A Celebration of Dance 2021
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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR THOM CLOWER AND BALLET ENSEMBLE OF TEXAS PRESENT A CELEBRATION OF DANCE 2021 FIREBIRD CONFETTI SWAN LAKE IN A NUTSHELL SPACIAL PERCUSSION APRIL 9-10 IRVING ARTS CENTER Presenting Sponsors: NEA/TCA Funded in part of the City of Irving through the Irving Arts Board and the City of Coppell. Dear Friends, On behalf of all of us at Ballet Ensemble of Texas, we would like to express sincere gratitude to everyone who supported our work during this Pandemic. Just over a year ago we were going along dancingly, and suddenly, we had to stop…some- thing that is not great for people who are movers! As difficult as it was for us to teach the dancers via Zoom, I cannot imagine having to live them with while they were experiencing it. It was not easy for any of us…but now, it seems, we are beginning to get past this unprecedented moment in our lives. Thank Goodness! We also appreciate your continued support as we move forward and create our new “normal”. We will continue to follow our mission of presenting quality ballet performances for local communities, and to train pre-professional students for careers in dance. We will continue to present full-length ballets and ambitious performances to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, dancing or premiering works by noted choreographers. Additionally, we will continue our outreach programs, creating a culture of inclusion by donating tickets to veterans, Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs, and the elderly. As a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, the company is funded by donations, ticket sales, and is grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, City of Coppell, Irving Arts Center and the City of Irving through the Irving Arts Board for their support. Your individual donation can make a huge impact at this time of reduced ticket sales and is completely tax-deductible as allowed by law. No gift is too small! If your employer has a giving program, we can help get you set up…just give us a call! We love dance, but more so we love dancers! The dancers on the stage tonight have worked extremely hard to be their best. Some of them will go on to profession- al careers, some will dance through college…but whatever path they choose they will use the discipline they learned from dance to be successful adults! Thank you! We hope you enjoy the performance! Thom Clower, Artistic Director Lisa Slagle, Executive Director Lindsey Daniel, Ballet Master Heather King, Assistant to the Artistic Director BALLET ENSEMBLE OF TEXAS 2020-21 Beautiful Smiles Version THE COMPANY THE APPRENTICES BALLET ENSEMBLE OF TEXAS 2020-21 Masked-Up Version THE COMPANY THE APPRENTICES Known as one of the most energetic and inspiring teachers across the country, Thom Clower's "evangelistic" approach to teaching has touched the lives and careers of dancers around the world for over 40 years. With extensive training in the Vaganova, Balanchine, Cecchetti, and Bournonville styles, Mr. Clower combines the qualities of each one to present a technique that is true and versatile. Making his stage debut at the age of six, Mr. Clower began his professional training with George Skibine and Marjo- rie Tallchief at the Dallas Civic Ballet in 1968. He received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to the School of American Ballet in New York for two consecutive years, and studied in Paris, Amsterdam, and London. He joined Dallas Ballet in 1978 where he spent eleven seasons performing with the company under Mr. Skibine and Flemming Flindt and served as assistant Ballet Master for Dallas Ballet's 1980 South American tour. As Ballet Master, Mr. Clower assisted Flindt in staging his full-length Nutcracker, The Three Musketeers, and Phaedra, and personally administrated the staging of Alvin Ailey's The River, John Cranko's Jue de Cartes, Jeri Kylian's Engulfted Catherdral, Fokine's Prince Igor and Les Sylphides, and many others. Mr. Clower served as Founding Artistic Director of the original Ballet Dallas and the affiliate school, the Dallas Conser- vatory of Ballet. Under his direction, Ballet Dallas was the resident professional ballet company for the Dallas area for eight years, carrying on the traditions of the former company. Mr. Clower served as Ballet Master for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, working closely with founding Artistic Director Lou Conte. He was primary teacher for the company and rehearsal director for works by Twyla Tharp, Nacho Duato, Daniel Ezerlow, and Kevin O'Day. Mr. Clower then served four seasons as Artistic Director of Yuma Ballet Theatre (AZ), and Ballet Master of the affiliate school, Dancers Workshop. He was a regular guest teacher at Allegro Ballet of Houston from 2009-2018. As a representative of the George Skibine Trust, Mr. Clower helps maintain the integrity of Mr. Skibine's ballets, staging them across the country. He served on selection panels for the City of Dallas, Tarrant County, and both the Texas and Arizona Commission on the Arts Peer Review Panels. He was awarded the prestigious Legacy Award for Achievement in the Arts by the Dallas Dance Council in 2000 and placed in the Yuma Ballet Theatre's Hall of Fame in 2005. Since 2017, he has served on the Board of Directors of the Dance Council of North Texas, focusing on their Scholarship Program. Believing very strongly in Regional Dance America, Mr. Clower has served as the Director of Ballet at numerous RDA Craft of Choreography Conferences (NCI). He has been a guest teacher for Regional Festivals since 1992 and was a guest teacher at the RDA National Festivals in 1997, 2007, and 2017. Mr. Clower has proudly served in the capacity of Adjudicator for RDA/NE (00), RDA/Mid States (03), SERBA (13, 19), and RDA/SW (17 National Festival in Phoenix, AZ). He has been Ballet Faculty at The Glenda Brown Choreography Project. Mr. Clower has staged and created ballets for companies and has also worked with many opera companies, including the Santa Fe Opera, the Dallas Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Dallas. Companies have performed his choreography all over the world. Since 2001, Thom Clower has worked around the world as a freelance master teacher and choreographer. His work has included regional companies and schools, and he has been a guest teacher at professional companies such as Oklahoma City THOM Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Atlanta Ballet and Broadway Dance Center, and Associate Ballet Master for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, and served annually as Ballet Master for Young! Tanzsommer – Stars of Tomorrow CLOWER International since 2002. ARTISTIC Mr. Clower is the Artistic Director of the Ballet Ensemble of Texas, and on the faculty of the Ballet Academy of Texas. He has staged the full-length Coppelia and Firebird on the company twice and many concert works, DIRECTOR and been as Master Teacher for them since the inception. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Lisa Slagle began studying all forms of dance at the age of five in her hometown of Ft. Worth where she spent her summers LISA SLAGLE performing in Casa Manana's Summer Musicals, most notably as Baby June in Gypsy. She began her professional dancing career at eleven when she appeared as a solo dancer in the Elvis Presley movie, Clambake. Her ballet training continued in southern California with Anna Cheselka, Sallie Whalen, and George Zoritch, and later in Houston with James Clouser and Eugene Collins. Upon graduation from high school, she was offered a position with the Joffrey Ballet in New York, where she stayed until 1979. While there she had the opportunity to perform leading roles in ballets by choreographers de Mille, Arpino, Ashton, Bournonville and Tharp. In the 1980’s she performed as a Soloist with the Ballet du Grande Theatre de Geneve in Switzerland, and as a Principal Dancer with Tulsa Ballet Theater. Upon her retirement from dancing, she started teaching ballet in Dallas, and in 1999 founded Ballet Academy of Texas. The school has since received the Outstanding School award from the Youth America Grand Prix for eight out of twelve years, as well as the Outstanding Teacher award four times. She is also the founding director of the pre-pro- fessional company, Ballet Ensemble of Texas, which was an Honor Company with the Regional Dance of America organization for thirteen years. Many of her students are now dancing professionally both nationally and international- ly in such companies as American Ballet Theatre and Texas Ballet Theater. Ms. Slagle is on the Advisory Board for American Ballet Theatre's National Training Curriculum, has been a master teacher since 2007 for ABT's various Summer Intensive workshops and has been a master teacher for the International Ballet Competition School in Jackson, Mississippi and for the Regional Dance of America organization. In 2018, she had the honor of being the adjudicator for the RDA/NE Festival and in 2020, for the RDA/MidStates Festival. She has also been a master teacher as well as staged her choreography for such noted national schools as the Orlando Ballet School, Washington School of Ballet, and the Interlochen School of the Arts. Lindsey Yoes Daniel is in her sixth season as Ballet Ensemble of Texas’ Ballet Master. She received her training at the Ballet Academy of Texas and was a leading dancer with the Ballet Ensemble of Texas for several years. She has performed professional- ly with The Dallas Opera, Texas Dance Theatre, Larwell Productions and Dallas Black Dance Theater II; where she was also the Assistant Director to Nycole Ray. Lindsey has worked with many renown choreographers, including Fernando Bujones and Gordon Pierce Schmidt.