 MEDIA RELEASE |
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MEDIA RELEASE |
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Snow, a world premiere production by Vancouver
dancer/choreographer Wen Wei Wang
August 2 to 5, Eric Harvie Theatre, 8pm
Banff, Alberta, Canada
BANFF, AB -The Banff Centre for the Arts Professional Dance Program will break with tradition this summer by presenting four works created at Banff with the assistance of the Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award. This year’s program was chosen to celebrate the Clifford E. Lee Foundation’s recent endowment of the Award, as a result of which emerging Canadian choreographers will continue to benefit from the Foundation’s generosity for years to come.
While the dancers will not perform a work by George Balanchine as they have done in previous years, program head Brian Macdonald, OC, explains: "The program’s commitment to the highest standards of classical training, as well as the commitment to new choreography and choreographers, is ongoing. As well as studying the works of the Lee choreographers, the dancers will be able to study with master teachers Margaret Mercier and Raymond Smith. Both have been away from Canada, and it is a pleasure to welcome them back home."
Ms. Mercier, a native of Montreal, was a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet (Covent Garden), The Joffrey Ballet, The Harkness Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and is currently principal teacher at the Royal Danish Ballet School. Raymond Smith was principal dancer for the National Ballet of Canada for 15 years and has performed as a guest artist with the English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet, La Scala, Nureyev and Friends, as well as for other companies throughout Canada and the United States.
In conjunction with this summer’s ‘all Lee’ program, a special WWW site and an exhibition in the lobby of the Eric Harvie Theatre, featuring all 23 past recipients of the Award and the work they created in Banff, is being planned for this summer’s Banff Arts Festival.
Festival Dance Program 2000 (order TBA):
- A world premiere by Wen
Wei Wang, the 2000 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award recipient
- Creaturehood: Choreography by Shawn Hounsell (1997 Clifford E.
Lee Choreography Award recipient) Music: Maurice Ravel Concerto for Piano and
Orchestra in G major
- L’Etiquette: Choreography by Joe Laughlin (1996 Clifford
E. Lee Choreography Award recipient*) Music: selections by Bach, Corelle and Vivaldi
- Quest: Choreography by Crystal Pite (1995 Clifford E. Lee
Choreography Award recipient)
Music: Carl Phillipp Emanuel Bach Berlin Symphonies
* In 1996 there were two separate Award
recipients - Gioconda Barbuto was the other.
Theatre Arts, under the artistic direction of John Murrell, is dedicated to the creation, interpretation, and performance of contemporary repertoire in dance, drama, opera, music theatre and song.
For a more complete history of the award visit: www.banffcentre.ab.ca/theatre/dance/
Media Contact:
Greg Parry (403) 762-6482
Assistant Director and Marketing
Theatre Arts, The Banff Centre
greg_parry@banffcentre.ab.ca