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2023 Choreographers

Kristopher Estes-BrownKristopher Estes-Brown is an American choreographer, composer, and director. As a choreographer, he is best known for his athletic, expressive movement style, unique musicality, and eye-catching theatricality. Estes Brown has created over 90 original contemporary dance pieces as well as 8 full-length story ballets. His stage works have been performed all across the United States by numerous dance companies with great acclaim. In 2015, Estes-Brown founded Concept Zero, a contemporary music and dance company. There, he has created 6 evening-length multimedia productions that blend original music, dance, film, and stagecraft. As a composer, Estes-Brown’s music melds a big cinematic sound with dance theater aesthetics. His commissions include original scores for notable choreographers and theater producers nationwide, and his musical compositions can be found in many short films and digital media offerings. Originally from Kansas City, Estes-Brown studied both classical dance and music as a child. Eventually he would go on to dance professionally in many ballet companies across the United States, including Milwaukee Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Oakland Ballet, and Eugene Ballet. In 2022, Estes-Brown was named Resident Choreographer of Mareck Dance and Milwaukee Ballet 2. He also had the honor of serving as the Regional Dance America Adjudicator for the Mid-States Region.
Yen LiYe Li's work has won multiple prizes in the Palm Desert Choreography Festival: The Daylight Within won second prize in 2022, and You Will Return won second prize in 2019. The latter piece made its international debut at The Achievement Exhibition of the 12th “TaoLi Cup” National Dancing Education Performance of China in 2019. A multi-award-winning performer, Li soloed with Oregon Ballet Theatre for four years, performing lead roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadere, La Sylphide, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. Before moving to Oregon, he danced as a soloist with the GuangZhou Ballet of China for 11 years and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens for two years. His illustrious career includes work with a wide range of world-class choreographers, including Ohad Naharin, Jirí Kylián, Mats Ek, Mauro Bigonzetti, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Christian Spuck, William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Christopher Stowell, and Nicolo Fonte. In addition to his work as executive director and choreographer for the Oregon International Ballet Academy (OIBA) which he co-founded in 2015 with his wife Xuan Cheng, Li is the rehearsal director of OBT2, Oregon Ballet Theatre’s Junior company (since 2021) and has served as a guest dance instructor at GuangZhou Arts school. Ye Li was born in An Shan, Liaoning Province of China and now resides in Portland, OR.
Ian SchwanerIan Schwaner is a native of Atlanta. Ian started ballet at age 17 at the Northeast Atlanta Ballet. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ballet Performance, Pedagogy, and Choreography from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied on merit scholarship under Dean Susan Jaffe. There he danced leading roles in works by George Balanchine, Ethan Stiefel, Marius Petipa, as well as world premieres by Emery LeCrone and Susan Jaffe. He spent his summers studying on full merit scholarship at American Ballet Theatre School and The Joffrey Ballet School. Now based in Los Angeles, his performance career has taken him across the country and abroad for companies including LA Dance Project, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Shanghai Ballet, American Contemporary Ballet, and San Diego Ballet, amongst others. Most recently, Ian directed, produced, and premiered his immersive dance film Ode To Summer in partnership with Just One Eye & Paola Russo, featuring several choreographic world premieres, including Venti Di Agosto and This Life of Pi. Ian has been commissioned by numerous organizations for his choreography, including Soho House, Maverick Agency, and Haley Reinhart. As a rising director and choreographer, Ian is humbled and thrilled to be working with NCI this summer.
Carrie Ruth TrumboCarrie Ruth Trumbo is from New Smyrna Beach, Florida and received her training at the Orlando Ballet School. She was a trainee with Charlotte Ballet before joining Tulsa Ballet’s second company, where she spent two seasons before being promoted to the main company in 2011. While with Tulsa Ballet, she performed repertoire by Twyla Tharp, Ronald Hynd, Ma Cong, Edwaard Liang, and John Cranko. She went on to dance with Ballet Des Moines and American Contemporary Ballet before returning to Oklahoma in 2016 to join OKC Ballet, where she spent 5 seasons. Some favorite ballets while with the company include Michael Pink’s Dracula; George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments and Serenade; and Septime Webre’s Alice (in Wonderland). It was through the company’s choreographic workshop, Future Voices, that she discovered an interest in composition, and created two original works on OKCB artists. Currently, Carrie Ruth serves as resident choreographer and artistic associate of Pegasus Contemporary Ballet, a Dallas-based company formed in 2021. She has created four works for the company, one of which was awarded a TACA Pop-Up Grant, and has collaborated with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Verdigris Ensemble. Her first full-length commission is set to premiere in June 2023.
Lighting Designer
Monique L'Heureux Monique L’Heureux is an award winning lighting designer who has been working in the field of dance for over two decades. This year, she is celebrating her sixteenth collaboration with artistic director, Molly Lynch.

Past designs include: Ma Cong’s French Twist for Smuin Ballet; Molly Lynch’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Anjani Ambegaokar’s Made in Mumbaii at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center; The Motion Picture and Television Fund event featuring Chita Rivera, Dick van Dyke, Shirley MacLaine, Hugh Jackman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Hudson, and others; Charles Moulton’s Ball Passing piece in Fall for Dance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center; Robert Sund’s Alice in Wonderland; the National and Pacific Festivals of Regional Dance America; the summer season at the Hollywood Bowl; and associate design work on the Universal Studios’ Magical Starlight Parade in Osaka, Japan.

She attended Pepperdine University and received her MFA from the University of California, Irvine, after which she apprenticed at the Los Angeles Music Center’s Mark Taper Forum. She has taught for the dance departments at Loyola Marymount University and Moorpark College and the theatre department at El Camino College.She is the recipient of four Lester Horton Dance Awards.

She is an accomplished artist and photographer whose work has been shown in galleries including the Long Beach Public Library’s Art on Display, the Carl Broderick Gallery, VIVA Gallery, Long Beach Arts Center, City of Brea Gallery, and The Stage Gallery, as well as a permanent installation in the Glendale Adventist Medical Center. She is a member of United Scenic Artists. www.artanddesigns.net

 
Costume Coordinator
Hannah AndersenHannah Andersen is a costume coordinator, theatre technician, and recent college graduate, receiving her BA in Theatre Technology from Chapman University in 2021. Some recent projects she has had the joy of working on are Freaky Friday the Musical, Zanna Don’t!, Native Gardens, Our Town, and Tartuffe as the costume shop liaison and wardrobe supervisor at Chapman University, Million Dollar Quartet and American Mariachi as a hair and makeup technician at South Coast Repertory Theatre, The Nether as the costume designer at The Wayward Artist, The Feast as a hair and makeup technician with Long Beach Opera, and Newsies as a dresser and stitcher at 3D Theatricals. She loves working with all things costume, hair, and makeup within the performing arts and entertainment industry and is delighted to be on board this project as a costume coordinator for NCI
 
2023 NCI Dancers
Women:
Anwen David – Ballet Memphis*
Katherine “Katie” Deuitch – Ballet Austin
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Kanning – Ballet Idaho
Michelle Katcher – Sacramento Ballet*
Saho Kumagai – Atlanta Ballet
Sophie Savas-Carstens – Philadelphia Ballet
Sophie Williams – Texas Ballet Theater*
Lily Wills – Pacific Northwest Ballet

Men:
Lester Gonzalez – Dayton Ballet
Joseph Hetzer – Oklahoma City Ballet*
Daniel Kubr – Sacramento Ballet
Clay Murray – Festival Ballet of Providence
Cameron Pelton – Oregon Ballet Theatre
Andrew Rossi – Ballet Met
Sean Sessions – Saint Louis Ballet
Hunter Solomon – Ballet Tucson

*Returning dancers

Note: Photos and dance biographies for the above 2023 Dancers may be viewed by clicking here.
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2022 Dancers
2022 NCI dancers
2022 Choreographers
Emily Adams
Leiland Charles
Jennifer Hart
Gina Patterson
2021 Choreographers
Sean Aaron Carmon
Mari Meade
Katarzyna Skarpetowska
Eva Stone
2019 Choreographers
Julia Feldman
Alan Hineline
Alex Ketley
Tom Mattingly
 
2018 Choreographers
Kevin Jenkins
David Justine
Ilya Kozadayev
Mariana Oliveira
2017 Choreographers
Suzanne Haag
Robert Mills
Penny Saunders
Christopher Stuart
2016 Choreographers
Tom Gold
Nicole Haskins
Stepanie Martinez
Ben Needham-Wood
 
2015 Choreographers
Nicolas Blanc
Norberto De La Cruz
Jimmy Orrante
Sarah Tallman
2014 Choreographers
Barry Kerollis
Gabrielle Lamb
Philip Neal
Garrett Smith
2013 Choreographers
David Fernandez
Susan McCullough
Kitty McNamee
Petr Zahradnicek
2012 Choreographers
Melissa Barak
Thang Dao
Darrell Grand Moultrie
Wendy Seyb
2011 Choreographers
Brian Enos
Heather Maloy
Peter Pucci
Paula Weber
2010 Choreographers
Anne Marie DeAngelo
Helen Heineman
Viktor Kabaniaev
Peter Quanz
2009 Choreographers
Sidra Bell
Deanna Carter
Rick McCullough
Olivier Wevers
2008 Choreographers
Amy Seiwert
Edmund Stripe
Emery LeCrone
Ma Cong
2007 Choreographers
Melissa Barak
Frank Chaves
Edwaard Liang
Jerry Opdenaker
2006 Choreographers
Ron De Jesus
Graham Lustig
Charles Moulton
Gina Patterson
2005 Choreographers
Val Caniparoli
Christopher d'Amboise
William Soleau
Luca Veggetti
2004 Choreographers
Ann Marie DeAngelo
Peter Pucci
James Sewell
Lynne Taylor-Corbett

Click on links above to view archived choreographer biographies

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