In 1994, Nixon became Artist Director of BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, U.S., where he created a version of Bram Stoker's Dracula and an adaptation of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast".[1] During his six years with BalletMet, he added sixteen world premieres and fifteen company premieres to their repertoire.
David Nixon became artistic director of Northern Ballet, Leeds, UK in 2001. He premiered multiple works there including new versions of Madame Butterfly, Swan Lake, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter Pan and The Three Musketeers.[2] In late February 2011, Cleopatra, choreographed to music by the French composer Claude-Michel Schönberg, was given its world premiere in Leeds. The title role is danced by Martha Leebolt. In late 2011, David Nixon choreographed a new version of Beauty & the Beast.[3]
A perennial production for many ballet companies is his Dracula (1999). Created for BalletMet of Columbus, Ohio while he was artistic director there, it is a visually impressive and highly athletic dance.[according to whom?] Eschewing wire work, Nixon uses the bodies of the dancers to express flying with bats, wolfish appetites, etc. Music from various sources, including the Faust Cantata by Alfred Schnittke and sections of Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, are used to highlight the high emotions driving the story. Drawn directly from the Bram Stoker novel Dracula, Nixon's ballet includes vivid imaginings of the blood transfusions given desperately to Dracula's victim Lucy and scenes in the insane asylum with frenetic dancing by the characters of Dr. Seward and Renfield.[6] The original Dracula, Jimmy Orrante, and Nixon created a Count Dracula full of contradictions with more human longings than the Stoker character.[according to whom?] Often performed separately for dance exhibitions and competitions, a pas de deux between Dracula and Mina draws the two into an equal partnership, including moves with the ballerina supporting the male lead.[7] The ballet concludes in a vigorous set of sequences done to Red Cape Tango from the Metropolis symphony by Michael Daugherty.[8]
A new version of David Nixon's Dracula was created for Northern Ballet Theatre in Leeds for 2005.[9]
David Nixon has been a guest artist at the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Komische Oper, Deutsche Staatsoper, Hamburg Ballet, and Sydney City Ballet. He was voted Director of the Year 2003 and 2006 by readers of Dance Europe magazine, and he is the only director to win the award twice. The Northern Ballet Theatre won the Audience Award in the 2004, 2005, and 2006 National Dance Awards, becoming the first company to win the award in consecutive years.[10]
Abraham Stoker was an Irish author who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and business manager of the West End's Lyceum Theatre, which Irving owned.
Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker is a fictional character and the main female character in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula.
The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois. It became the resident ballet company of the Royal Opera House in 1946, and has purpose-built facilities within these premises. It was granted a royal charter in 1956, becoming recognised as Britain's flagship ballet company.
Michael Duncan Clark CBE is a Scottish dancer and choreographer.
Jonathan Harker is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. An English solicitor, his journey to Transylvania and encounter with the vampire Count Dracula and his Brides at Castle Dracula constitutes the dramatic opening scenes in the novel and most of the film adaptations.
Sir Kenneth MacMillan was a British ballet dancer and choreographer who was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977, and its principal choreographer from 1977 until his death. Earlier he had served as director of ballet for the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. He was also associate director of the American Ballet Theatre from 1984 to 1989, and artistic associate of the Houston Ballet from 1989 to 1992.
Arthur "Art" Holmwood is a fictional character in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.
The character of Count Dracula from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, has remained popular over the years, and many forms of media have adopted the character in various forms. In their book Dracula in Visual Media, authors John Edgar Browning and Caroline Joan S. Picart declared that no other horror character or vampire has been emulated more times than Count Dracula. Most variations of Dracula across film, comics, television and documentaries predominantly explore the character of Dracula as he was first portrayed in film, with only a few adapting Stoker's original narrative more closely. These including borrowing the look of Count Dracula in both the Universal's series of Dracula and Hammer's series of Dracula, including include the characters clothing, mannerisms, physical features hair style and his motivations such as wanting to be in a home away from Europe.
West Australian Ballet is the State ballet company of Western Australia and is based in Perth, at the Western Australian Ballet Centre in Maylands.
Northern Ballet, formerly Northern Ballet Theatre, is a dance company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a strong repertoire in theatrical dance productions where the emphasis is on story telling as well as classical ballet. The company tours widely across the United Kingdom.
Sir David Julian Bintley is an English former ballet dancer, the artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and co-artistic director of the New National Theatre Tokyo ballet company.
Colorado Ballet encompasses a 31-member professional performing ballet company, a studio company for advanced dance students, an academy, and an education and outreach department. Based in downtown Denver, Colorado, Colorado Ballet serves more than 125,000 patrons each year.
Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky is a Ukrainian-American choreographer and former ballet dancer. From 2004 to 2008 he was the director of the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet. He left Russia in 2008. In 2009 he was appointed the artist in residence at the American Ballet Theatre, and as artist in residence at the New York City Ballet from August 2023.
Frederick John D'Auban was an English dancer, choreographer and actor of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Famous during his lifetime as the ballet-master at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he is best remembered as the choreographer of many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
Renato Zanella is an Italian-born ballet dancer, choreographer and director. He studied classical ballet for several years before becoming a choreographer for various professional companies. Due to his success, he has won many awards and honorary titles within the ballet community.
Giorgio Madia is an Italian choreographer and stage director active in the fields of opera, ballet, operetta, musical and event.
Charlotte Ballet is the oldest professional ballet company in North Carolina. It was founded as North Carolina Dance Theatre in Winston-Salem by Robert Lindgren, who was then Dean of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, in 1970. It moved to Charlotte in 1990 and rebranded as Charlotte Ballet in 2014. It currently has 26 dancers and is the parent company of the Charlotte Ballet Academy.
David E. Stone is an American sound editor. He won an Academy Award for the film Bram Stoker's Dracula for Best Sound Editing during the 65th Academy Awards, he shared his Oscar with Tom C. McCarthy.
Michael Pink is a British choreographer, director, dancer, and theatre producer whose works and style have been referred to as “classical ballet for the 21st century.” He is the longest serving Artistic Director of the Milwaukee Ballet. Pink began his professional career as a dancer with the London Festival Ballet. After retiring from the stage, Pink went on to choreograph, direct, and teach internationally. During his time in the UK he developed a close partnership with Christopher Gable CBE, Artistic Director of Northern Ballet Theatre; the composer Philip Feeney; and designer Lez Brotherston. Together they would go on to create landmark original works, redefining the genre of dance drama. He became Associate Artistic Director of NBT in 1993, a role which he filled until 1998. As well as the UK and the United States, Pink's work has been staged internationally and broadcast by PBS. Pink was also co-founder of Ballet Central, the graduate performing company of the Central School of Ballet, where both he and Feeney created 16 original works.
Jayne Regan Pink is a British dancer, choreographer, repetiteur, dialect coach and artistic associate. She studied at the Royal Ballet School and spent much of her professional career as a principal dancer with Northern Ballet Theatre. She created leading roles in most of the company's repertoire between 1986 and 1998 alongside collaborators including director Christopher Gable, director-choreographer Michael Pink, composer Philip Feeney and designer Lez Brotherston. She has been referred to as "one of the jewels in the crown of English dance" and "one of the finest dramatic dancers of today, ranking along side Lynn Seymour, Marcia Haydee, Anna Laguna and Elaine McDonald." Since retiring from dance, she has moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her husband, Artistic Director of the Milwaukee Ballet Michael Pink. She has served as a choreographer, movement director, dialect coach and repetiteur in Milwaukee and internationally. She currently serves as Artistic Associate with Renaissance Theaterworks.
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