2012 is here and the company is back to the drawing board (we don’t have a drawing board).  Everybody has to put their Nutcracker aches and pains to the side because Anna-Marie Holmes is here, setting her version of Don Quixote on the company.

Anna-Marie Holmes

Anna-Marie Holmes has appeared as a ballerina and has taught in more than 30 countries on five continents.  Born in Canada, she trained with Heino Heiden, Lydia Karpova and Wynne Shaw; in London with Audrey de Vos and Errol Addison and in addition received her grade 10 Certificate from the Royal Conservatory of Music in piano.

Anna-Marie Holmes rehearsing in the studio

In New York she continued her ballet studies with Felia Doubrovska and trained in Leningrad with Natalia Dudinskaya, Alexander Pushkin and Alla Shelest of the Kirov Ballet.  Ms. Holmes was the first North American invited to perform with the Kirov Ballet in Russia.  She also has appeared with the London Festival Ballet, Royal Scottish Ballet, Berlin Staats Oper, Het Nationale Ballet of Holland, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Chicago International Ballet, Ruth Page Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet and others. In addition, choreographers such as MacDonald, De Mille, Page, Corelli, and Darrell created many works for her.

Anna-Marie Holmes working with Arolyn Williams

Ms. Holmes founded the International Academy of Dance Costa do Sol in Portugal and served as its co-artistic director.  In addition, Ms. Holmes staged The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Paquita and other major classics when she served as co-artistic director of the Tennessee Festival Ballet.  ?Known for her interpretations of the Russian classics, Ms. Holmes has produced or set these great works in Lisbon, Oslo, Helsinki, Antwerp, Naples, Florence, New York and Tokyo.  Ms. Holmes staged The Sleeping Beauty for Florence’s Maggio Musicale and Swan Lake for Den Norske Oper Ballet.  She has taught and restaged many of the classics in America for such companies as Dance Theater of Harlem and American Ballet Theatre.  Her staging of Le Corsaire appeared on PBS’s “Great Performances”, for which it won an Emmy Award.

Anna-Marie Holmes in the studio with Adam Sklute

Ms. Holmes joined Boston Ballet in 1985 and in 1997 was named Artistic Director of the company as well as Dean of Faculty for the Boston Ballet Center for Dance Education.  During her tenure with Boston Ballet, Ms. Holmes created new stagings of many ballets, including Giselle, Don Quixote, La Bayadere, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty.  Ms. Holmes was Artistic Director of the School of the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi in 1990 and 1994 and in 1997 she received the Dance Magazine Award for extraordinary and lasting contributions to the art form.  She staged La Bayadere for the Royal Ballet of Flanders and Raymonda for both the National Ballet of Finland and American Ballet Theatre, in addition to teaching at the Royal Ballet in London, Ballet du Capitole in Toulouse and the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen.  Ms. Holmes became the first recipient of the North Carolina School of the Arts Rudolf Nureyev Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Ballet.  In 2005 she coached Swan Lake at the Den Norske Oper Ballet and Giselle at the Royal Ballet of Flanders, as well as teaching at the Den Norske Oper Ballet, Ballet du Capitole in Toulouse, mounting Laurencia pas d’action for the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago and preparing American Ballet Theatre for Le Corsaire and Raymonda.  She is in constant demand as a judge, guest teacher and choreographer.

-Beau