It’s week one of new season rehearsals and Ballet West is fortunate to have the artistry of Li Anlin and Jodie Gates in our studios.

Li Anlin is teaching us Ben Stevenson’s DRACULA

Li Anlin

Li Anlin

Mr. Anlin was born in Nanjing, China.  At the age of 13, he went to Beijing to study at Beijing Dance Academy where he first worked with Ben Stevenson.  Mr. Anlin graduated in 1979 to the Young Dancers Company.  In 1982, he joined Central Ballet of China (now the National Ballet of China) as a soloist and danced in China, Thailand and Hong Kong.  In 1985, he was invited by Ivan Nagy to join Ballet de Santiago as a soloist and was soon promoted to Principal Dancer.  In 1989, Mr. Stevenson invited Mr. Anlin to join Houston Ballet as a soloist.  During his twenty-one-year career as a dancer, Mr. Anlin was featured in many of Mr. Stevenson’s ballets including: The Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Dracula, Three Preludes, Four Last Songs, L, Swan Lake, Peer Gynt, Cleopatra, and Don Quixote.  He also danced in ballets by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, George Balanchine, Ronald Hynd, John Cranko, Vicente Nebrada, André Prokovsky, Jiri Kylian, and Christopher Bruce.  In 2000, Mr. Anlin was named Ballet Master for Houston Ballet.  He assisted Mr. Stevenson in the creation of The Fountain of Tears in Beijing and now stages and rehearses Mr. Stevenson’s ballets on other ballet companies around the world.  In 2003, Mr. Stevenson invited Mr. Anlin to Texas Ballet Theater as Ballet Master. In 2005, Mr. Anlin was named Assistant to the Artistic Director.  This is his seventh season with the company.

Jodie Gates is creating a new work for Ballet West II

From Dance Magazine

-Mark