discovered dance, which he began studying at Juilliard. By 1954, he had assembled a small company of dancers and was making his own works. A commanding performer despite his late start, he joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1955 for the first of seven seasons as a soloist while continuing to choreograph his own troupe.

People throughout the world have enjoyed live modern dance performances due largely to the far-reaching tours that Taylor pioneered as a virtuoso dancer in the 1950s. Having made his first dance in 1954, he has amassed a growing collection of 133 dances performed by his celebrated company of 16 dancers and the six-member Taylor 2. He has set movement to music so memorably that for many people, it is impossible to hear certain orchestral works and popular songs and not think of his dances. As the subject of the documentary Dancemaker and author of the autobiography Private Domain and the essay “Why I Make Dances,” he has shed light on the mysteries of the creative process as few artists have. Hailed for uncommon musicality, Taylor has set dances to ragtime, reggae, rock, tango, Tin Pan Alley, and barbershop quartets; works by Baroque masters and iconoclasts; monotonous time announcements; plaintive loon calls; and hysterical laughter. While he has covered a breathtaking range of topics, recurring themes include the natural world and man’s place within it; love and sexuality, life, death, and what may follow; and iconic moments in the history of the nation.

Taylor has received every important honor given to artists in the United States. In 1992, he was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and received an Emmy Award for Speaking in Tongues, produced by WNET/New York the previous year. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1993. In 1995, he received the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts and was named one of 50 prominent Americans honored in recognition of their outstanding achievement by the Library of Congress’s Office of Scholarly Programs. He is the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships and honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from several universities, including The Juilliard School and Duke University. Awards for lifetime achievement include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award, New York State Governor’s Arts Award, and New York City Mayor’s Award of Honor for Arts and Culture. Due to his exceptional contributions to French culture, Taylor was awarded France’s highest honor, the Légion d’honneur in 2000.

He remains among the most sought-after choreographers working today, commissioned by ballet companies and presenting organizations the world over.

Twyla Tharp was born in Portland, Ind. At age 10, she moved with her family to California, where she studied dance at the Vera Lynn School of Dance. While attending Barnard College in New York City, she began dancing with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. Upon graduation, she joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company and, in 1965, she formed her own company, Twyla Tharp Dance. With this company, Tharp began putting her signature on choreography, combining ballet technique with natural movements like running, walking, and skipping. While modern dance had historically aspired to high seriousness and spirituality, Tharp’s work was humorous and edgy.

In 1988, Twyla Tharp Dance merged with American Ballet Theatre, where Tharp created more than a dozen works, including Push Comes to Shove featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov. Since the 1980s, Tharp choreographed pieces for many major ballet and modern companies, including The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, and Martha Graham Dance Company.

In 1991, Tharp reunited her company, with Mikhail Baryshnikov joining the group in a program titled Cutting Up. The work enjoyed one of the most successful tours in the history of contemporary dance. In 2002, Tharp and Billy Joel’s Tony Award-winning musical, Movin’ Out, premiered on Broadway and continues to tour the world today.

Tharp has created more than 135 pieces, choreographed for five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed two Broadway shows, and written two books. She is the recipient of two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, 17 honorary doctorates, and the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and is a 2008 Kennedy Center Honoree. Tharp’s works are among the most sought-after pieces by major dance companies around the world.

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.

Jennifer Adam began her ballet training at the Rochester School of Ballet under the direction of Cornelia Sampson in Rochester, Mich. Her summers were spent studying with the Royal Danish Ballet, School of American Ballet, and Chautauqua Institution. At the age of 16, she was accepted to the School of American Ballet, where she studied for three years on a full scholarship. From ages 19 to 25, she danced professionally with Pennsylvania Ballet and Atlanta Ballet. Upon retiring from a professional dance career, Adam began teaching at the Atlanta School of Ballet under the direction of Robert Barnett. In 1997, she was offered a merit scholarship to attend the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music ballet program. She graduated with honors in 2001, having earned a B.S. in Ballet Performance. She also earned a teaching degree with an emphasis in arts administration from the Individualized Major Program. In 2001, she was offered a full scholarship and teaching fellowship to attend the University of Michigan, where she earned an M.F.A. in Modern Dance and Choreography. She has been working as an adjunct professor at the Jacobs School since 2003.

Benjamin Bowman began his life in dance almost by accident, being offered a chance to study ballet at the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) as part of a pilot outreach program in the Winston-Salem public schools. Once introduced to dance, his ambitions in life quickly shifted to pursuing it professionally. His family relocated to Kansas City, Mo., soon after, where he received world-class instruction from such teachers as Todd Bolender, Una Kai, Jonathan Watts, Diana Adams, and Eckhard Heidrich. Further studies were undertaken as a summer scholarship student at the School of American Ballet (SAB) and the San Francisco Ballet School, eventually earning scholarships as a full-time student at NCSA and SAB.

Bowman’s professional career began with the Kansas City Ballet, performing works by Bolender, Balanchine, Christiansen, William Dollar, and Alvin Ailey, among others. Subsequently, he spent five years with the Fort Worth Ballet as a principal dancer before joining New York City Ballet (NYCB) in 1993. During his tenure with NYCB, he performed in a diverse repertoire of existing works by Balanchine, Martens, and Robbins as well as being involved in the creation of new works by Robbins, Martens, and other notables.

Leaving the company in 2000, he was invited to join Twyla Tharp Dance (TTD) and toured extensively for the next two years. During this period, TTD was developing the material which would eventually become the hit Broadway show Movin’ Out, and he was privileged to originate the role of James, which he performed for the duration of the show’s run.

Post-Movin’ Out, he has worked onstage as both a dancer and an actor, performing works by Kathy Posin, Nilas Martins, and John Selya, and in the re-imagined Garden of Earthly Delights by Martha Clarke, as well as teaching and choreographing. In 2007, he portrayed serial killer Danny Rolling on a Japanese true-crime reenactment television program.

He has set Twyla Tharp’s The Storyteller at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music as well as at the Nashville Ballet, and her Surfer at the River Styx on The Washington Ballet’s 2012 all-Tharp program. He co-choreographed the critically well-received Indoor Fireworks, set to the music of Elvis Costello, with Company C founder Charles Anderson. Bowman continues to call New York City home.

Evan De Long is a junior violin performance major and recipient of the Premier Young Artists Award at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he has studied with Jorja Fleezanis and Grigory Kalinovsky. He has also received chamber music coachings from Sibbi Bernhardsson, Brandon Vamos, and Jean-Louis Haguenauer. As an orchestral musician, De Long served as assistant concert master of the IU Concert Orchestra in 2014 and 2015, and was a member of the Young Musician’s Foundation (YMF) Debut Orchestra and a substitute violinist for the American Youth Symphony. He is originally from Los Angeles, where his principal teachers were Margaret Batjer and Joyce Osborn. During his high school years, he performed four times as a soloist with the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic and once with the Pepperdine University Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, he participated in the YMF Chamber Music Series, Junior Chamber Music, and the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival. In the summers, he attended the Round Top Institute—where he served as assistant concertmaster of the Round Top Festival Orchestra—the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Interlochen Summer Arts Camp. De Long graduated from Trinity Pacific Christian School as a salutatorian.

Constance Dinapoli danced with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1986 to 1993. Now acting as repetiteur for the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, she stages Taylor’s work for professional companies and universities around the world and has co-directed Taylor 2. She has been on faculty at Barnard College in New York City; the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati; Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.; the American Dance Theater workshop, Garden City, N.Y.; the Taylor School in New York City; Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York; and George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. She was awarded a fellowship of Advanced Studies at Indiana University and has a B.A. in Art History and Economics from Stanford University as well as an M.F.A. in Dance from George Mason University. Currently, she is artistic coordinator of contemporary dance at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, adjunct professor in the School of Dance in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, George Mason University, and faculty with the School of the Washington Ballet. She hosts Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance Summer Intensives at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore every August. Dinapoli’s performing career revived in 2009, and she performs with Karen Reedy Dance, collaborating with dancers, artists, and musicians in the Washington, D.C., area.

Jimin Lim is a prizewinner of numerous competitions in South Korea, including first prize in the 2005 Hankook Ilbo (South Korean vernacular daily newspaper) competition. She was selected to give a solo recital at the Kumho Young Artist Concert Series and was a laureate of the 2007 Kloster Schoental International Competition. Lim has soloed with the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra, Busan Symphony Orchestra, and Korean National University of the Arts Symphony Orchestra, among others. She was the associate concertmaster of the 2014 Aspen Chamber Symphony and has held concertmaster and associate concertmaster positions at the IndianaUniversity Jacobs School of Music. Lim earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Korean National University of the Arts studying with Nam Yun Kim. She received a Performer Diploma in Solo Performance from Indiana University studying with Alexander Kerr, and she is pursuing a Performer Diploma in Orchestral Studies with Kerr.

Nilas Martins, born in Copenhagen, received his early dance training at the Royal Danish Ballet School. As a student, he performed with the Royal Danish Ballet in such works as John Neumeier’s Romeo and Juliet, August Bournonville’s Konservatoriet, A Folk Tale, and Napoli, and Glen Tetleys’s Firebird. In 1984, he moved to New York and enrolled in the School of American Ballet. In September 1986, he became a member of New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 1991, he was promoted to the rank of soloist and in 1993, to principal dancer. At NYCB, he danced numerous featured roles and worked closely with choreographers such as John Alleyne, Lynn Taylor Corbett, Boris Eifman, William Forsythe, Peter Martins, Trey McIntyre, Kevin O’Day, Jerome Robbins, Susan Stroman, and Richard Tanner.

Martins’ film and television credits include a Live from Lincoln Center broadcast of Ray Charles in concert; The Nutcracker, released in 1993 by Warner Brothers; a Dance in America telecast of “Dinner with Balanchine,” where he danced the role of Apollo with Paris Opera Etoile Isabel Guerin; and Lincoln Center Celebrates Balanchine’s 100, where he danced “The Man I Love” from Who Cares?, featuring Wynton Marsalis.

Martins was one of 10 fellows selected from both domestic and international applicants to study under Michael Kaiser as a Devos Institute for Arts Management fellow from 2010 to 2011. His teaching resume includes Armitage Gone Dance, Baltimore School for the Arts, Goucher College, Harvard University, Joffrey Ballet School, Miami City Ballet School, National Ballet of China, NBA Ballet (Japan), New York City Ballet, Novosibirsk Ballet (Russia), NYSSA Summer Intensive, Princeton University, Royal Danish Ballet, School of American Ballet, and The Washington Ballet. Since 1996, he has been a repetiteur for the George Balanchine Trust and stages ballets for companies and schools in America and abroad.

Joseph Štepec completed his bachelor’s degree in violin performance with Gregory Fulkerson at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2010. He has participated in festivals in Maine, Texas, Vermont, and North Carolina. As a recitalist, he has performed in venues in Cleveland, Nashville, Cincinnati, and Slovenia. He studied conducting with Bridget Reischl while at Oberlin, in addition to his studies with Michael Jinbo at the Pierre Monteux School in the summers of 2011 and 2012. In 2011, Štepec was chosen as the music director of the Euclid Symphony Orchestra for its 2011-12 season, where he oversaw successful collaborations with the Lakeshore Ballet and various soloists. He has worked with the Rochester Philharmonic and the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia. In 2014, he graduated with a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Eastman School of Music, under the tutelage of Neil Varon. Štepec is currently pursuing his D.M. in Orchestral Conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under Arthur Fagen and David Effron.

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 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 Balanchine’s 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.

Andrew Copeland began studying ballet in 2001 and trained at Rowland School of Ballet in Kingwood, Texas, under Sheryl Rowland and at Akiko Ballet Studio in Japan. He has attended several summer intensives on full scholarship, including Ballet West for two years, Oklahoma City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Portland Festival Ballet. He is a recipient of the Premier Young Artist Scholarship from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as well as the United Airlines Scholarship. He is a member of Hutton Honors College, Phi Eta Sigma, and Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Societies, and is a Founders Scholar at IU. With IU Ballet Theater, he has performed in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker (Cavalier, Snow Cavalier, Arabian), Paul Taylor’s Airs, Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies, David Parsons’s The Envelope, and George Balanchine’s Swan Lake (Prince Siegfried). Copeland is currently a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance and in Biochemistry.

Tyler (Dalton) Dowdy is a junior at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Originally from Tampa, Fla., he began formal training at Next Generation Ballet under the direction of Peter Stark. While at Next Generation, he appeared in Swan Lake, Cinderella, and The Nutcracker. Since arriving at Jacobs, Dowdy has performed in The Nutcracker as the Nutcracker, lead Trepak, Dolls, and Chinese. He also has danced George Balanchine’s Donizetti Variations and Rubies, Anthony Tudor’s Dark Elegies, David Parson’s The Envelope, and Merce Cunningham’s Duets.

Colin Ellis is a junior 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, Bolshoi Ballet Academy in New York City, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Ballet Chicago, all on merit scholarships. Ellis 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, he won third place in the National Society of Arts and Letters Classical Ballet competition. With IU Ballet Theater, Ellis has performed principal roles in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, Anthony Tudor’s Dark Elegies, Merce Cunningham’s Duets, and Balanchine’s Emeralds and Swan Lake as well as core positions in Paul Taylor’s Airs and Balanchine’s Rubies. A recipient of the Premier Young Artist Award at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a member of Hutton Honors College, he is currently pursuing a Bachelor in Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Arts Management.

Julian Jacob Goodwin-Ferris started his training at the Houston Ballet Academy, where he danced for over 10 years. He danced numerous roles at the academy, including an adagio variation from The Sleeping Beauty, a solo in Stanton Welch’s Swan Lake hunt scene, and parts in Brigade and Napoli. With the company, he danced small roles in Romeo and Juliet, La Sylphide, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, and The Nutcracker, among numerous other ballets. Last year, Goodwin-Ferris studied ballet with Phillip Broomhead and Steven Brule, and visited the Palucca Hochschule für Tanz in Dresden, Germany, for a month. Between 2007 and 2009, he sang in the Children’s Chorus for Houston Grand Opera’s productions and sang a solo in The Village of Waltz for Hope Stone Dance Company in 2009 and 2010. He has performed roles in several Shakespeare plays, including Anthony in Julius Caesar, Oberon in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, and Feste in Twelfth Night. He is a ballet major pursuing an outside field in music.

Cara Hansvick is a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Arts Management at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she was awarded a Dean’s Scholarship. She grew up in Evanston, Ill., and began dancing at Dance Center Evanston under the training of Bea Rashid. She attended annual workshops and was awarded a full merit scholarship to the Cecchetti Council of America’s 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. This past summer, she received a full merit scholarship to spend the summer at the Chautauqua Institution as an apprentice with Charlotte Ballet. There she performed with the company multiple times and with the festival dancers in principal roles. She was awarded first place during the choreography workshop, and her piece Amoroso was performed in the Chautauqua Amphitheater. At IU, Hansvick has performed in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, Marius Petipa’s La Bayadère, and George Balanchine’s Emeralds. She has danced leading roles in Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies, George Balanchine’s Swan Lake, and Merce Cunningham’s Duets.

Alexandra Hartnett is a senior from Malvern, Pa., pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Informatics at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. 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 summers, she 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 2011 Boston International Ballet Competition. Also in 2011, Hartnett received a National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts: YoungArts and Presidential Scholars Program award. After graduating from high school, Hartnett 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 and the Lynn Brower Shonk Scholarship from the Kappa Gamma Foundation. She is a member of Hutton Honors College, Founders Scholars, IU Dance Marathon Marketing Committee, and Kappa Gamma Fraternity for Women. 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 Bayadère, and George Balanchine’s Emeralds, Rubies, The Four Temperaments, Divertimento No.15, and Western Symphony.

Jared Alexander Kelly is a freshman pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Business at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He began dancing at the New Macedonia Baptist Church as a member of the Liturgical Dance Ministry under the direction of Renee Henry. He continued dancing at the Thomas G. Pullen K-8 Performing Arts School in Landover, Md. During that time, he was accepted into the Dance Theatre of Harlem Pre-Professional Residency Program at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In sixth grade, he began more intensive training at The Washington School of Ballet (TWSB) with Kee Juan Han and Katrina Toews. With TWSB, he performed at the White House for President and First Lady Obama. He also performed in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker with Pennsylvania Ballet at the Kennedy Center. At Baltimore School for the Arts, Kelly trained with Norma Pera and performed numerous lead roles, such as The Preacher in Appalachian Spring by Martha Graham, Waltz and Elegy Male in Serenade by George Balanchine, and the Nutcracker Prince in Barry Hughson’s The Nutcracker, and on the Lyric Opera House stage in Baltimore. While at BSA, Kelly became a founding member of Vision Contemporary Dance Ensemble under the artistic direction of Katherine Smith. He has attended summer programs of The Washington School of Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, Boston Ballet School, and the School of American Ballet.

Ryan McCreary is a sophomore scholarship recipient at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. From Mason, Ohio, she fell in love with dance as a young girl at the Mason Dance Center. Continuing her studies at Northern Cincinnati Youth Ballet (NCYB) under the direction of Oliver Arana, she performed lead roles in The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, and Paquita. She attended summer programs at the Art of Classical Ballet, NCYB, and the School of American Ballet, and has studied with suchdistinguished instructors as Devon Carney, Mariaelena Ruiz, Stephanie Roig, Magaly Suarez, and Susie Payne. McCreary has placed in the top 12 at the Youth America Grand Prix in New York City and placed fourth at the World Ballet Competition in Orlando Fla. In 2013, she was a silver award winner at YoungArts in Miami, Fla., and a finalist for the Presidential Scholar in the Arts through that program.

Allison Perhach, a senior 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, and as the principal female in Rubies. She was also a featured dancer in Paul Taylor’s Airs, the fourth soloist in Tudor’s Dark Elegies, the second and fifth section of Merce Cunningham’s Duets, and in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker as the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Arabian female. Perhach is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Arts Management at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she is a member of Kappa Gamma and a Premier Young Artist scholarship recipient.

Kenneth Shelby, 22, is a senior ballet major at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. 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. In fourth and fifth grade, he attended Perkins Elementary, where he first gained his ballet training with some influences of tap and jazz. He then 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. In high school, he attended the magnet program Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High (PCCA), studying in the Vaganova method and the Horton technique. At IU, he is training in the Balanchine style and has performed many pieces ranging from Martha Graham to Bournonville.

Raffaella Stroik, from South Bend, Ind., is a junior at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She trained at Southold Dance Theater under the direction of Erica Fischbach. There she danced featured roles such as Swanhilde in Coppelia and the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker. She competed as a soloist in the New York City Finals of the Youth America Grand Prix. With IU Ballet Theater, she has danced principal roles in Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies and George Balanchine’s Emeralds as well as the Swan Queen in Balanchine’s Swan Lake. 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.