NCI - Choreographers and Dancers

2004 Choreographers and Dancers

Ann Marie DeAngelo is skilled at all facets of dance. She was a principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet for 10 years, and was featured in TIME Magazine as “....one of the most promising ballerina’s in America”. She has performed internationally as a guest artist in the United States, Europe, Soviet Union, South America, Mexico, Australia, Cuba and the Far East. As an artistic director she founded the first privately funded arts organization in Mexico, Ballet de Monterrey, 1990 – 1994; prior to that she had her own experimental company which toured Europe extensively, 1984 – 1988. In 1995 she spend one season as director for Ballet Omaha, and was the Associate Director of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago from 1994 – 1998. Her choreographic credits include: Full evening works – Zeitgeist I and II; The Last of the Best; Gypsie Band; works for Ballet de Monterrey, the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, the National Ballet of Cuba, Ohio Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Oregon Ballet Theater, Ballet Pacifica, Nevada Ballet Theater, and ABTStudio Co. Her recent commission for the Nashville Ballet, The Bell Witch, a one act ghost story with original music by Conni Ellisor and 3-D visual effects by Gerald Marks was an innovative and “imaginative audience pleaser”. Ms. DeAngelo’s television credits include the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Sesame Street with Toni Basil, and choreography and performance of the title role for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s Pavlova. Ms. DeAngelo serves on the board for CTFD and is an artistic consultant for various regional ballet companies and arts organizations.

Peter Pucci is one of this country’s most versatile and sought after choreographers. He was a member of Pilobolus Dance Theatre for nine years, before forming his own company, Peter Pucci Plus Dancers (PP+), in 1986. Since it’s founding, PP+ has performed annually in New York City, including five seasons at The Joyce Theater, and has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe. The company has performed twice on public television and had its Broadway debut in 1998 at The New Victory Theater. In addition to creating over 50 repertory works for PP+, Pucci has choreographed ballets for numerous other companies. Most recently he has created a new ballet for Ballet Hispanico with new music by the Kronos Quartet. Additional commissions include ballets for Alberta Ballet, Ballet Arizona, Ballet Met, Ballet Pacifica, Colorado Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballet. Pucci has also served as movement director for many theatrical productions including Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss produced by The Signature Theatre and The Magic Theater, Eyes for Consuela produced by Manhattan Theatre Club, Merry Wives of Windsor and Twelfth Night for The Shakespeare Theatre, The Learned Ladies, Fool for Love and The Importance of Being Earnest for The McCarter Theatre. He has also created movement for fashion shows, commercials, videos, film, television, skaters, opera and several dance segments for Bear in the Big Blue House. Pucci recently choreographed Harmony, a new Barry Manilow musical. In 1990 Pucci became the first recipient of the Samuel H. Scripps Humphrey/Weidman/Limon Fellowship, a choreographic commission awarded by the American Dance Festival. His work has also been recognized with the Absolut Joffrey Award for Choreography and with two Choo-San Goh Awards for Choreography.

James Sewell (Founder, Artistic Director and Choreographer, James Sewell Ballet) serves on the board of trustees of Dance/USA and as a director of the American Composer’s Forum. A Minneapolis native, James moved to New York at age 17 and began dancing with ABT II. He was a lead dancer with Feld Ballets/NY for six years. He also has performed as a guest artist with the New York City Ballet, Zvi Gottheiner and Dancers, and Denishawn. Since 1982, James has choreographed more than 50 ballets, including nine for which he composed the music. More than a dozen companies in the United States and Taiwan have performed his ballets. Projects and commissions include selection by the New York Choreographic Institute in 2001 to set work on dancers of the New York City Ballet; a New York State Council on the Arts grant to create a work for Feld Ballets/NY; Aida, choreographed for the Minnesota Opera and 11 other opera companies; a new work with composer Augusta Read Thomas for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; James Sewell Ballet’s production of Amahl and the Night Visitors; Musical Toys for the Minnesota Orchestra; Nutcracker: The Untold Story, a Minnesota Orchestra NotesAlive!TM video; Metamorphosis commissioned by the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus; and Awedville, commissioned by the Wharton Center for Performing Arts in East Lansing, Michigan. More recently, he has worked with Chris Aiken and Kirstie Simson, masters of the Improvisation dance form. James received a 2002 Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship to explore the application of Improvisation and Contact techniques in ballet and to broaden his knowledge of the world dance community.

Lynne Taylor-Corbett has established a reputation as an outstanding choreographer of works for dance companies - ballet and modern, theater and film. Her commissions include Great Galloping Gottschalkand Estuary for American Ballet Theatre, Mercury and Chiaroscuro for New York City Ballet’s Diamond Project, In a Word for Ohio Ballet, Appearances for Atlanta Ballet and works for Pacific Northwest Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Pennsylvania Ballet among others, and for Carolina Ballet, where she is principal guest choreographer. Her choreography can be seen in the feature films Footloose and My Blue Heaven, in Disney’s stage show Aladdin, at the Hyperion Theatre in California and countless videos and commercials. As a director Ms. Taylor-Corbett received two Tony nominations and a Drama Desk nomination for her direction and choreography of Broadway’s Swing! in 2000, and received two American Theatre Wing “Star” nominations for its National Tour in 2001. She also choreographed two hit shows on Broadway, Chess and Titanic. Off Broadway, she directed Mona Rogers in Person at the Cherry Lane Theatre, Boy’s Breath at La Mama, Etc, Darlene Love: Portrait of a Singer at The Bottom Line Theatre, and the acclaimed 20th Century Pop starring Marianne Faithful, Darlene Love and Mary Clayton at The Rainbow and Stars. She has directed shows at The Cleveland Playhouse, The Old Globe Theatre, Hartford Stage, and The George Street Playhouse and most recently, a play called Natural Selection at the 2003 International Fringe Festival in New York. Most recently Ms. Taylor-Corbett directed Opal at The Lyric Theatre in Dallas and is creating a show for Disney which will open their new theatre in Hong Kong in 2005.


Lighting Designer
Monique L’Heureux is an award winning lighting designer who has been working in the field of dance for over two decades. This is her first 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

NCI 2004 Dancers Dallas Blagg - National Ballet of Canada David Fonnegra - State Street Ballet Jennifer Friel - Inland Pacific Ballet Robert Gosnell - Nashville Ballet Erin Holmes - Ballet Pacifica Adam Hundt - BalletMet Quincy Jacinto - Ballet Pacifica Gina McFadden - State Street Ballet Eddie Mikrut - Nashville Ballet Christopher Mohnani - Nashville Ballet Candy Olsen - “Evita” tour Tracy Thayer - BalletMet Angela Wetzstein - BalletMet Hitomi Yamada - BalletMet