Andrea Maciel De Faria and Brooklyn Mack to Appear with Shreveport's Metropolitan Ballet

ANDREA MACIEL DE FARIA, formerly of the Orlando Ballet, and BROOKLYN MACK, principal dancer of the Washington Ballet, will appear as guest artists in the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet's production of The Nutcracker on Saturday,December 15, 2013 at the El Dorado Municipal Auditorium in El Dorado, Arkansas.

ANDREA MACIEL DE FARIA was born in Brazil and began her ballet studies at the age of three at the Sesiminas Ballet Institute. She studied under the guidance of Cristina Helena, Pablo Moret, Ofelia Gonzalez, Tania Suares, and Graca Sales. In 2003, on her graduation year, Ms. Faria moved to Germany to pursue her ballet studies at the Palucca School of Dresden under the guidance of Hans-Joachim Tappendorf.

Ms. Faria's professional associations have been with the Sesiminas Ballet (Brazil), the Columbia Classical Ballet, the Milwaukee Ballet, and the Orlando Ballet.

Ms. Faria's repertoire includes the roles of Swanhilda in Coppelia, Kitri and Cupid inDon Quixote, Myrtha in Giselle, Medora in Le Corsaire, Lise in La Fille Mal Gardee, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, as well as leading roles in George Balanchine's Valse Fantasie and Who Cares?

Ms. Faria has received multiple awards at ballet competitions in Brazil, and France. She was awarded the Gold Medal in "Danza Nino 97" in Buenos, Argentina, and was also a finalist at the New York International Ballet Competition in 2005.

Ms. Faria has appeared as a guest artist with many regional ballet companies in the United States and is also in demand as a guest teacher.

BROOKLYN MACK was born in the small town of Elgin, South Carolina, where he enjoyed playing basketball, football, and European football.

He began his dance training at the age of twelve at the Pavlovich Dance School under the guidance of Radenko Pavlovich and Milena Leben. After two years of study at the Pavlovich Dance School, Mr. Mack was awarded a full scholarship to attend the prestigious Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington DC at the invitation of Madame Vinogradova and where he studied under the guidance of Antoli Kucheruk and Vladimir Djouloukhadze. After three years of study at the Kirov Academy of Ballet Mr. Mack was invited to be an apprentice with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, where he danced one of the Youths in Vaslav Nijinsky's The Rite of Spring. Subsequently Mr. Mack joined the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company.

While dancing with the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Mr. Mack danced principal roles in Brian Reader's The Night Before and Tea in Temptation, Benjamin Millepied's Capriccio, Sean Curran's Aria, and Don Quixote Pas de Deux.

In 2006 Mr. Mack joined the Orlando Ballet where Mr. Mack expanded his repertoire to include the roles of Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Crassus in Fernando Bujones' Spartacus, the Cavalier in The Nutcracker, Siegfried in Swan Lake, the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, Basilio and Espada in Don Quixote, the Police Sergeant in Daryl Gray's The Pirates of Penzance, and principal roles in George Balanchine's Serenade, Allegro Brillante, The Four Temperaments, and Who Cares?, Fernando Bujones' Bolero, and Twyla Tharp's Waterbaby Bagatelles, Nine Sinatra Songs, and Surfer at the River Styx.

In 2009 Mr. Mack joined the Washington Ballet as a principal dancer where Mr. Mack repeated his successes as Basilio and Espada in Don Quixote, the Cavalier inThe Nutcracker, and created the role of George Wilson in Septime Webre's production of The Great Gatsby. He also danced principal roles in Twyla Tharp'sPush Comes To Shove, Nicolo Fonte's Bolero, Trey McIntyre's High Lonesome, and Edward Liang's La Ofrenda.

Besides being recognized as one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch", Mr. Mack has competed successfully in major international ballet competitions. In 2000 he was awarded the Youth Grand Prix prize for the best male classical ballet dancer in the junior male division. In 2006 Mr. Mack was awarded the Silver Medal in the Senior Division of the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, and in 2009 Mr. Mack was awarded the Silver Medal in the Senior Division of the Helsinki International Ballet Competition. In 2011, Mr. Mack received the Marius Liepa Award at the Boston International Ballet Competition, and the Silver Medal at the Korean International Dance Competition. In 2012 Mr. Mack received the Gold Medal in the Senior Division at the Boston International Ballet Competition, the Grand Prix at the Istanbul International Ballet Competition, and the Gold Medal in the Senior Division at the International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria.

Mr. Mack is also in demand as a guest artist having appeared with the Ballet Clasico de Camara with Nina Novak, and the National Ballet de Caracas, in Venezuela, the Sapporo City Ballet and the Nippon Ballet Association of Japan. Mr. Mack has also appeared in Radenko Pavlovich's Life Chance Gala in Columbia, South Carolina, and the 12th International Baltic Ballet Festival in Riga, Latvia.

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