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1/8/2000

Festival Dance 2000

Eric Harvie Theatre, Banff

A celebration of The Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award

The Banff Centre for the Arts Professional Dance Program will break with tradition this summer by presenting four works created at Banff with the assistance of the Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award. This year's program was chosen to celebrate the Clifford E. Lee Foundation's recent endowment of the Award, as a result of which emerging Canadian choreographers will continue to benefit from the Foundation's generosity for years to come.

While the dancers will not perform a work by George Balanchine as they have usually done in previous years, program head Brian Macdonald, OC, explains: "The program's commitment to the highest standards of classical training, as well as the commitment to new choreography and choreographers, is ongoing. As well as studying the works of the Lee choreographers, the dancers will be able to study with master teachers Margaret Mercier and Raymond Smith. Both have been away from Canada, and it is a pleasure to welcome them back home."

Ms. Mercier, a native of Montreal, was a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet (Covent Garden), The Joffrey Ballet, The Harkness Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and is currently principal teacher at the Royal Danish Ballet School. Raymond Smith was principal dancer for the National Ballet of Canada for 15 years and has performed as a guest artist with the English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet, La Scala, Nureyev and Friends, as well as for other companies throughout Canada and the United States.

In conjunction with this summer's 'all Lee' program, a special WWW site and an exhibition in the lobby of the Eric Harvie Theatre, featuring all 23 past recipients of the Award and the work they created in Banff, is being planned for this summer's Banff Arts Festival. Festival Dance Program 2000 (order TBA): · Snow, a world premiere by Wen Wei Wang, the 2000 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award recipient · Creaturehood: Choreography by Shawn Hounsell (1997 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award recipient) · L'Etiquette: Choreography by Joe Laughlin (1996 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award recipient*) · Quest: Choreography by Crystal Pite (1995 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award recipient) * In 1996 there were two separate Award recipients; Gioconda Barbuto was the other.

At the suggestion of Gweneth Lloyd, Canadian dance pioneer and co-founder of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, ballet was first instituted as part of the Banff School's Drama Program in 1947. Under Lloyd's leadership it became a separate department in 1958. Brian Macdonald, OC, has been program head since 1982. Macdonald instituted the present program, which is based on a resident group of young professionals, and a stellar international faculty which has included Laura Alonso (Cuban Ballet); Michael Byars, Una Kai, Victoria Simon, John Taras and Violette Verdy (New York City Ballet); Alexander Grant (Royal Ballet), and Olga Lepeshinskaya (Bolshoi Ballet). This summer the Festival Dance program is particularly pleased to welcome back to Canada as faculty members Margaret Mercier and Raymond Smith.
The Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award is given annually to an emerging Canadian choreographer. In 1999 The Clifford E. Lee Foundation celebrated over 20 years of support for the Award with a generous gift to The Banff Centre's endowment fund, ensuring that the Award will be in existence for years to come. One of the most comprehensive and prestigious choreography awards in the dance world, it consists of six weeks of rehearsal for the creation of a new work with a company of 28 professional dancers and 12 apprentices at The Banff Centre for the Arts, full production support, four performances at the Banff Arts Festival, and a cash prize of $5,000. The Clifford E. Lee Foundation is an Alberta-based private foundation that for 28 years has been supporting social and artistic development in Alberta.

FESTIVAL DANCE 2000: SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES
Shawn Hounsell, choreographer Creaturehood
Born in Birch Hills, Saskatchewan, Shawn joined the Professional division of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1986. In the fall of 1989 Shawn danced and choreographed for Fusion Dance Theatre's production of The Edge Beyond. His choreography for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Fast Forward choreographic workshop, in May of 1990, awarded him the Paddy Stone Memorial Scholarship for artistic merit. He joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in the summer of 1995 and continued to choreograph, creating assurances and small gestures for the November 1996 A Suivre choreographic workshop. As the recipient of the 1997 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award Shawn created Creaturehood. After its premiere in August of this same year, Creaturehood joined the repertoire of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and will premiere in Winnipeg in May of 2000. Mr. Hounsell currently dances with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens where he continues to do new works and looks forward to a premiere with LGBC at Place des Arts in March, 2001.

Joe Laughlin, choreographer L'Etiquett
Joe Laughlin is an award-winning choreographer who performed extensively before establishing his company Joe Ink in 1995. A particularly versatile and prolific choreographer with over 30 works to his credit, he has been praised for his originality, humor and lyricism. Joe has received numerous commissions to create for dance, theatre and film, and his works have been presented extensively in Canada, as well as in the US, Europe, China and Mexico. He has been in residence at The Banff Centre for the Arts several times. In 1996 Joe was the recipient of the Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award and here he created L'Etiquette, which entered the repertoire of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1997. As its artistic director, he has created many pieces for Joe Ink, most recently flick, The Body Remembers and Swing Theory, which premiered in the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Canada. Currently in creation is Seven, a cabaret performance that will be performed February 17 to March 5, 2000 in Vancouver.

Brian Macdonald, OC, Festival Dance program director
An original member of the National Ballet of Canada, Brian Macdonald's association with The Banff Centre dates back to 1960. He has been artistic director of the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Harkness Ballet of New York, the Batsheva Company of Israel and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Internationally well-known as a choreographer and director of ballet, opera and musical theatre, he has directed a series of Gilbert and Sullivan productions for the Stratford Festival, all of which became television specials. Since 1987, he has mounted new productions for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the New York City Opera, the Edinburgh Festival, the Kennedy Centre in Washington, La Scala, the Sydney Opera House, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, the Edmonton and Manitoba Operas, the Canadian Opera Company and most recently a new Petrushka for the Gothenburg Ballet in Sweden. He recently directed Madama Butterfly for Opera de Quebec, Tosca for the National Arts Centre and narrated Peter and the Wolf with the NAC Orchestra. For the Broadway run of The Mikado, he received Tony Award nominations both as director and as choreographer. Mr. Macdonald was awarded the Order of Canada in 1967, the Canada Council Molson Award in 1983, the Canada Dance Award and The Banff Centre for the Arts National Award in 1988. He recently directed the premiere of the Applebaum-Moore new opera Erewhon in Victoria.

Margaret Mercier, guest ballet pedagogue
Margaret Mercier was born in Montreal and began her early training at the Royal Ballet School, London, England. In 1954 she became a company member of The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden and was there for four years. During this time she came under the influence of Sir Frederick Ashton, Lubov Tchernicheva, Serge Grigorief and the young Kenneth Macmillan and John Cranko. She returned to Canada in 1958 to become a principal dancer of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. While under their employment she performed Lise in Fille Nal Gardee, among others. During the next ten years she performed with The Joffrey Ballet and The Harkness Ballet until her retirement from performing in 1969. She started her teaching career in 1965 with the Harkness Ballet and continued with an appointment in 1975 at the Stadsteater in Malme, Sweden. She was appointed company teacher at The Royal Danish Ballet in 1981, a post she held until 1987 when she was made principal teacher. As a freelance teacher Ms. Mercier has been engaged by the National Ballets of Finland, Norway, Sweden and Canada; The Royal Ballet School, London, England; and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. In August 1998, she returned to the Royal Danish Ballet School, as principal teacher.

Crystal Pite, choreographer Quest
Crystal Pite grew up in Victoria, British Columbia. Her dance training has included Pacific Dance Centre in Victoria, and summer programs at The Banff Centre for the Arts and the School of the Toronto Dance Theatre. In 1988, she joined Ballet British Columbia in Vancouver. Pite's choreographic debut was in 1990, at Ballet British Columbia's first choreographic workshop. Since then, she has been commissioned to create new works for the Alberta Ballet, Ballet Jorgen, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Ballet British Columbia, and several independent dance artists. In 1995, as the recipient of the Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award she created Quest for the Banff Arts Festival, a work which was later added to the repertoire of the Alberta Ballet Company. In 1996 she choreographed and danced solo material in two films: a short dance film entitled A Hollow Place, directed by Dan Sadler, commissioned by Bravo!; and the feature film One Night Stand, directed by Mike Figgis. In August 1996, Pite joined Frankfurt Ballet in Germany under the directorship of William Forsythe. She has contributed to Forsythe's new works, and continues to explore dance both as a performer and choreographer from within this stimulating and fascinating environment.

Raymond Smith, ballet master
Raymond Smith was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and trained at the National Ballet School of Canada. He danced professionally for the National Ballet for 20 years, and for 15 of those years he was a principal dancer. In addition, Mr. Smith acted as both a teacher and coach for the National Ballet School. He is presently Ballet Master for Ballet Met (Ohio), a postion he previously held at Ballet British Columbia. Mr. Smith has performed as a guest artist with international companies, including the English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet, La Scala, Nureyev and Friends, as well as for other companies throughout Canada and the United States.

Wen Wei Wang, recipient, 2000 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award
Wen Wei Wang is a Canadian citizen, born and raised in mainland China where he was an accomplished dancer and choreographer in the traditional dances of China. His aesthetic bridges the conventions of classical Chinese dance training with the many diverse influences and experiences he has had since coming to Canada. He started his choreographic work in 1988 and was awarded first prize at China's Langzhou Choreographic Competition. Since then he has created more than 20 works (three of which have been awarded prizes in North America) for Chinese dance companies. His first work for a contemporary group was for the Judith Marcuse Dance Company's choreographic workshop. He has since created Out of Thunder (1998), Caprice (1998) and Iberia (1999) for Vancouver's Arts Umbrella; and Dimensions (1999) for the Mentor Program of Ballet British Columbia. Wang has also choreographed a number of solos for himself and other dancers; these have been performed in various venues and special concerts in Vancouver. A gifted performer, he began dancing at the age of 13 and turned professional at 18. His dance career first brought him to Canada in 1986 to dance with the Lorita Leung Chinese Dance Company. He returned in 1991 and was offered and accepted a position with the Judith Marcuse Company. For the past six years he has been dancing with Ballet British Columbia.

Ticket information for Festival Dance and other events call The Banff Centre Box Office at 403 762 6301 or toll-free at 1 800 413 8368.

August 2 to 5, Eric Harvie Theatre, 8pm
Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada

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