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2023 Choreographers and Dancers |
 Kristopher
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. |
 Ye
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
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 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 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 |
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| Costume Coordinator | ||
 Hannah
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 |
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| 2023 NCI Dancers | ||
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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: |
 2023 NCI dancers |
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All photos by Robert Salas and David Friedman |
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