Silent Screen/ Body of Work/ Rhapsody
Creative Team Biographies
Silent Screen
Sol León
Choreographer
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Sol León joined Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) 2 after graduating from the National Ballet Academy of Madrid in 1987. Two years later, she joined NDT 1. Sol continued to dance up until 2003, when she decided to fully devote herself to choreography together with Paul Lightfoot. From 2012 until 2020, Sol was Artistic Advisor of NDT. Sol and Paul have been a choreographer’s duo since 1989 and together they have created more than 50 pieces for NDT, for which they received prestigious awards. In 2002, Sol and Paul were appointed house choreographers for NDT, a position they held until August 2020. |
Paul Lightfoot
Choreographer
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Paul Lightfoot graduated from the Royal Ballet School in London before joining Nederlands Dans Theater in 1985, starting as a dancer with NDT 2. Two years later Paul joined NDT 1, where he danced until 2008. During his dancing career, he started choreographing together with Sol León. From September 2011 until August 2020 he also was Artistic Director of the company. Sol and Paul have been a choreographer’s duo since 1989 and together they have created more than 50 pieces for NDT, for which they received prestigious awards. In 2002, Sol and Paul were appointed house choreographers for NDT, a position they held until August 2020. |
Jorge Nozal Oyarzabal
Stager
Jorge Nozal was born in San Sebastián, Spain. He received his dance training at the Conservatorio Municipal de San Sebastián and the John Cranko School in Stuttgart, Germany. He worked for the Stuttgart Ballet (1998 – 2004) and the Netherlands Dance Theater (2004 – 2020).
Throughout his career, Jorge performed works by many acclaimed choreographers, such as William Forsythe, Medhi Walerski, Crystal Pite, Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manen, Marco Goecke, Sol León and Paul Lightfoot. He has staged works by Marco Goecke and Sol León and Paul Lightfoot in different companies around the world.
Jorge has been awarded with the Premio Revelación in 2007 by the Asociación de Danza de Guipúzcoa, Spain in 2007 and the 'Zwaan– Most Impressive Dance Performance 2015′ for his part in Marco Goecke’s Thin Skin in Holland. He is currently a freelance artist based in the Netherlands.
Roger Van der Poel
Stager
Roger Van der Poel is a Portuguese-Dutch award-winning dancer who started his dance education at the National Conservatory of Lisbon at the age of 18. His dance career includes Ballet Gulbenkian, Geneva Ballet, the acclaimed Nederlands Dans Theater, Peeping Tom (Guest Artist) and chuthis (Artistic Collaborator).
Roger’s performance repertoire includes creations with Sol León and Paul Lightfoot, Crystal Pite, Jiři Kylián, Gabriela Carrizo, Franck Chartier, Marco Goecke, Peter Chu and existing works by Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Mats Ek and Hans van Manen among others.
Roger was awarded the Dutch Zwaan for best dance performance of 2008 and the Encouragement Prize 2007 by the Stichting Dansersfonds’79 in Amsterdam.
As of August 2020, Roger embarked on a new journey as a freelance artist. Since then, Roger has staged the works of Sol León and Paul Lightfoot and Crystal Pite on several international dance companies, guest teaches for dance schools and programs around the world and continues to perform.
Tom Bevoort
Lighting Design
Tom Bevoort has been working with Nederlands Dans Theatre since 1978, starting as head of the Lighting Department for Nederlands Dans Theatre I and from 1995 as Technical Director of Nederlands Dans Theatre. From September 2008 until August 2011 he took a new position in Nederlands Dans Theatre as Executive Advisor Technical Affairs and New Theatre Building.
Tom has made lighting designs for choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Paul Lightfoot and Sol León, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharian, Johan Inger and Medhi Walerski.
For more than 22 years he has been the exclusive lighting designer for the creations of the choreographic duo Paul Lightfoot and Sol León.
Now he has his own business as a Lighting Designer and Advisor Theatre, Light and Technique.
Body of Work
Guillaume Côté
Choreographer
Principal Dancer and Choreographic Associate of The National Ballet of Canada, Guillaume Côté is a choreographer of unique vision and talent. His work for the National Ballet includes Frame by Frame, Le Petit Prince, Being and Nothingness, Venom and the short film Lulu, which won Best International Short Film at the 2020 Milan International Film Festival. Other work includes Fractals: a pattern of chaos for ProArteDanza (2011) and PHI for Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet (2021). He choreographed the short films Lost in Motion and Lost in Motion II, that have garnered over 8.3 million views online. Guillaume founded his own company Côté Danse in 2021. For Côté Danse, in collaboration Robert Lepage, he created The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark which will tour across Canada and US throughout 2024 and 2025. He is Artistic Director of Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur, one of the largest summer dance festivals in the country. In 2021, Guillaume was appointed a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec for his significant contribution to the arts in Québec.
Krista Dowson
Costume Design
Krista retired in 2014 from the Corps de Ballet of The National Ballet of Canada after a fulfilling 14 year career. She remains situated within the dance world, designing and building costumes. She has had the pleasure of designing costumes for James Kudelka’s Psalms and Canticles, part of Canada’s National Ballet School’s Spring Showcase, The National Ballet of Canada’s production of Guillaume Côté’s Being and Nothingness, as well as designing and building the costumes for Toronto Dance Theatre’s production of Alyssa Martin’s Bin Chicken, Citadel + Compagnie’s Julie En L’Univers, Robert Stephen’s ballet adaptation of Kat Sandler’s Mustard for Ballet Kelowna and the Bicycle Opera Company’s film Sweat. Krista is the Resident Costume Designer and Producer for Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and has a long standing creative relationship with ProArteDanza. Costumes help artists share the stories that matter to them.
Jeff Logue
Lighting Design
Toronto native, Jeff Logue joined The National Ballet of Canada in 2009 as Lighting Coordinator. For the National Ballet, he has created designs for various ballets, including The Sea Above, The Sky Below, Self and Soul, The Wild Space Between Two Hearts, …black night's bright day…, Unearth, Watershed, Crepuscular, On Solid Ground and Skyward. Before joining the company, Jeff worked at the Shaw Festival for over 14 seasons, including six productions as Lighting Designer and more than 30 productions as Associate Lighting Designer. In addition, he worked on I, Claudia, for which he was nominated for both Dora Mavor Moore and Betty Mitchell Awards. Jeff was the Associate Lighting Designer for Urinetown (Canadian Stage) and Assistant Lighting Designer for The Producers (Mirvish Productions) and has worked at most of Canada’s larger regional theatres. He studied theatre production at York University.
Rhapsody
Sir Frederick Ashton
Choreographer
Founding choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Frederick Ashton (1904 – 1988) was one of the most influential dance figures of the 20th century. In his work with the company, he developed the distinctive ‘English style’, and left a vast corpus of works that are regularly performed by The Royal Ballet and companies around the world, among them La Fille mal gardée, Marguerite and Armand and Symphonic Variations.
Ashton was born in Ecuador and saw his first ballet when Anna Pavlova performed in Lima in 1917, later claiming ‘from the end of that evening I wanted to dance’. In England, Ashton was tutored by Léonide Massine and made his choreographic debut for Marie Rambert in 1926. After working with Rambert and Ida Rubinstein, in 1935 he was appointed Resident Choreographer of Vic-Wells Ballet (later The Royal Ballet) by Ninette de Valois. With de Valois, Ashton played a crucial role in determining the course of the company and The Royal Ballet School. In 1963, he took over from de Valois as Director of the company and in addition to choreographing, introduced several significant works, including Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces and George Balanchine’s Serenade and commissioned Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet. He retired in 1970 but continued to choreograph throughout his life, producing his last major work, Rhapsody, in 1980.
Ashton’s style is distinctive for its épaulement (the way the head and shoulders are held) and fleet footwork. All his works combine elegance with breathtaking technical demands.
Reproduced by kind permission of the Royal Opera House, London
Amanda Eyles
Stager
Amanda has worked as a Rehearsal Director, Ballet Master, Stager and Benesh Choreologist for more than 35 years, both in the UK and internationally. She has been fortunate to work with a wide range of choreographers and directors, on both new creations and re-staging of existing productions, whilst holding full-time positions with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet and Richard Alston Dance Company. From 2010 she has worked freelance, teaching and staging the work of a number of different choreographers. Since 2011 she has developed a close association with Wayne McGregor, notating and assisting on his creations with The Royal Ballet and staging his work on companies worldwide. Having worked as Assistant Director and course tutor at the Benesh Institute from 2000 to 2001, she maintains an active involvement with Benesh International and is passionate about the value of BMN for capturing the essence of movement and enabling efficient transference of information in the studio.
William Chappell
Original Costume Design
William danced with the Vic-Wells Ballet, creating roles in Ninette de Valois’ Job (1931), The Rake’s Progress (1935) and Checkmate (1937). His ballet designs include Cephalus and Procris (1931) for De Valois, Capriol Suite (1930), Les Rendezvous (1933), Les Patineurs (1937), Rhapsody (1980) and La Chatte metamorphosée en femme (1985) for Sir Frederick Ashton, The Judgement of Paris (1938) for Antony Tudor and Giselle (1935) and Coppélia (1940) for Sadler’s Wells Ballet. He also designed for revues, plays and musicals. He died in 1994.
Jeff Logue
Lighting Design
Toronto native, Jeff Logue joined The National Ballet of Canada in 2009 as Lighting Coordinator. For the National Ballet, he has created designs for various ballets, including The Sea Above, The Sky Below, Self and Soul, The Wild Space Between Two Hearts, …black night's bright day…, Unearth, Watershed, Crepuscular, On Solid Ground and Skyward. Before joining the company, Jeff worked at the Shaw Festival for over 14 seasons, including six productions as Lighting Designer and more than 30 productions as Associate Lighting Designer. In addition, he worked on I, Claudia, for which he was nominated for both Dora Mavor Moore and Betty Mitchell Awards. Jeff was the Associate Lighting Designer for Urinetown (Canadian Stage) and Assistant Lighting Designer for The Producers (Mirvish Productions) and has worked at most of Canada’s larger regional theatres. He studied theatre production at York University.
Conductors
David Briskin
Music Director and Principal Conductor
Julian Pellicano
Conductor
Jeff Morris
Stage Manager
Jeff Morris joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1995. Born in Toronto, he studied technical theatre production and administration at Ryerson’s Theatre School (now Toronto Metropolitan University). From 1990 to 1995, he was Production Stage Manager for Toronto Dance Theatre, including the company’s debuts in Berlin, Warsaw, Tokyo and at the Joyce Theater. He was Production Stage Manager for Dancers for Life (1991 – 1997), Stage Manager for Theatre Passe-Muraille (Never Swim Alone) and for the Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists. Since joining the National Ballet, Jeff has stage-managed a wide range of the company’s unique classical and contemporary repertoire, including the world premieres of James Kudelka’s The Four Seasons, Cinderella and An Italian Straw Hat, Crystal Pite’s Emergence and Angels’ Atlas and Guillaume Côté’s Le Petit Prince and Frame by Frame (with Robert Lepage). Company premieres include John Neumeier’s The Seagull, A Streetcar Named Desire, Nijinsky and Anna Karenina and Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale. He is a board member and instructor for SMArts and Festival CoDirector for dance:made in Canada/fait au Canada.
Alex Wommack
Stage Manager
Alex Wommack (she/her) was born and raised in Waco, Texas and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Her passion for ballet led her to work with Alabama Ballet while completing her undergraduate degree. At Alabama Ballet, she stage-managed works by Jiří Kylián, Agnes de Mille and Sir Frederick Ashton. Following graduation, she moved to Seattle and joined the Stage Management team at Seattle Opera, where highlights included Porgy and Bess, The Barber of Seville and Flight. In 2017, she worked with Pacific Northwest Ballet as an Assistant Stage Manager for George Balanchine's The Nutcracker and then joined the company as Stage Manager in 2020. She is a member of AGMA and served two terms as the staging staff representative for the Northwest area on the National Board of Governors. Outside of her professional work, Alex is actively involved with Books to Prisoners, an organization that fosters a love of reading and help break the cycle of recidivism in American prisons.
