Rising young choreographer CLAUDIA SCHREIER will present a program of her works, including three World Premieres, featuring dancers from New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem and more. The program will also feature an original commissioned score by multi-Emmy Award-winning composer JEFF BEAL (House of Cards), performed live by string trio and piano, and the 20-member choir TAPESTRY. One night only, August 8, 7:30 PM, at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, Ninth Avenue & 55th Street.
The performance is a presentation of the Breaking Glass Project, awarded to Schreier after winning the 2014 Breaking Glass Project competition for emerging female choreographers.
Critically acclaimed for her "instinctive gift for movement and musicality" (Oberon's Grove) and her "exquisite, complex, compelling, and absolutely stunning" works (Harvard Crimson), Schreier "inverts ballet norms" (Columbia Spectator) with a distinctive choreographic voice that fuses neoclassical technique with an inventive contemporary vocabulary.
"The music is at the core of everything," remarked Schreier and, indeed, the concert is also distinguished by the appearance of the 20-member, New York-based choir Tapestry and by an original commissioned score by multi-Emmy Award winning composer Jeff Beal, known for his merging of improvisation and classical composition. Beal, a prolific and much sought-after composer whose many credits include the music for the movie Pollock and the TV shows House of Cards, Monk, Ugly Betty, and The Newsroom, suggested a collaboration with Schreier after viewing her ballets online. "One of the things I saw in her work," the composer stated, "was a real sense of musicality and beautiful sense of structure in the way that she designed her dance works to music."
Beal's music is the inspiration for Schreier's Almost Morning, here receiving its World Premiere. The music will be performed live onstage by a string trio and piano.
Vigil, the program's second World Premiere, is a pas de deux set to two sacred choral works, O Vos Omnes by Tomas Luis de Victoria and Bogoroditse Devo by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Joining the dancers onstage will be the 20-member choir Tapestry.
The full company will appear in the World Premiere of Pulse, set to the first movement of the electrifying Piano Concerto No. 1 by contemporary Dutch composer Douwe Eisenga, whose music has been described as "maximal...stuffed with mesmerizing patterns, hypnotizing grooves and lyrical themes."
The program will be completed by two Schreier works:
Anomie, a 2010 ACDFA Gala Selection, with the piano music of Cesar Franck played live, and
Harmonic, winner of the 2014 Breaking Glass Project, danced to another thrilling score by Douwe Eisenga.
MORE ABOUT THE COMPANY
CLAUDIA SCHREIER is a young choreographer who has the unusual credits of being a Harvard graduate and John Harvard Scholar with a B.A. in Sociology and Secondary Degree in Dramatic Arts. She is also a recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize for Outstanding Artistry in the Field of Dance. A New York native, Claudia has created an array of critically acclaimed neoclassical and contemporary ballets commissioned by the Breaking Glass Project, Intermezzo Dance Company, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Harvard Ballet Company and more. She has worked with current and former members of New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Los Angeles Ballet, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, English National Ballet, Complexions, and Ailey II and recently choreographed for a Warby Parker ad campaign.
DANIEL APPLEBAUM began his dance training with Maryland Youth Ballet and attended summer courses at SAB. A recipient of the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise in 2004, Mr. Applebaum is currently a member of New York City Ballet.
DA'VON DOANE, featured in Dance Magazine's Top 25 to Watch list in 2014, is a member of Dance Theatre of Harlem and has appeared as guest with Classical Contemporary Ballet Theatre, Ja'Malik's E-moves, and with Ballet Noir, joining them for the 200th Anniversary Chopin Celebration and the 2010 World Dance Gala in Kielce, Poland.
KAITLYN GILLILAND has become a much sought-after artist since leaving NYCB in 2011, appearing with Ballet Tech, New Chamber Ballet, Twyla Tharp Dance, BalletNext and more. This spring she graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University with a degree in Psychology.
DREW GRANT trained on full scholarships at SAB, The JKO of ABT, and the Rock School, and is currently a member of the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada. Other credits include guesting with ABT Studio Company and Stadt Ballett Wurzburg.
ELINOR HITT was awarded the Jerome Robbins Foundation Scholarship while a student at SAB. She joined the Pennsylvania Ballet in 2012 and this fall will appear with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet while pursuing her undergraduate degree at Columbia University.
LAUREN KING joined New York City Ballet as a member of the corps in 2004 and was promoted to soloist in 2013. The New York native received her training at SAB and with Jane Miller, Luba Gulyaeva, Lynn Glauber, and Ali Pourfarrokh.
NAYARA LOPES trained in her native Brazil and ABT's JKO School in NYC. After dancing with Orlando Ballet II and The National Ballet of Canada, Lopes joined Dance Theatre of Harlem in 2014.
FRANCIS LAWRENCE trained with Lorraine Blackbourn in his native Australia and toured with the Australian Ballet's Dancers Company for two years. After moving to the U.S., he danced with the Grand Rapids Ballet Company in Michigan and is now in his third season with DTH.
AMBER NEFF, a graduate of the JKO School at ABT, has danced with the Boston Ballet and Richmond Ballet, and is currently performing with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, New Chamber Ballet, Intermezzo Dance Company, Kathryn Posin Dance Company and Eglevsky Ballet.
ELIZABETH CLAIRE WALKER attended Harvard University while maintaining a freelance career, and was a recipient of a 2010 Harvard Artist Development Fellowship and The Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize upon her graduation in 2011. An inaugural member of the Los Angeles Ballet in 2006, she returned to that company in 2011 and dances leading roles in the classical and modern dance repertory.
CRAIG WASSERMAN, currently a member of the Pennsylvania Ballet, trained at SAB on scholarship and with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Boston Ballet.
LYDIA WELLINGTON, a New York native, began her dance training at SAB at the age of seven, and subsequently joined New York City Ballet in 2008. Wellington was a recipient of the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise in 2008.
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS trained at The Australian Ballet School, graduating as dux. Williams joined the Australian Ballet in 2007 and, in 2009, she became the youngest-ever winner of the Telstra Ballet Dancer of the Year Award and received a people's choice award. She also performed with Christopher Wheeldon's Morphoses that same year. Williams joined ABT in January 2012.
