OFF THE CANVAS | REBOUND
October 15-17 and October 22, 2021, at Peter Martin Wege Theatre
Off the Canvas features three contemporary ballets exploring art in motion, taking inspiration from the world of visual arts. Dancers rebound in Off the Canvas, choreographed by Katarzyna Skarpetowska, music by Adrian Lim-Klumpes and Vivaldi, bringing to life Cy Twombly’s “Bacchus” paintings, encompassing their ecstatic looping movement. In-Frame, choreographed by Resident Choreographer Penny Saunders, music by Max Richter, explores the creative process cycle and coincides with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, beginning in spring and coming full circle back to spring. The final ballet features the return of Adam Hougland’s hit, Cold Virtues, scored by Philip Glass, which follows a story, loosely based on “Dangerous Liaisons,” of a power couple, moved to manipulate society for their own entertainment.
OFF THE CANVAS
OFF THE CANVAS | CREATORS
Adam Hougland
Biography
Adam grew up in Dallas, Texas and studied visual arts and acting from an early age. At 14 he began his dance training at the Dallas Conservatory of Ballet and the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. In 1999 he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance from The Juilliard School and then went on to perform with The Limon Dance Company, Toronto Dance Theatre and The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. While at Juilliard Adam choreographed his first group dance, Beyond, which won the Hector Zaraspe Prize for Choreography. This piece set his choreographic career in motion and was quickly taken into the repertoires of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Met Columbus and The Louisville Ballet.
Adam has gone on to create original works for Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, The American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Introdans in the Netherlands, The Limon Dance Company, Cedar Lake Ensemble, The Washington Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Ballet X and The New York Choreographic Institute at New York CIty Ballet. He has created works for internationally recognised dancers such as Sofiane Sylve (San Francisco Ballet), Marcelo Gomes (American Ballet Theater) and Wendy Whelan. In 2006 he created a world premiere for Juilliard’s Centennial Celebration that toured to Chicago and Los Angeles and was broadcast on the PBS ‘Live from Lincoln Center’ series. He has won The Princess Grace Award for Choreography, The Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography, was one of Pointe Magazines’ 10 VIP’s of 2006 and one Dance Magazine’s 25 to watch for 2011.
Adam is the Principle Choreographer for The Louisville Ballet and has created nine critically acclaimed original works for the company including Petrouchka and Rite of Spring with special guest artist Wendy Whelan. He is Resident Choreographer for Cincinnati Ballet where he has created an evening-length Mozart’s Requiem and The Firebird.
Adam lives in Bristol, England with his husband Ashley and their dog Liza.
Penny Saunders
Biography
Penny Saunders, originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, graduated from the Harid Conservatory in 1995, and began her professional career with The American Repertory Ballet under the direction of Septime Webre. She went on to dance with Ballet Arizona, MOMIX Dance Theater, Cedar Lake Ensemble and in 2004 she joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In 2011, Saunders won the International Commissioning Project which launched her choreographic career, creating pieces for Hubbard Streets’ main and second company, Cincinnati Ballet, The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Whim W’Him, BalletX, Tulsa Ballet 2, Ballet Idaho, SFDanceworks, SALT Contemporary Dance, Neos Dance Theater, Missouri Contemporary Ballet, Owen Cox Dance Group, among others. Saunders is honored to be the Resident Choreographer at The Grand Rapids Ballet where she recently completed her first full-length work, The Happy Prince and Other Wilde Tales, that focused on the life and fairy tales of Oscar Wilde. Saunders has received support from The New York City Ballet Choreographic Commissions Initiative participated in The National Choreographers Initiative and was the recipient of the 2016 Princess Grace Choreographic Fellowship. In the 2019-20 season, she is excited to be collaborating with the Tulsa Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, The Grand Rapids Ballet, Whim W’Him, BalletX, Dayton Ballet, Diablo Ballet, Ballet Idaho, Indiana University, Seattle Dance Collective, and Point Park University.
Katarzyna Skarpetowska
Biography
Skarpetowska is a native of Warsaw, Poland. She is an alumna of the NYC High School of Performing Arts and received a BFA from The Juilliard School in 1999 under Artistic Director Benjamin Harkarvy. In 1992, at age 15, she was the youngest cast member of the Broadway show, METRO, directed and choreographed by Janusz Jozefowicz. Kate was a member of Parsons Dance from 1999 until 2006 where she performed lead roles in the company’s repertory including the iconic CAUGHT. From 2007 until 2014, she danced for The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company performing at many reputable venues such as New York City’s City Center, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater. Over the years, she repeatedly appeared as a guest artist first with The Battleworks Dance Company and then The Buglisi Dance Theater and in 2007, she was one of two featured dancers during the Glimmerglass Opera Festival. In 2008 she toured Italy with WHY BE EXTRAORDINARY IF YOU CAN BE YOURSELF, a show by Daniel Ezralow. Skarpetowska has worked as a repetiteur and assistant choreographer to Lar Lubovitch, David Parsons, and Robert Battle setting works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Introdans, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, Ballet Austin, Atlanta Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Repertory Dance Theatre, and Mikhailovsky Theater in Saint Petersburg, Russia. As a choreographer, she has been commissioned by BalletX, Richmond Ballet, Rochester City Ballet, Grand Rapids Ballet, Parsons Dance, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater II, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Buglisi Dance Theater, Big Muddy Dance Company, Owen/Cox Dance Group, Bruce Wood Dance, The Juilliard School, and National Choreographers Initiative. For her choreographic achievements, Kate was named Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2016 and was nominated for a NY Dance and Performance Award, The Bessie, in the emerging choreographer category in 2017. In 2018, Kate choreographed an Opera Theatre of Saint Louis production of Orfeo and Eurydice, in collaboration with director Ron Daniels and maestro Pierre Vallet. Skarpetowska is also a freelance teacher holding workshops throughout the world. Kate has been on the faculty of the American Dance Festival, American Ballet Theater summer program, School of American Ballet, Boston Conservatory summer program, Key West Modern Dance, Peridance, Washington Ballet @THEARC, and UC Irvine. She resides in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and New York City. For more information please visit www.skarpetowska.com
Philip Glass
Biography
Through his operas, his symphonies, his compositions for his own ensemble, and his wide-ranging collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Leonard Cohen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times. His associations, personal and professional, with leading rock, pop and world music artists date back to the 1960s, including the beginning of his collaborative relationship with artist Robert Wilson. Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film and in popular music – simultaneously. He was born in 1937 and grew up in Baltimore. He studied at the University of Chicago, the Juilliard School, and in Aspen with Darius Milhaud. In the past 25 years, Glass has composed more than twenty-five operas, large and small; twelve symphonies, thirteen concertos; soundtracks to films ranging from new scores for the stylized classics of Jean Cocteau to Errol Morris’s documentary about former defense secretary Robert McNamara; nine string quartets; a growing body of work for solo piano and organ.
Adrian Lim-Klumpes
Biography
Adrian Lim-Klumpes trained as a classical pianist before entering the Conservatorium of Music, Sydney in 1997 to study jazz. Attaining his Bachelor of Music in the 2000’s he largely composed for conceptual improvisation under such project names as Adrian Klumpes’ Homebrand and 90degrees. Over his career, Adrian has collaborated with many musicians, choreographers, and filmmakers in live settings and cross-discipline projects. Collaborators include artists Scott Morrison, Fred Rodriguez, and Joanna Logue, choreographer Ivan Perez Aviles (with Nederlands Dans Theatre), and filmmaker James Vernon. On music projects, Adrian has worked with Thomas Bednarczyk, Machinefabriek, Philippe Petit, Shoeb Ahmad, PVT (Pivot), Scott Tinkler, Simon Barker, Andy Fiddes, Reuben Derrick, Dave Goodman, and many more.
Max Richter
Biography
Max Richter stands as one of the most prodigious figures on the contemporary music scene, with ground-breaking work as a composer, pianist, producer, and collaborator. From synthesizers and computers to a full symphony orchestra, Richter’s innovative work encompasses solo albums, ballets, concert hall performances, film and television series, video art installations and theatre works. He is Classically trained, studying at Edinburgh University, the Royal Academy of Music, London, and completing his studies with composer Luciano Berio in Florence, “Memoryhouse”, Richter’s 2002 debut, has been described by The Independent, and Pitchfork Magazine as a “landmark”, while his 2004 album “The Blue Notebooks” was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best Classical works of the century. “SLEEP”, his eight-and-a-half-hour concert work, has been broadcast and performed worldwide, including at the Sydney Opera House, Berlin’s Kraftwerk, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Philharmonie de Paris, and at the Barbican, London. In 2012 Richter “Recomposed” the infamous Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, winning him the prestigious ECHO Classic Award, and an established place in the classical charts. In recent years Richter’s music has become a mainstay for many of the world’s leading ballet companies, including The Mariinski Ballet, La Scala Milan, The Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Semper Oper, and NDT, while his collaborations with Wayne McGregor for The Royal Ballet have been widely acclaimed.
Antonio Vivaldi
Biography
Antonio Vivaldi was a 17th and 18th-century composer who’s become one of the most renowned figures in European classical music. Vivaldi was ordained as a priest though he instead chose to follow his passion for music. A prolific composer who created hundreds of works, he became renowned for his concertos in Baroque style, becoming a highly influential innovator in form and pattern. He was also known for his operas, including Argippo and Bajazet. He composed most of his major works in this position over three decades. The Ospedale was an institution where orphans received instruction — the boys in trades and the girls in music. The most talented musicians joined an orchestra that played Vivaldi’s compositions, including religious choral music. Under Vivaldi’s leadership, the orchestra gained international attention. In 1716, he was promoted to music director. In addition to his choral music and concerti, Vivaldi had begun regularly writing opera scores by 1715; about 50 of these scores remain. His two most successful operatic works, La constanza trionfante and Farnace, were performed in multiple revivals during Vivaldi’s lifetime.
