Kansas City Ballet to Discuss NEW MOVES Showcase, 4/1

KANSAS CITY, MO (March 24, 2016) - Artistic Director Devon Carney announced the choreographers chosen for New Moves, a unique performance series designed to search out, develop and showcase emerging choreographers, both from the national dance scene as well as within Kansas City Ballet. New Moves is intended to provide time and space for choreographers to create world premiere works with accomplished professional dancers. New Moves will feature choreographers Jennifer Archibald, Andrew Skeels, Stephanie Martinez, and Kansas City Ballet company dancers Sarah Chun, Charles Martin and Ryan Jolicoeur-Nye.

Performances of New Moves will be at the Michael and Ginger Frost Studio Theater at the Todd Bolender Center for Dance & Creativity (500 W. Pershing Rd.) on Friday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m.; and Saturday, April 9 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. A wine and cheese reception for audience members and artists is included. New Moves is generously sponsored in part by Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

"I am so thrilled to present our annual New Moves production in our intimate Michael and Ginger Frost Studio Theater," Carney said. "New Moves is specifically an opportunity witness emerging choreographic voices who are creating unique and forward-thinking works that invigorate and promote the art form of dance into the future. It is essential to always be looking to who are the next great creators of dance for the benefit of both the audience and performing artist alike. Stretching the limits and going beyond the boundaries of current conventional movement to discover new ways of expressing the human condition through dance. All six works on the program will be world premieres performed by our highly talented artists of the Kansas City Ballet."

New Moves

April 1-9, 2016 | Todd Bolender Center for Dance & Creativity

New Moves is a unique performance event which pursues new emerging choreographers both from the national dance scene as well as locally from within Kansas City Ballet. A wine and cheese reception for audience members and artists of the company is included.

Fri., April 1 7:30 p.m.

Sat., April 2 7:30 p.m.

Thurs. April 7 7:30 p.m.

Fri., April 8 7:30 p.m.

Sat., April 9 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

Cantilena

Choreography: Ryan Jolicoeur-Nye

Music: Chopin's Nocturne in E minor Op. 72

Catch

Choreography: Sarah Chun

Music: Escape Artist by Zoe Keating

The Better Man

Choreography: Jennifer Archibald

Music: composed by Michael Wall and Armand Amar

Intermission

Figments

Choreography: Charles Martin

Music: Federico Mejia

Seven Bridges

Choreography: Andrew Skeels

Music: Beethoven's Piano Trio No. 1 in E Flat Major, Op. 1 No. 1 (live trio: piano, violin and cello)

In Close Proximity

Choreography: Stephanie Martinez

Music: composed by Darryl Hoffman

Jennifer Archibald is the founder and Artistic Director of the ARCH Dance Company and Program Director of ArchCore40 dance intensives. She is a graduate of The Alvin Ailey School and the Maggie Flanigan Acting Conservatory where she studied the Meisner Technique. Archibald's works have been performed at venues including New York's City Center, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Aaron Davis Hall and Jacob's Pillow Inside|Out Stage, Central Park's Summerstage and Rialto's Off The Edge. In 2013, Jennifer was awarded a Choreographic Fellow for Ailey's New Directions Choreography Lab under the direction of Robert Battle. She also choreographed "Seven", a biographical work about Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, commissioned by St. Louis based MADCO Dance Company. In 2016 she will be creating a new work for the Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Memphis, and Chamber Dance Project. In spring 2015 her work was performed in Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, France, and in the U.S. In 2015 she was appointed as guest faculty lecturer to develop the Hip Hop dance curriculum at Columbia/Barnard College. Jennifer is currently on faculty at the YALE school of Drama. Jennifer has completed guest artist residencies and lectures at several secondary and post-secondary institutions in the US and abroad including: Princeton University, University of South Florida, University of Illinois, Virginia Commonwealth University, Goucher College, FAMU, Ailey/Fordham, The Conservatory of Purchase College, East Carolina University, and Columbia Dance Chicago.

Sarah Chun was raised in Chicago, Illinois. She began her training at the Northwest Dance Academy in Chicago and later trained at Faubourg School of Ballet for five years. She has won awards placing 1st and 2nd in the Youth American Grand Prix in Chicago. Ms. Chun received scholarships from Houston Ballet and while attending Houston Ballet for three consecutive summers, she enjoyed performing soloist roles in La Sylphide and Raymonda. She was accepted to Chicago's Joffrey Academy of Dance on scholarship where she enjoyed performing the principal role of Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty as well as performing and touring with the Joffrey Ballet Company. During her time with The Joffrey, she received a scholarship to attend the Ballet Program at Jacob's Pillow, where she performed Flames of Paris. In 2011, she joined Oklahoma City Ballet, under the direction of Robert Mills. With Kansas City Ballet, her favorite roles have been Lucy in Michael Pink's Dracula, the Sugar Plum Fairy in Todd Bolender's The Nutcracker, Alice in Septime Webre's Alice (in wonderland) and Todd Bolender's The Still Point.

Ryan Jolicoeur-Nye is a native of Waterville, Maine. He began his training at the age of 15 under the instruction of Andrei Bossov. In 2003, Mr. Nye joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School Professional Division where he received the prestigious Arnold Spohr Scholarship. Upon graduation in 2005, Mr. Nye was asked to participate in the Banff Summer Arts Festival in Banff, Alberta. There, he originated roles in Sabrina Matthews' Losing Ground and Peter Quanz's Quanz by Quanz, and performed the leading role in Fernand Nault's Carmina Burana. Mr. Nye began his professional career with Festival Ballet of Providence and then in 2006 joined the Eugene Ballet Company where he performed soloist roles in several works by Artistic Director Toni Pimble. In 2007, he joined Director Peter Anastos at Ballet Idaho and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2011. Mr. Nye is an award-winning choreographer and has had three world premieres with Ballet Idaho, including Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet and City Symphony with music by Philip Glass. With Kansas City Ballet, he has danced in Jessica Lang's Splendid Isolation III, Toni Pimble's Carmina Burana, Margo Sappington's Common People, and as Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker. This is his third season with the company. Mr. Nye joined KCB in 2012.

Charles Martin received his primary ballet training from Penny Askew at the Western Oklahoma Ballet Academy in Clinton, Oklahoma. He also studied intensively at the American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet School in New York, and the Glenda Brown Choreography Project in Austin and Kansas City. He has performed extensively with the Western Oklahoma Ballet Theatre in addition to guest performances with Allegro Ballet of Houston, Texas, and Remix Dance Group touring Austria. Mr. Martin also has had 12 choreographic works selected for the Regional Dance America/Southwest Festival concerts, two receiving special recognition from the Monticello Foundation. He has taught at Summer Intensives in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, Clinton, Oklahoma, Victoria and Denton, Texas. With Kansas City Ballet, he has been featured in soloist roles in Brahms Paganini, Piano Concerto #2, Lambarena, Concerto Grosso, As Time Goes By, Nine Sinatra Songs, A Solo in Nine Parts, The Moor's Pavane, the Friar in Romeo & Juliet, Common People, Huck Finn in Tom Sawyer, Renfield in Dracula, The White Rabbit in Alice (in wonderland), and Peasant Pas de Deux in Giselle.

Stephanie Martinez is an award-winning Chicago dance artist with over 30 years professional performing experience on stage, film and television. During her 17-year stint with River North Dance Chicago, she worked with guest choreographers Ashley Roland, Kevin Iega Jeff, Daniel Ezralow, Frank Chaves, Sherry Zunker and Ron De Jesus, among others, and was merited the Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Performance. Her eclectic performance resume also includes guesting with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Gus Giordano Jazz Dance, Ron De Jesus Dance, and as a featured dancer for The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the 2006 World Cup opening ceremonies with Diana Ross.

Upon leaving RNDT, she made her 2009 choreographic debut, AviMar, for Luna Negra Dance Theatre's 10th anniversary season, instantly securing her status as a sought-after dance-maker. Since then, she has been traveling across the country setting works on professional companies and major universities. Forthcoming commissions include Ballet Hispanico, Eugene Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Neos Dance Theatre, Dance St. Louis, The Big Muddy Dance Company and Dance Kaleidoscope.

Andrew Skeels, a choreographer noted for his contemporary and sometimes political focus,created two works in response to the five-year anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq. Choubi Coubi! was created for the Colorado Ballet Studio Company and was performed to pop music from Sadam-era Iraq. Palimpsest was an evening-length work that focused on the victims of the Iraq War. In 2009 Colorado Ballet presented blind spot, an emotionally driven work about his relationship with his visually impaired sister. His work has been presented by Colorado Ballet, Festival Ballet Providence, University of Massachusetts Boston, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Boston Ballet School, Colorado State University and Neglia Ballet.

Tickets Required: Seats are $35. Buy tickets online at kcballet.org or 816.931.8993.

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