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Nancy Raffa is an American ballet master.
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Nancy Raffa is an American ballet master.
Raffa was born in Brooklyn, New York City. She began training in ballet under the instruction of Madame Gabriella Darvash.
At 16 years old, Raffa became the youngest, and first American female to win the Gold Medal at Prix de Lausanne in 1980. That year, she joined Natalia Makarova and Company on Broadway. Makarova then brought her to American Ballet Theatre, where she became a member of the corps de ballet. Raffa danced many roles, including dancing in Tharp's Push Comes to Shove with Baryshnikov. She later joined as principal dancer with Ballet de Santiago, Ballet National Francaise, then Miami City Ballet. [1]
After a serious injury, she retired from dancing and entered the field of teaching and coaching. In 1994, she joined the staff of the Miami City Ballet School. Raffa was twice awarded a special teacher's recognition from the National Foundation for he Advancement in the Arts. She was also awarded a grant from the United States Information Services to be a cultural ambassador for a company and school in Honduras. In addition, Raffa graduated magna cum laude in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in Psychology from St. Thomas University.
Raffa became head director of the American Ballet Theatre's National Summer Intensive program. In 2007, she was promoted to ballet mistress with the main company. Since then, she has worked closely with resident choreographer Alexei Ratmansky. She has aided him in his choreographic process for every ballet he has ever done with ABT. She sets many of his ABT works with companies around the globe. [2]
Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov is a Latvian-American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male classical dancer of the 1970s and 1980s. He subsequently became a noted dance director.
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had 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. The company was scheduled to have a 5-week spring season at the MET preceded by a 2-week season at the Koch Theater beginning in 2020. 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.
Gelsey Kirkland is an American ballerina. She received early ballet training at the School of American Ballet. Kirkland joined the New York City Ballet in 1968 at age 15, at the invitation of George Balanchine. She was promoted to soloist in 1969, and principal in 1972. She went on to create leading roles in many of the great twentieth century ballets by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Antony Tudor, including Balanchine's revival of The Firebird, Robbins' Goldberg Variations, and Tudor's The Leaves are Fading. Balanchine re-choreographed his version of Stravinsky's The Firebird specifically for her. She left the New York City Ballet to join the American Ballet Theatre in 1974 as a principal dancer.
Ethan Stiefel is an American dancer, choreographer, and director. He was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) from 1997 until July 2012. He was the artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet from 2011 to 2014. His wife is Gillian Murphy, also a principal dancer with ABT.
Ángel Corella López is a Spanish former principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre and guest artist with The Royal Ballet, Kirov Ballet, New York City Ballet, La Scala and the Australian Ballet among many others.
Joaquín De Luz is a Spanish ballet dancer. He was formerly with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), and a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet (NYCB). He is currently director of Spanish National Dance Company.
Fernando Bujones was an American dancer.
Natalia Romanovna Makarova is a Russian prima ballerina and choreographer. The History of Dance, published in 1981, notes that "her performances set standards of artistry and aristocracy of dance which mark her as the finest ballerina of her generation in the West."
Paloma Herrera is a prominent Argentine ballet dancer, choreographer, and artistic director who was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, where she worked for twenty-four years. She was the director of Colon Theater Ballet from 2017 until 2022.
Yuriko Kajiya is a Japanese ballet dancer who currently performs as a principal dancer with Houston Ballet. Prior to joining Houston Ballet, she danced as a soloist with American Ballet Theatre for seven years.
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.
Other Dances is a ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins to music by Frédéric Chopin. It was created on Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and premiered on May 9, 1976, at a gala benefitting the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, held at Metropolitan Opera House. It was originally made as a pièce d'occasion, but after receiving critical acclaim, it was soon added to American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet's repertories.
Misty Danielle Copeland is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history.
Lorena Feijóo is a Cuban former ballet dancer. Her dance career started in 1988 at the Cuban National Ballet, but left Cuba two years later for more opportunities. After stints at Ballet de Monterrey, Royal Ballet of Flanders and Joffrey Ballet, she joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1999 as a principal dancer, and retired in 2017. She then became an associate artistic director of Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre. Her sister, Lorna Feijóo, was also a ballet dancer.
Hee Seo is a South Korean ballet dancer who is a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. She became the company's first Korean ballerina to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history. She is also one of the youngest dancers in ABT history to be promoted to principal at the age of twenty-six. The New York Times has described her style and dancing to "exude an unhurried purity that sums up all that is lovely about ballet" and by Vogue as "unspeakably lissome". Several critics have noted her style as "lyrical and open" and she has been critically acclaimed for her "humility" and "unique feminine strength".
Susan Jaffe is an American ballet dancer and arts administrator. She is currently the artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre, where she had danced for 22 years and held the rank of principal dancer. She previously served as the dean of the School of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the artistic director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
Cynthia Harvey is an American former ballet dancer, ballet mistress and educator. She joined the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in 1974 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1982. In 1986, she joined The Royal Ballet, becoming the company's first American principal dancer. She returned to ABT two years later, and retired in 1996. She then started teaching and staging ballets across the world. Between 2016 and 2022, she was the artistic director of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, the affiliated school of ABT.
Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) is the world's largest non-profit international student ballet competition and scholarship program, open to dance students of all nationalities, 9–19 years old. YAGP annually conducts regional auditions in the United States and around the world, with the Final Round of the competition held in New York City every April.
Herman Cornejo is an Argentine-born ballet dancer and a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. He has had leading roles created for him by Alexei Ratmansky and Twyla Tharp; his signature roles include Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, and the leading male role in Ratmansky's Symphony No. 9.
Martine van Hamel is a Dutch choreographer, director, teacher, retired ballerina and former Principal dancer at the National Ballet of Canada and American Ballet Theatre (ABT). She was a gold medalist at the biennial Varna International Ballet Competition, the most prestigious ballet competition in the world, held in Varna, Bulgaria. She is also a recipient of the Prix de Varna, a recognition rarely awarded, for best artistic interpretation in all categories. She was one of the leading classical ballerinas in America.