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Jack R. Lemmon joined the Louisville Ballet in 2003
as Executive Director. Previously, he served as Executive Director
for the Ballet Idaho, the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Tulsa Ballet
and as General Manager of Ohio Ballet, Akron, Ohio. He has also
served as Program Administrator of the Dance Program of the National
Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C. He worked with the Dance
Program for nearly seven years, first as an Arts Administration
Fellow, and subsequently as Program Specialist and Program Administrator.
He received the 1994 Award of Achievement in Dance from Northern
Ohio Live. Mr. Lemmon serves as a trustee of DANCE/USA, the national
service organization for professional dance, and chairs its Mangers
Council. In addition, he serves on the board for the Partnership
for Creative Economics and is Vice-Chair of GLI’s Arts & Cultural
Attractions Committee.
Mr. Lemmon holds a B.M. in music education and performance from
Coe College in Cedar Rapids (Iowa) and an M.F.A. in arts administration
from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
Bruce Simpson joined
the Louisville Ballet in 2002, bringing with him over 30 years
of experience in the international ballet world. Born in Glasgow,
Scotland, Mr. Simpson studied at the Scottish Ballet School,
making his professional debut with Scottish Opera. Upon joining
the Wuppertal Dance Company, he toured throughout Germany and
Belgium. In 1970, he joined South Africa’s State Theatre Ballet
(previously known as the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal),
which became his home for the next 30 years.
After his promotion
to principal dancer in 1975, he performed an extensive repertory
specializing in the great classical roles, including Swan
Lake, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La
Fille Mal Gardée, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cinderella and La
Sylphide. He danced leading roles in The Three Musketeers, Anna
Karenina and Soft Blue Shadows by André Prokovsky; The
Merry Widow, Rosalinda and Papillon by Ronald Hynd; Don
Quixote by Rudolf Nureyev; and The Taming of the Shrew by
John Cranko.
Appointed Ballet
Master in 1983 and Senior Ballet Master in 1985, Mr. Simpson
continued to perform with State Theatre Ballet until his retirement
from the stage in 1998. He was also répetiteur, teacher and coach,
refining productions of the Company’s repertoire of over 60 ballets.
He has worked with some of the greatest dancers of our time,
including Natalia Makarova, Sir Antony Dowell, Dame Margot Fonteyn,
Ivan Nagy and Sir Fredrick Ashton.
Mr. Simpson
has been a guest of the major dance companies and schools throughout
the world. In 2000, he was invited to lead Texas Ballet Theater,
where he was commissioned to create new productions of The
Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Mr. Simpson was the jury
co-chair at the 2006 USA International Ballet Competition in
Jackson, Miss.
Helen Starr has danced
and taught in 36 countries on five continents. She was born in
Kent, England, and trained at the Royal Academy of Dance and
the Royal Ballet School. Graduating into the Royal Ballet, she
toured extensively as a soloist and assistant ballet mistress.
During this time, she worked with Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth
MacMillan, Dame Ninette de Valois D.B.E., John Cranko, Leonide
Massine and Rudolf Nureyev.
Miss Starr
joined the London Festival Ballet, now English National Ballet,
and was made a principal dancer after dancing Odette in Swan
Lake. Her roles included the leads in Giselle, Coppélia, Les
Sylphides, Scheherazade, Prince Igor, Noir
et Blanc, La Sonnambula, Bourree Fantasque and The
Sleeping Beauty. Her partners have included such luminaries
as John Gilpin, André Prokovsky, Peter Schaufuss, Peter Martins,
Frank Augustyn, Alexander Lunev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, with
whom she danced La Sonnambula, the pas de deux from Le
Corsaire and Petrouchka.
Recognized
nationwide as a fine ballet teacher and coach, Miss Starr has
staged ballets in Europe and the United States including Swan
Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, Giselle, Les
Sylphides, La Fete Etrange, Ashton’s Les Patineurs,
plus original productions of Cinderella and Romeo and
Juliet. Her roles with the Louisville Ballet have included
Odette in Swan Lake, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping
Beauty, Giselle, Juliet, Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow,
Colette in Paradise Gained, Desdemona in The Moor’s
Pavane and Hecuba in The Trojan Women.
Jeff Holland Cook has been the conductor for the Louisville Ballet
since 1990. From 1986 to 1991, he was both Associate Conductor
and Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. He was
Music Director of the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra for nineteen
years and continues this relationship as guest conductor for the
summer season. He was Music Director of the Wheeling, W. Va., Symphony
for twelve years.
A native of Chicago, he is a graduate
of Northwestern University, Ohio State University and the New England
Conservatory of Music. His early training includes studying with
Sir John Barbirolli and Pierre Boulez.
Maestro Cook has frequently guest conducted both in this country
and abroad, including appearances with the Rhode Island Philharmonic,
North Bay Festival, Anchorage Symphony and Orquestra Sinfonica
Nacional in the Dominican Republic. He has enjoyed conducting for
such musical stars as Leonard Rose, Roberta Peters, the Canadian
Brass, Lorin Hollander, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Judy Collins.
Born in Vienna, Austria,
Mr. Kern studied with the Ballet School of the Vienna State Opera
and at the Academie de la Danse de Princess Grace, Monte Carlo.
He has received many
awards including the Rudolf Nureyev Scholarship Award, the Paris
International Dance Competition – prix d’interpretation and an
Award for Artistic Achievement from the New York International
Ballet Competition.
Mr. Kern has performed
as a soloist and principal dancer with the Vienna State Opera
Ballet, Basel Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, Ballet Internationale
and Charleston Ballet Theater. He has danced leading roles in
most of the major classical and romantic ballets and won critical
acclaim for his interpretation of roles in ballets by Sir Ashton,
Cranko, Massine, Nureyev, Neumeier, Spörli, Balanchine, Kilian
and many more.
Under the guidance
of Irina Kolpakova and Vladilen Semyonov, he became a teacher
and coach. He has been the Associate Artistic Director of the
Channel Islands Ballet (California) and a guest instructor with
schools, colleges and companies around the USA, Europe and Japan.
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Elizabeth Hartwell joined the Louisville Ballet
School as Director after a long and successful tenure with the
Louisville Ballet. From
1988 to 1995, Ms. Hartwell danced as a soloist for the Cincinnati
Opera Ballet summer seasons. Then, in 1996, she began serving on
the faculty of Governor’s School for the Arts (Ky.). Prior
to joining the Louisville Ballet, she danced with the Chicago Ballet,
Cincinnati Ballet and Pittsburgh Opera Ballet and was a member of
the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre from 1980 to 1983. After graduating
from the School for the Creative and Performing Arts High School
in Cincinnati, Ohio, she was a state and national finalist in the
National Society for Arts and Letters Competition in Dance. Ms. Hartwell
was honored by Gov. Fletcher and The Governors Awards in The Arts
with The Artist Award for lifetime achievement in 2004.
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Michael Harris, a native of Tennessee, returns for
his twentieth season as Director of Operations. As such, he directs
and manages
all aspects of the production departments. He is also responsible
for theatrical scheduling, music and repertory licenses, guest artist
contracts and production and operations budget control. In addition,
Mr. Harris serves as facilities manager. He also oversees the management
of the scene shop and warehouse facilities.
Prior to his current position, Mr. Harris was Production
Manager for nine seasons. Before employment with the Louisville Ballet,
he served as production manager
for several independent feature films, stage manager for Iroquois Amphitheater
and chief electrician at the Amphitheater and Stage One. He is a graduate
of Western Kentucky University with degrees in English and Journalism.
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Michael Ford is a native of Louisville and an
alumnus of Bellarmine College. He has worked with the Louisville
Ballet since 1974 and
has been Resident Lighting Designer and Stage Manager since 1978.
Michael has served as Technical Director and/or Lighting Designer
for Iroquois Amphitheater, Metroversity Dance Series, Miss Kentucky
Pageant, Sphere One Dance Company, Stage One, Metroversity Summer
Theater and Corning Summer Theater in Corning, New York. He has been
Guest Designer for the North Carolina Dance Theatre and the American
Ballet Theatre at the Met. Mr. Ford has designed dance productions
for such well-known choreographers as Erik Bruhn, Choo-San Goh, Bruce
Marks, Lynn Taylor Corbett, Robert Gladstein, Ron Cunningham, Jean-Pierre
Bonnefoux, Adam Hougland and André Prokovsky. He has also
designed lighting for and toured with Mikhail Baryshnikov.
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Keith Kemble returns
to the Louisville Ballet for his fourth season as Technical Director.
He comes to the Ballet with a wide range of experience in scenic
art and set design. A University of Louisville graduate in graphic
design, Mr. Kemble has worked extensively as a scenic artist in
commercials, feature films and trade shows.
Mr. Kemble’s
initial involvement with the Louisville Ballet began in 1995 as
a scenic artist and prop maker on the Ballet’s current production
of The Nutcracker. Other productions include Alice
in Wonderland and Don Quixote. Since then, he has been
the Company’s primary scenic artist and prop master.
A native of Wisconsin,
Dan Fedie is entering his nineteenth year as Costume Master. He
earned his B.S. in speech and theatre from the University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse,
and an M.F.A. in costume design from the University of Illinois
Champaign/Urbana. Design credits include A Time To Remember, Gloria and If
ya ain’t right, git right! for the Louisville Ballet. Mr. Fedie
has also designed for Stage One, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival
and 1900 productions in Chicago.
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Leslie began her career twenty-two years ago
as a stage management intern at Actors Theatre of Louisville and
has been working professionally
in the Louisville area ever since. For thirteen years, she was the
Production Stage Manager for Stage One: Louisville’s Family
Theatre, touring regionally as well as to New York City and Off-Broadway.
She has also stage managed at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival,
Derby Dinner Playhouse, Music Theatre Louisville, Actors Theatre
of Louisville and The Kentucky Center. This is Leslie’s second season with the Louisville Ballet.
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