BOLD NEW FACES

Since its launch in 1989, Oregon Ballet Theatre has distinguished itself by presenting exquisite classical performances and cutting edge contemporary works through exciting commissions and OBT premieres. New choreographic voices are vital to reinvigorating the art form and this season we have so many, including: a world premiere from Michelle Manzanales whose piece Con Brazos Abiertos for Ballet Hispánico was lauded by the LA Times as one of “heart tugging beauty”; Jennifer Archibald brings last season’s SculptedClouds to the Keller Auditorium in a full production; Portland locals Ashley Roland and Jamey Hampton combine their distinctive wit and visual virtuosity for Big Shoes created for OBT in 2019; Canadian choreographer Matjash Mrozewski connects the worlds of dance, theatre, and film in his riveting The Lost Dance; Trey McIntyre whose classic dance tributes to contemporary music icons have made ballet lovers the world over, stages In Dreams with music by the incomparable Roy Orbison; Australian ballet star Danielle Rowe dubbed a “choreographic storyteller” by Culture Vulture takes us on a journey through her Dreamland, an OBT premiere; and Darrell Grand Moultrie equally at ease with commercial dance genres as classical, returns to set Fluidity of Steel for The Americans program.

Jennifer Archibald

SculptedClouds | October 15 – 16, 2021

Jennifer Archibald is the founder and Artistic Director of the Arch Dance Company and Program Director of ArchCore40 Dance Intensives. Archibald has choreographed for the Atlanta Ballet, Ailey II, Ballet Memphis, Kansas City Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, and worked commercially for Tommy Hilfiger, NIKE and MAC Cosmetics as well as chart-listed singers and actors.

She was appointed as the first female Resident Choreographer in Cincinnati Ballet’s 40-year history. This season she has created works for Cincinnati Ballet, Grand Rapids Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Ballet West, Sacramento Ballet and Balettakademien Stockholm and will create new works for Richmond Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet, BalletX and National Ballet of Canada in 2022. She was the acting Movement Director for Michael Kahn’s The Oresteia at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Archibald’s works have been performed at venues including New York’s City Center, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Aaron Davis Hall, Jacob’s Pillow Inside|Out Stage and Central Park’s Summerstage Mainstage. Jennifer was awarded a Choreographic Fellow for Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab under the direction of Robert Battle. She is a Choreographic Winnings recipient by the Joffrey Ballet. Jennifer choreographed Seven, a biographical work about Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, which was commissioned by St. Louis based MADCO Dance Company. Arch Dance Company’s Chasing Shadows was remounted for Dallas Black Dance Theater for their 2018/19 season. She was also the 2018-19 recipient’s for the CUNY Dance Initiative Residency.

Jennifer is currently an Acting Lecturer at the Yale School of Drama and was appointed as Guest Faculty Lecturer to develop the Hip Hop dance curriculum at Columbia/Barnard College. Jennifer is also a guest artist at several universities including Fordham/Ailey, Purchase College, Princeton, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of South Florida, Goucher College, Columbia College Chicago, Miami New World School of the Arts, South Carolina’s Governor’s School of the Arts, Ailey Fordham, Boston Conservatory, and Point Park.

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Danielle Rowe

Dreamland | April 8 – 10, 2022

Choreographer Danielle Rowe was born in Shepparton, Australia and trained at the Australian Ballet School. Rowe has created works for San Francisco Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater’s SWITCH program, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Co.Lab Dance (featuring dancers from American Ballet Theater), Ballet Idaho, Grand Rapids Ballet, SFDanceworks, Barak Ballet, Diablo Ballet, Oakland Ballet and Berkeley Ballet Theater.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rowe pivoted to film making. Her creations include Wooden Dimes for San Francisco Ballet, The Animals for Ballet Idaho and The Misfits for Louisville Ballet. She also collaborated with film makers Garen Scribner and Alexander Reneff-Olson on Shelter, I Am Spartacus and Wilis in Corps-en-tine for The Australian Ballet, which was voted “one of the best things to come out of quarantine” by Vogue.

Rowe has been dubbed a “choreographic storyteller” (Toba Singer, Culture Vulture) and her work “merits much praise” (Allan Ulrich, SF Chronicle). Her choreographic style has been described as “using a myriad of intricate hand and arm gestures that built on each other like the blocks in a Jenga game, along with a rich, flowing, contemporary ballet movement aesthetic” (Steve Sucato, culturedGR) and “impressing with the clarity of it’s intentions and the easy use of a multi-lingual vocabulary” (Rita Felciano, Danceview Times).

From 2001-2015 Rowe was a Principal Dancer with the Australian Ballet and Houston Ballet, and also danced with the prestigious Nederlands Dans Theater. She originated roles in creations by Paul Lightfoot/Sol Leon, Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor, Alexander Ekman, Crystal Pite, Marco Goecke and Medhi Walerski and worked with choreographers Mats Ek, Jiri Kylián, Hans van Manen, Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Bruce. Rowe has also performed in works by Kenneth McMillan, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Mark Morris and Nacho Duato as well as the title roles in Giselle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Kitri in Don Quixote and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. She is the former Associate Artistic Director of SFDanceworks.

Rowe lives in San Francisco, California.

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Matjash Mrozewski

The Lost Dance | April 8 – 10, 2022

Matjash Mrozewski is a choreographer and director with over twenty-five years of experience as a creator, performer, teacher and collaborator. His professional experience encompasses the worlds of dance, theatre, opera, musical theatre, and film.

Since his choreographic breakout, A Delicate Battle (choreographed for the National Ballet of Canada in 2001), Matjash has created dance works for companies across North America, Europe and Australia including: The Royal Ballet, The Australian Ballet, San Francicso Ballet, Tanz Luzerner Theater, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, among others.

Matjash is a graduate of The National Ballet School of Canada. He also completed the Canadian Stage/York University MFA in Large-Scale Theatre Directing. He is the recipient of two Dora award nominations for Outstanding Choreography and two nominations for Outstanding Direction in theatre and opera.

Currently, Matjash is Director of The Directing Program at The National Theatre School of Canada.

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Trey McIntyre

In Dreams – OBT Premiere | April 8 – 10, 2022

Trey McIntyre is a renowned choreographer and photographer whose choreographic works have been performed by Stuttgart Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, New York City Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Queensland Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and more. McIntyre trained at North Carolina School of the Arts and Houston Ballet Academy.

He started as choreographic apprentice for Houston Ballet in 1989 and later became the company’s choreographic associate. As a freelance artist for nearly 30 years, he has produced over 100 works. McIntyre is a United States Artists Fellow and the recipient of numerous awards: Choo San Goh Award for Choreography, Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters and grants for choreography from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2005, he founded his celebrated dance company Trey McIntyre Project. In recent years, he has delved deeply into photography and created a documentary, Gravity Hero, which is currently traveling to film festivals internationally. See more at patreon.com/treymcintyre.

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Jamey Hampton

Big Shoes | June 3 – 11, 2022

Jamey Hampton has had a storied career in dance, theatre, television, and film that has spanned four decades. Born in Portland, Oregon, he was a distinguished athlete in high school, receiving varsity letters in track and football. He attended Dartmouth College, where he was a competitive ski racer, rugby player, as well as rowing stroke on the freshman crew team. Dartmouth was also where Hampton began dancing in earnest, meeting Pilobolus Dance Theater while pursuing a BFA degree in theatre. After Dartmouth, he danced with Pilobolus around the world for five years. He then helped form and danced with MOMIX from 1982-1987, followed by ISO Dance from 1987-1995. In 1997, he formed BodyVox with his partner, Ashley Roland. Now in its 21st season, BodyVox is a vibrant and singular dance company known to audiences worldwide for its ebullient and deeply imaginative work.

Michelle Manzanales

World Premiere | June 3 – 11, 2022

Michelle Manzanales is a choreographer, dedicated dance educator of nearly 30 years, and co-founder of the Latinx Dance Educators Alliance. The Director of Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance since December of 2016, Michelle previously led the organization’s professional company as Rehearsal Director & Artistic Associate for seven seasons.

CriticalDance writes that Manzanales’ choreography “. . . isn’t just about one girl’s experience; it applies to everyone, of any gender, and of any culture.” Her choreography for Ballet Hispánico, Con Brazos Abiertos, described as a “savvy but deeply sincere meditation on her Mexican-American background” (-Marina Harss, New York Times), premiered in 2017, and has since toured worldwide to critical acclaim including its feature at New York City Center’s 2018 Fall for Dance Festival. Her homage to Frida Kahlo, Paloma Querida, has been hailed a “visual masterpiece” by the Chicago Tribune and described by the Chicago Sun-Times as a “gorgeously designed, richly hallucinatory, multi-faceted vision of the artist.” Manzanales’ current commissions include new works for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Oregon Ballet Theater, and Montclair State University.

A member of the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, Michelle also serves on the National Association of Schools of Dance’s Committee on Ethics, has served as a juror for the Nebraska Arts Council, Individual Artist Fellowships, a panelist for Dance/NYC’s #ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers Facebook Live Series: Arts Educators Leading the Charge, an adjudicator for the Independent Study in Choreography Showing for Ailey’s BFA program, and was honored to be part of a round table planning dialogue supporting Carnegie Hall’s education project All Together: A Global Ode to Joy.

Ms. Manzanales has served on the faculties of Ballet Hispánico, Lou Conte Dance Studio, University of Houston, Rice University, Houston Metropolitan Dance Center, and has been a guest artist for the Puerto Rican Classical Dance Competition, Professional Work Sessions at STEPS on Broadway, the Joyce Master Class Series at Gibney, the Taylor School, New Orleans Ballet Association, Generation Dance Festival Houston, Artisan Ballet Company, Regional Dance America, Festival de Danza Cordoba-Youth American Grand Prix, Houston’s Kinder High School for the Performing & Visual Arts, along with numerous other dance studios, schools, and college dance programs nationwide and abroad.

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Darrell Grand Moultrie

Fluidity of Steel | June 3 – 11, 2022

Darrell Grand Moultrie is a recipient of a Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award, has created and staged multiple works for The Juilliard School, Colorado Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, BalletMet (Columbus, Ohio), Ailey II, Sacramento Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Tulsa Ballet, Richmond Ballet, and Smuin Ballet.

He has taught and choreographed at many universities such as The Ailey School Fordham, Point Park University, CalArts, New York University, Stanford University, and Dartmouth College. Dance Theatre of Harlem, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Ailey II, the University of Arizona, Boston Conservatory, and Nashville Ballet will premiere his works this spring.

Grammy Award-winning recording artist Beyoncé selected Moultrie as one of her choreographers for The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. He also has collaborated with Tony Award-winning hoofer, Savion Glover and director, Diane Paulus, who tapped Moultrie to choreograph the original musical Witness Uganda at American Repertory Theater. Most recently Moultrie choreographed the new opera El Público by Federico García Lorca at the world famous Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain.

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Ashley Roland

Big Shoes | June 3 – 11, 2022

Ashley Roland is a true American original. With an unparalleled imagination and an acuity in both choreography and theatrical effect, she creates work that is unbridled and unabashed, resonating deeply with audiences around the world.

After attending North Carolina School of the Arts, Ashley helped form MOMIX, setting off on a string of international tours that took her to Paris, London, Tokyo, Rome, New York, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, and virtually every major city in the world. In 1987, she formed ISO Dance with her partner Jamey Hampton. ISO toured the world for seven years with a robust schedule, which included choreography for international fashion shows, arena rock productions, videos, and print ad campaigns. Roland has collaborated with the preeminent dance photographer of our time, Lois Greenfield, on thousands of still images. She co-founded BodyVox in 1997 with Jamey Hampton. Now in its 21st season, BodyVox reflects everything that Roland is: endlessly creative and truly unique.

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