Ballet West Blog

What must it be like to have not one famous designer but two famous designers create for you?  Only Christiana Bennett would know because on November 1st she attended the Ballet West Gala party in a Keith Bryce original and then November 12 she danced her premiere in the role of Miranda in ‘The Tempest’ wearing a costume Willa Kim designed and executed especially for her!

Christiana Bennett as Miranda, redesigned by Willa Kim

Christiana in her Keith Bryce original with husband Christopher Ruud

-Mark

Ballet West Principal Artist Christopher Ruud danced the role of Ferdinand in Ballet West’s presentation of Michael Smuin’s THE TEMPEST this past weekend.  Ballet West audiences are well aware of his fine artistry. He is athletic, poetic and charismatic.  What some may not know is that the role of Ferdinand was created over twenty years ago by Tom Ruud, Christopher’s father!  Father and son dancing the same role is quite rare and we in Utah are lucky to have the opportunity to witness this.  There are five more performances next week.  Check dates and casting on this website to plan which performance to attend.

Evelyn Cisneros, Little Christopher Ruud, Tom Ruud

Thank you for allowing me to post this rare photograph Christopher and Congratulations!

-Mark

As I’m sure you’ve read in the Salt Lake Tribune, our Gala on November 1st was a smashing success!  Not only was the audience twice as big as last year but about 18 Joffrey board members flew in from Chicago. Adam Sklute told the Artists of Ballet West on stage, ” Our Chicago friends came here last year to support me, this year to support Ballet West!”  Our thanks to the Utah public for supporting us in such big numbers and congratulations to all at Ballet West!

Capitol Theatre Marquise      Ashlee Christofferson, Jami Michael Vieneau, Tamara Lindsey

New York City Ballet Stars Bart Cook and Maria Calegari, Newlyweds Carol Wood (in a Keith Bryce original) and Darrell Hensleigh

Ballet West Academy in Peter Christie’s DEFILE

Christiana Bennett & Hua Zhuang with Members of Ballet West  in Balanchine’s CHACONNE

Ballet West 2 - Lindsay Duerfeldt & Alexander MacFarlan in Heather College Gray’s DISSOLUTION

Christopher Ruud & Romi Beppu and Members of Ballet West in Twyla Tharp’s BRIEF FLING

Guest Artist Sara Webb with Beau Pearson in Ben Stevenson’s THREE PRELUDES

The Gala program closed with DANSE GENERAL from Michael Smuin’s THE TEMPEST

THE TEMPEST will have it’s Ballet West Premiere in 2 days.  Don’t miss it!

This Gala was dedicated to Gerald Arpino, Cofounder of The Joffrey Ballet.  Mr. Arpino passed away last week after a very long and productive life.  He was Ballet West Artistic Director Adam Sklute’s mentor and Mr. Sklute chose a solo from Mr. Arpino’s KETTENTANZ to be danced by Ballet West’s Prima Ballerina Christiana Bennett for “Mr. A”.

I’ve got to get to work so after performance party pictures will have to wait for another blog entry.

-Mark

New York City Ballet Ballerina Maria Calegari returned today to put CHACONNE on the stage.  With Maria came former Ballet West dancer, New York City Ballet star and husband Bart Cook! I saw them both dance hundreds of times with New York City Ballet and never imagined I would some day work in the studio and theatre with them.  They were very generous with us at Ballet West and gave us many wonderful pointers.  We are lucky to have them here to put the finishing touches on Mr. Balanchine’s masterpiece before you see it on the gala.

They also graciously fulfilled my request to bring pictures!

Maria Calegari in Balanchine’s ‘Mozartiana’

Maria Calegari in Balanchine’s  ‘Vienna Waltzes’

Tracy Bennett, Bart Cook, Bruce Caldwell in Trepak from Ballet West’s  ‘The Nutcracker’

Bart Cook in Balanchine’s ‘Agon’

-Mark

Today was the first day on stage.  The rehearsal involved a lot of staging and we mostly worked with Tony and Emmy Award winning set and costume designer Tony Walton’s glorious ship.  The ship is one of the many stars of THE TEMPEST.

-Mark

Ballet West 2 will present a world premiere by former Ballet West and Dutch National Ballet dancer Heather Gray.  “Dissolution” will have its first performance on November 1 when Ballet West 2 participates in Ballet West’s 08 Gala.  Performance tickets can be bought separately from gala event tickets so anyone can see this performance!

Whitney Huell and Robert Goodman

Adrian Veloz and Jenna Herrera

Ballet West 2

-Mark

Today was Evelyn’s last day with us for rehearsals.  Her teaching and coaching for THE TEMPEST were incomparable.  She will be greatly missed.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed that she’ll come back for the company premiere!

Evelyn with Artistic Director Adam Sklute                     Evelyn with Christopher Ruud

Sheryl LeFavi, Christiana Bennett and Evelyn

Evelyn with members of Ballet West

-Mark

I hope you enjoy these shots from rehearsals of Twyla Tharp’s ‘Brief Fling’, Ben Stevenson’s ‘Three Preludes’ and Michael Smuin’s ‘The Tempest’.

BRIEF FLING

Christopher Ruud, Christopher Anderson,                                                  Christopher Ruud

Christopher Sellars, Thomas Mattingly and Jason Linsley

Josey Silva, Megan Furse,                                                      Romi Beppu and Christopher Ruud

Kate Crews, Romi Beppu

THREE PRELUDES

Sara Webb and Beau Pearson

THE TEMPEST

Jason Chinea and Jason Linsley

Jason Linsley and Megan Furse

Jennifer Robbinson, Josey Silva, Jason Chinea and Members of Ballet West

Stephanie Fenz, Aidan DeYoung, Aaron Orlowski, Kate Crews and Members of Ballet West

Sara Webb, Christopher Ruud, Christopher Sellars and Members of Ballet West

-Mark

Adam Sklute and I had the pleasure of working with Ballet West’s mega gorgeous Ballerina Christiana Bennett this past week on a solo from Gerald Arpino’s KETTENTANZ which she will perform on our Gala November 1st.   Let me know what you think!

-Mark

Evelyn Cisneros, Prima Ballerina of San Francisco Ballet has been with us to work on “The Tempest”.  How appropriate is that?  She after all created the role of Miranda in Michael Smuin’s enchanting full length ballet. Who better for Adam Sklute to bring in than Michael Smuin’s muse?  Also, something wonderful for you Ballet West Blog readers to know, she has been working with Christopher Ruud, the son of her original Ferdinand, Tom Ruud!

Evelyn teaching company class.

Evelyn coaches Annie Breneman and guest artist Sara Webb

Evelyn Cisneros coaches guest artist Sara Webb and Christopher Ruud, son of her original partner in The Tempest.

Evelyn Cisneros and Tom Ruud - The original Miranda and Ferdinand.

-Mark