Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov, nicknamed "Misha", is a Latvian-born Russian-American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He is often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky, Rudolf Nureyev and Vladimir Vasiliev as one of the greatest male ballet dancers in history.
The Paris Opera Ballet is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded as one of the four most prominent ballet companies in the world, together with the Royal Ballet in London, the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg.
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. It has an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House in the spring and a shorter season at the David H. Koch Theater in the fall; the company tours around the world the rest of the year. ABT was founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant and is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. ABT is the parent company of the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, and was recognized as "America's National Ballet Company" in 2006 by the United States Congress.
The Royal Ballet is an 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 was granted a royal charter in 1956, becoming recognised as Britain's flagship ballet company.
The Royal Ballet School is one of the world's greatest centres of classical ballet training. Founded by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographer Ninette de Valois, the school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers for the Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Nederlands Dans Theater is a Dutch contemporary dance company. NDT is headquartered at the Lucent Danstheater in The Hague. In addition to the Lucent Danstheater, NDT performs at other venues in the Netherlands, including Amsterdam's Het Muziektheater and Nijmegen's Stadsschouwburg.
John Cyril Cranko was a South African born ballet dancer and choreographer with the Royal Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet.
People's Artist of the Russian Federation, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the Russian Federation, is an honorary and the highest title awarded to citizens of the Russian Federation, all outstanding in the performing arts, whose merits are exceptional in the sphere of the development of the performing arts.
The Cuban National Ballet is a classical ballet company based at Great Theatre of Havana in Havana, Cuba, founded by the Cuban prima ballerina assoluta, Alicia Alonso in 1948. The official school of the company is the Cuban National Ballet School.
The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is an American professional ballet company based in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
The Prix de Lausanne is an international dance competition held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland. The competition is for young dancers seeking to pursue a professional career in classical ballet, and many former prize winners of the competition are now leading stars with major ballet companies around the world. The competition is managed by a non-profit foundation organised by the Fondation en faveur de l'Art chorégraphique and is maintained by various sponsors, patrons and donors.
Benjamin Millepied is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States after joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He has also created choreography for the company, and choreographed pieces for other major companies. He retired from NYCB in 2011.
Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT) is the principal opera company in Michigan, USA. The company is based in Detroit, where it performs in the Detroit Opera House. Each year it presents an opera and dance season. The company presents four operas in their original language with English supertitles and hosts dance companies with touring repertoire. It also presents musical theatre performances. The company has an orchestra, chorus, children's chorus, and extensive dance and arts education outreach programs. In 2005 MOT won a National Endowment for the Arts, Access to Artistic Excellence grant to support its staging of the world premiere of Margaret Garner.
The Harkness Ballet (1964–1975) was a New York ballet company named after its founder Rebekah Harkness. Ms. Harkness inherited her husband's fortune in Standard Oil holdings and was a dance lover. Ms. Harkness funded Joffrey Ballet, but when they refused to rename the company in her honour, she withdrew funding and hired most of the Joffrey dancers for her new company. Joffrey Ballet later moved to Chicago, and continues to function. Harkness Ballet, established in 1964, gave its debut performance in Cannes in 1965, with George Skibine as director, Marjorie Tallchief as ballerina and a repertory featuring work by Alvin Ailey, Skibine, Eric Bruhn, Brian Macdonald and Stuart Hodes, the company mostly toured abroad, in the major theaters of Europe, to great acclaim, giving its dancers and choreographers a cosmopolitan experience unknown to most of their American colleagues. Its New York debut was in 1967 and Macdonald was also appointed director, succeeded by Lawrence Rhodes (1968) and joined by Benjamin Harkarvy in 1969. The ballet teacher David Howard was recruited in 1966 and became co-director of the school in 1971 with Maria Vegh, who had begun teaching at the school in 1968. In 1970, Harkness combined it with the Harkness Youth Ballet, directed by Ben Stevenson, succeeded by Vicente Nebrada.
The Hammond School, is a specialist co-educational performing arts school based in Chester in the United Kingdom.
The Oklahoma City Ballet is a professional dance company and school located in Oklahoma City. The company began under the artistic direction of Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancers Yvonne Chouteau and Miguel Terekhov in the Science and Arts Foundation building on the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds,
Brigitte Lefèvre is a French ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher. Since 1995, she has been director of the Paris Opera Ballet where she remained until August 2014.
