Media Release Backgrounder

Additional information pertaining to
2006 Banff Summer Arts Festival turns a spotlight on innovative new work and rediscovered favourites

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For immediate release
April 27, 2006

Festival Dance

July 20, 21, 22 at 7:30 p.m.
July 23 at 2:00 p.m.
Eric Harvie Theatre — The Banff Centre

A celebration of classical and contemporary ballet, The Banff Centre’s annual Festival Dance performance is a showcase for Canada’s finest up-and-coming young dancers as well as emerging and master choreographers. This year’s program will feature a world premiere by Simone Orlando, recipient of the 2006 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award, George Balanchine’s classic Serenade, Time Out Of Mind by Canadian dance legend Brian Macdonald, and a special selection from Star Crossed, based on Romeo and Juliet, featuring the choreography of Brian Macdonald and the music of acclaimed Canadian composer Harry Freedman.

Brian Macdonald

Brian Macdonald, C.C. has had a long and distinguished career as a choreographer and director in classical and contemporary ballet, opera, musical theatre, film, and television. An original member of the National Ballet of Canada, he has been artistic director of the Royal Swedish Ballet, New York’s Harkness Ballet, the Batsheva Company of Israel, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and has mounted new productions for companies as diverse as the Stratford Festival, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, New York City Opera, Sydney Opera House, and Sweden’s Gothenburg Ballet. A Companion of the Order of Canada and inaugural recipient of the Canada Council’s premiere arts award, the Walter Carsen Prize, Macdonald was artistic director of The Banff Centre’s summer dance program from 1982 to 2001 and continues to serve as artistic advisor for the program.

Simone Orlando

Simone Orlando has been praised for her mature and sensitive ideas, vision, musicality, and delineation of movement and space. She has been dancing professionally since 1989, first with the National Ballet of Canada, then with Desrosiers Dance Theatre, two summers with The Banff Centre’s Professional Dance Program, and since 1996, with Ballet British Columbia. She has created new works for Ballet Kelowna, Ballet BC’s Mentor Program, Arts Umbrella, and Chimère, a dance film supported by Bravo!fact. In addition to performing, Orlando is rehearsal director for the Ballet BC Mentor Program, and teaches at the Flora Pigeau Academy of Dance and the North Shore Academy of Dance.

Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award

Established in 1978 by the Clifford E. Lee Foundation, this is the premiere award for emerging choreographers in Canada. Given on the basis of works previously created and performed, and in recognition of the potential of new proposed work, recipients spend six weeks in residence at The Banff Centre, creating new work with dancers from the Centre’s Professional Dance program, and theatre production facilities. Past recipients of the Award have included Wen Wei Wang, Crystal Pite, Allen Kaeja, Bengt Jörgen, Christopher House, and Judith Marcuse.