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June
7-11 Dennis Marshall began his training with Margo Marshall in Houston,
Texas. He received scholarships to train at the school of the National Ballet of
Canada, American Ballet Theatre School, School of American Ballet, Joffrey
Ballet, Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg and the Royal Ballet School in London.
Upon graduation from the High School of Performing and Visual Arts in Houston,
he was invited to join American Ballet Theatre. He danced there as a soloist
under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov and then joined San Francisco Ballet
as a principal dancer. Mr. Marshall was featured on the cover of Dance Magazine
in 1978 and the following year won the bronze medal at the International Ballet
Competition, USA. He was Ballet Master for the North Carolina Dance Theater,
Tulsa Ballet and the Boston Ballet in addition to being a guest instructor at
companies and schools nationally and internationally. In August 2005, Mr.
Marshall was appointed director of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School. |
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Adam
Sklute June 14-18
Adam
Sklute was named Artistic Director of Ballet West in March of 2007. Prior to
that time he was Associate Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet where he
began as a dancer in the mid 1980’s.
In
less than three years, Sklute has introduced Ballet West to such renowned
contemporary choreographers as Ulysses Dove, Nicolo Fonte, Jiri Kylian, Mark
Morris, Twyla Tharp and Stanton Welch while expanding the company’s Balanchine
and Smuin repertoire and adding historical masterpieces by Michael Fokine and
Bronislava Nijinska. He has reintroduced lost elements of Willam Christensen’s
beloved production of
The
Nutcracker, and this season he is remounting Sir Frederick Ashton’s
The
Dream and producing a new classic version of
Swan Lake.
Most notably, Sklute developed Ballet West’s wildly successful
Innovations
program, designed to nurture and present new creations by emerging
Utah, national, and international choreographers.
Under
Sklute’s leadership Ballet West appeared at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts as part of the 2008
Ballet Across America
Festival. In February 2009 the company graced the cover of Dance Magazine
for the first time in 24 years and Sklute’s production of
The
Treasures of the Ballets Russes garnered rave reviews from The
New York Times. On the strength of that review, the company was invited to
appear at New York City’s City Center as part of their 2009
Fall for
Dance Festival, Ballet West’s first return to New York since 1981.
Sklute
conceived Ballet West’s
Viewpointe
panel discussion series, its
Shoe-in
project (a collaboration with Utah local artists) and its
Fusion
fashion show fundraiser. He has lectured at the Chicago Art
Institute, and has served on the board of Chicago’s
Dance for
Life and on Utah’s
Salt Lake
County Cultural Facilities Master Plan Advisory Board. A finalist
judge for the
Youth
America Grand Prix, and an adjudicator for the
American
College Dance Festival Association, Sklute was listed as one of the
25
Movers and Shakers of the Utah Arts Scene in 2007.
An
Adjunct Professor of dance at the University of Utah, Sklute actively oversees
Ballet West’s Academy, teaching regularly and developing and focusing its
syllabus with the Academy faculty. Sklute is also a guest teacher and coach for
dance programs and workshops nationwide, including The Southwest Regional Ballet
Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Brigham Young University, The
University of Cincinnati, The Joffrey Ballet School in New York, The Joffrey
Workshop Texas in San Antonio, and the Utah Regional Ballet.
A
native of Berkeley, California, Sklute began dancing at the age of 15. His early
training was at the Oakland Ballet and San Francisco Ballet schools. After only
two years of formal study he joined The Joffrey II Dancers (The Joffrey’s
apprentice company). Two years later he was asked to join The Joffrey Ballet.
Sklute was one of the last two artists personally chosen by Robert Joffrey.
Throughout his dancing career Sklute performed leading roles by such
choreographers as Gerald Arpino, Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, John
Cranko, Agnes DeMille, Robert Joffrey, Jiri Kylian, James Kudelka, Leonide
Massine, Jerome Robbins, and Paul Taylor. He has performed with New York’s
Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Dallas Metropolitan Ballet and California’s Diablo
Ballet. Sklute’s television credits include The Joffrey Ballet’s Dance in
America filmings of Vaslav Nijinsky’s
Le Sacre du
Printemps and Gerald Arpino’s production of
Billboards,
the role of The Old Soldier in WTTW’s filming of Kurt Jooss’s
The Green Table and Herr
Drosselmeyer in the WTTW one-hour special of Robert Joffrey’s
The
Nutcracker. In 2003 he assisted with and appeared in Robert
Altman’s feature film
The Company,
based on The Joffrey Ballet. |