Flight Pattern / Suite en Blanc

Jay Gower Taylor started in theatre as a professional dancer where he accomplished an international career spanning more than 20 years. As a Scenic Designer, Jay has collaborated with Crystal Pite over the last decade, creating onstage environments for works such as Plot Point, Frontier, Solo Echo, Parade, In the Event, Partita for 8 Dancers and The Statement for Nederlands Dans Theater, Emergence for The National Ballet of Canada, Polaris for Sadler’s Wells Theatre, The Seasons’ Canon for Paris Opera Ballet and Flight Pattern for The Royal Ballet. For Crystal’s company, Kidd Pivot, he designed Dark Matters, The Tempest Replica, Betroffenheit and Revisor.

Nancy Bryant is an established costume designer living in Vancouver and works widely designing for dance, theatre, opera and television. Nancy’s previous collaborations with Crystal Pite have had much notoriety in Europe, UK, US and across Canada, including Body and Soul and The Seasons’ Canon (Paris Opera Ballet), Flight Pattern (The Royal Ballet), Partita, Parade and Plot Point (Nederlands Dans Theater), Revisor, The Tempest Replica (Kidd Pivot) and Betroffenheit (Kidd Pivot/Electric Co.). Costume designs for theatre include collaborations with artists and groundbreaking directors Morris Panych (The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring, amongst many since 1996), Kim Collier (Tear the Curtain, Angels in America, Hamlet), Jonathon Young (Betroffenheit, Revisor) and Stan Douglas (Helen Lawrence). Costume design credits for television include Legend of Earthsea, A Wrinkle in Time, The Snow Queen and Snow White. Nancy was the recipient of the 2020 BC Achievement Foundation Award of Distinction, a Leo Award and 12 Jessie Richardson Awards. She proudly shares Olivia Awards for Best New Dance Production (2017 & 2018) and a Toronto Theatre Critics' Award with the Pite team.

Tom Visser has been working since 2004 as a lighting designer in productions by Johan Inger, Crystal Pite, Stijn Celis, Medhi Walerski, Peeping Tom and Alexander Ekman. His lighting designs have been seen in Nederlands Dans Theater, Royal Opera House, Sydney Dance Company and Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, among others. In addition to his work for the stage, Tom has created art installations and projects with interactive media.

Deirdre Chapman grew up in Minneapolis and danced professionally with San Francisco Ballet, Rambert Dance Company and was a First Soloist with The Royal Ballet. Her performing career included works by Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, David Bintley, Christopher Bruce, Val Caniparoli, Merce Cunningham, Ninette de Valois, Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, Cathy Marston, Wayne McGregor, Mark Morris, Kenneth MacMillan, Ohad Naharin, Vaslav Nijinsky, Marius Petipa, Paul Taylor, Glen Tetley, Twyla Tharp, Helgi Tómasson, Jerome Robbins and Christopher Wheeldon. Deirdre is currently Senior Répétiteur for The Royal Ballet with her staging work including assisting and re-staging works by Kim Brandstrup, Flemming Flindt, Hofesh Shechter, Glen Tetley, Christopher Wheeldon, Crystal Pite, Pam Tanowitz and Cathy Marston. Most recently, she has assisted on the following creations for The Royal Ballet: Crystal Pite’s Light of Passage (2022), Pam Tanowitz’s Secret Things (2023) and Or Forevermore (2024), and Cathy Marston’s Against the Tide (2025). Deirdre holds an MA in Dance Anthropology from Roehampton University and a teaching diploma from the Royal Ballet School. She is a trustee at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. 

Spencer Dickhaus is a freelance dancer, teacher and creator. As a teacher he has worked with Nederlands Dans Theater, Nuova Officina della Danza (Torino) and Princess Grace Academy (Monaco). For seven seasons (2012 – 2019), he was a member of Nederlands Dans Theater where he had the privilege of working with internationally recognized choreographers including Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter, Jiří Kylián, Alexander Ekman, Franck Chartier, Gabriela Carrizo, Sharon Eyal, Gai Behar, Johan Inger, Paul Lightfoot and Sol León. He graduated with a BFA from The Juilliard School in 2012 after completing the LINES Ballet Training Program in San Francisco.

Measha Brueggergosman-Lee’s engaging personality, exceptional musicianship and powerful voice continue to take her to the major orchestras and concert halls of every continent. In 2024, she became the first black recipient and youngest recipient ever of The Lifetime Achievement Award for Classical Music from the Governor General of Canada. Her recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, PENTATONE, Naxos and Leaf Music have won several awards including several Junos and a Grammy nomination. Measha has survived morbid obesity, divorce, the loss of two babies, two emergency open-heart surgeries and a hip replacement and credits her faith in Jesus for inspiring her to see the joy in all areas of her life. In the 2024/25 season, she was featured on seven landmark recordings, including Zombie Blizzard, the poetry of Margaret Atwood composed to music by Aaron Davis, GRACE, the combined works of Michael Tilson Thomas and a double LP called LAUREATE. Measha is currently writing her memoir sequel When You Sing You Pray Twice after her first memoir Something Is Always On Fire (Harper Collins, 2017) debuted on the best seller’s list. Measha holds several honorary doctorates and ambassadorial titles with international charities and is currently in the third year of a Masters in Practical Theology at Acadia Divinity College. She is the permanent Artist in Residence for the Toronto-based Canadian opera company, Opera Atelier and her future goals include a thriving marriage of mutual submission to her husband, Stephen Lee and raising her two sons, Shepherd and Sterling, to become selfless men who laugh easily and love faithfully.

Born in Ukraine, Serge Lifar was one of the great male dancers of the 20th century. He trained with Bronislava Nijinska and Enrico Cecchetti and became a star performer with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes when he made his debut in 1923, becoming a Principal Dancer in 1925. With the death of Diaghilev in 1929, Lifar was invited by Jacques Rouché to take over the directorship of Paris Opera Ballet at the young age of 24. He began choreographing with immediate success and staged and choreographed a large body of work, including Les Créatures de Prométhée, L'Après-midi d'un faune, Icare, Istar and Suite en Blanc. Serge Lifar died at the age of 81 on December 15, 1986.

Former Paris Opéra Ballet Étoile, Charles Jude directed the Ballet of the Opéra National de Bordeaux from 1996 to 2017. After having studied at the Conservatoire de Nice, Charles joined Paris Opéra Ballet in 1971. Promoted to the rank of first dancer in 1976, he won the bronze medal at the Tokyo International Ballet Competition with Florence Clerc. In 1977, he was named Étoile after his role in Ivan the Terrible. Between 1978 and 1996, he danced many classical roles including Rudolf Nureyev’s Giselle and The Nutcracker and roles in Swan Lake, Raymonda, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, La Bayadere, Don Quixote as well as the emblematic works of the Ballets Russes such as Le Spectre de la Rose, L'Après-midi d'un faune and Petrouchka. Charles regularly participated in Nureyev and Friends tours from 1974 and 1991 and was invited to perform at American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Kungliga Operan, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro di San Carlo, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Bolshoi Ballet and Mariinsky Theatre. He created his distinctive choreographic style by revisiting classic ballets such as The Nutcracker, Giselle, Coppélia, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Prince of the Woods and Don Quixote as well as a new production of Roméo et Juliette in 2009. In 1976, Charles received the Nijinsky Prize and Lifar Prize in 1988. He was named Knight of Arts and Letters, Knight of the Legion of Honor and Officer of Arts and Letters.

Stéphanie Roublot Jude started dancing in Champagne-Ardennes, with tap and jazz. At 12, she joined Conservatory Regional Du Grand Nancy and then the Boulogne-Billancourt Regional Conservatoire. She was then admitted to the Conservatoire National Superieur Musique Danse de Paris. She danced with Ballet de Lorraine from 1996 to 1999, under the direction of Pierre Lacotte. In 1999, she joined Opéra National de Bordeaux under the direction of Charles Jude. There Stéphanie was promoted to Principal Dancer. ands danced some of greatest roles in the classical repertoire and works with renowned choreographers in the contemporary repertoire. After 19 years at Opéra National de Bordeaux, she retired from the stage in 2018 and became Charles’ assistant. Stéphanie is part of the Serge Lifar Foundation and is a teacher and co-director of the Jude Mikhalev Ballet Academy.

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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 (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.