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Robert Gardner, Artistic Director
A native Virginian, Mr. Gardner began his studies with Mavis Ray of the Royal Ballet. After subsequent scholarships to the North Carolina School of the Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York, he was asked to join the Joffrey II dancers. With Joffrey II, he toured throughout the U.S., Europe, and the Orient, performing ballets by Antony Tudor, Sir Frederick Ashton, Robert Joffrey, and Choo-San Goh.
Mr. Gardner then danced with the Joffrey Ballet, touring both the east and west coasts. He then joined the Cleveland San Jose Ballet, where he danced soloist and principal roles in the works of George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Lar Lubovitch, David Lichine, José Limón, Léonide Massine, Dennis Nahat, and many others.
For the Minnesota Ballet, Mr. Gardner has danced such principal roles as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake Act II and the embodiment of Love in Allen Fields’ The Passions, plus creating such memorable roles as a “playful, magical” Herr Drosselmeyer.
In addition to staging the major classical ballets and pas de deux, he has choreographed such acclaimed pieces as Suite Italienne, to Stravinsky music, which the Duluth News Tribune praised for a “signature style of satisfyingly developing movement themes so that audiences could see a journey in the choreography from start to finish”; and the steamy jazz piece One Night, pronounced “vintage Gardner—theatrical, accessible, and fun.”
For his original choreography of Sleeping Beauty, the News Tribune declared that the new story ballet “further entrenches the Minnesota Ballet as a national source for repertory that is faithful to tradition.”
He has also taught master classes at the University of Minnesota, UMD, Ball State University, and at Yale University for A Different Drum Dance Company. He has choreographed for the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet; for the Columbus Youth Ballet, who presented his works three times at the Youth America Grand Prix in New York City; and for Ball State Dance Theatre, who presented his work at the American College Dance Festival, among other venues.
Mr. Gardner received a 1998 Artist Fellowship and a 1999 Career Opportunity Grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, in addition to a 1999 Video Documentation Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and served on the State Arts Board Panel for the Arts in Education Roster of Artists.
Amanda Abrahamson
Amanda, a Superior native, began studying at the Minnesota Ballet at age ten and studied two summers at DanceAspen. An apprentice dancer the 1997–98 season, she was promoted to company member in 1998–99. Memorable roles include Dream Marie and Sugar Plum Fairy in The
Nutcracker, Myrtha and Giselle in Giselle, Swanilda in
Coppélia, the Goddess in Cinderella, Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, and Columbine in Harlequinade Pas de Deux. The News Tribune
pronounced her Dew Drop Fairy “spectacular” and her Mirliton “marvelous.” For her role as the Fanatical Virgin in Three Virgins and a Devil she was praised for having “pushed the whole puritanical attitude that read so clearly.” Amanda also coordinates the Creative Dance class for children with physical challenges.
Anna Acker
Anna received her early dance training at the School of the Albany Berkshire Ballet and went on to study in such summer programs as those of the Boston Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, and on scholarship to the Milwaukee Ballet. She continued her training at the University of Missouri Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance, where she performed principal roles in Raymonda, Swan Lake, and Les Sylphides, danced in Balanchine’s Serenade, and earned her BFA. As a trainee with the Milwaukee Ballet, she performed in The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, and Don Quixote.
Benjamin Biswell
Benjamin, from Kansas City, Missouri, began dance training at age nineteen with Laura Luzicka-Reinschmidt’s Classical Ballet School in Gladstone, Missouri. Summer programs included the Joffrey Midwest Workshop on full scholarship. He earned a BFA from the University of Missouri Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance, where he studied under the tutelage of Paula Weber and Michael Simms. While at UMKC he performed many classical and contemporary ballet roles, including in Les Sylphides, as well as modern dance in the Horton technique. He also performed with the Kansas City Lyric Opera, the Albany Berkshire Ballet, and as the Prince of Verona in Romeo and Juliet for the Kansas City Ballet.
Igor Burlak
A native of Moldavia, Igor studied at the School of American Ballet with
such teachers as Olga Kostritzky, Peter Boal, and Jock Soto and as a child performed with the New York City Ballet in Sleeping Beauty, The Firebird, The Nutcracker, and Coppélia. He danced as guest artist on tour with the Miami City Ballet, then danced with the Kansas City Ballet, performing in such ballets as Allegro Brillante, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker. For the Atlantic Southeast Ballet he danced such principal roles as in Flower Festival at Genzano. He has also appeared in the films Center Stage; George Balanchine’s Nutcracker; and the documentary The Waiting, by Tomaso Digital. Since he joined the Minnesota Ballet in 2004, his principal roles have won praise. The Duluth News Tribune commended his role as Prince in Cinderella for its “nuanced approach to the character as well as a lush technique to the demanding combination of leaps and turns during his solos.” For his role in Valse Fantaisie, he was praised: “Burlak almost floated at the peak of his leaps and turns” and for Cavalier he was noted for creating “breathtaking moments” in the Grand Pas. In addition to dancing, Igor has choreographed pieces for the Minnesota Ballet’s Celebrity Dance Challenge, the School of the Minnesota Ballet’s Student Performance, the School American Ballet’s Choreography Workshop, and his “Concerto de Arangus” for the Kansas City Ballet. Igor has also had the pleasure of choreographing for and working with Daniel Ulbricht, principal of the New York City Ballet, and dancers from the Miami City Ballet.
Suzanne Kritzberg
A Chicago native, Suzanne has danced with the Minnesota
Ballet since 1990. She began her dance training at age eleven, studying mainly at Ruth Page, in Chicago, also at the Houston Ballet Academy and the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Before joining the Minnesota Ballet she danced in the Chicago Tribune Charities production of The Nutcracker, and with the State Ballet of Missouri and the Wisconsin Ballet Theatre.
For the Minnesota Ballet she has received much praise, such as for her “virtuosic talent” evident in her Cinderella, her “magnificent” solo as the Muse of Dance in Apollo, and for “breathtaking moments” in The Nutcracker Grand Pas de Deux. For her role as Princess Rose in Sleeping Beauty: “Kritzberg steals the show with her two astounding solos and two partnering sections…” and for Swanilda in Coppélia: “She hit each feat with the grace and beauty that belied the grit needed to perform her solos…” The Minneapolis Star Tribune praised her “strong technique” and “beginnings of a signature style.”
In 1999 Suzanne was awarded a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Dancers with funds administered by the Minnesota Dance Alliance, and in 2001 she was awarded a Fellowship grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, through an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature and the McKnight Foundation. In 2007 she also received an inaugural Twenty under Forty Award from the Duluth News Tribune.
Laura Prather
Laura studied on scholarship with the Kansas City Ballet School, performing in The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Raymonda Variations, in 2003–04 serving as Student Apprentice. She also studied in the summer programs of the American Ballet Theatre, North Carolina Dance Theatre, and the Kansas City Ballet. A scholarship student at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, she performed in The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and other works. In May 2008 she received a B.A. in Communications and Journalism at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.
Ryan Stokes
A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Ryan first studied to be a vaudeville performer in neo-mime and physical comedy. While studying method acting and musical theater at the Youth Performing Arts School, he turned to ballet after taking his first ballet class. He was invited to study and perform with the Louisville Ballet School and Youth Ensemble, where he trained with Patrick Hinson, Helen Starr, Liz Hartwell, Elena Fillmore, and Anna Sapozhnikov. In 2005 he joined the American National Ballet, where he performed in such works as Le Corsaire Pas de Deux, Paquita, and Fernando Bujones’ Jazz Swing. As guest artist he performed in The Nutcracker at the Myles Reif Performing Arts Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and at the Main Street Conservatory of Dance in Marshfield, Wisconsin. This is Ryan’s second year with the Minnesota Ballet.
Kaori Takai
Kaori comes to the Minnesota Ballet from her native Japan, where she studied at the Yamada Chie Ballet School, then majored in dance at the Osaka University of the Arts. She danced with the New National Ballet Theatre in Tokyo, then with the Roxey Ballet of New Jersey, where she performed in such contemporary works as Mark Roxey’s Carmen and Othello. She has danced such classic roles as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Swanilda in Coppélia, and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Kaori is married to company member Yosuke Yamamoto.
Reinhard von Rabenau
A Duluth native, Reinhard began as a Ballet I student at the School of the Minnesota Ballet in 1997. He has also studied in summer programs at Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. Memorable roles he has danced for the Minnesota Ballet include Scottish Doll and Franz’s friend in Coppélia; courtier in Cinderella; the Feckless Youth in Three Virgins and a Devil; Lion in “The Lion and the Lamb” variation and courtier in Sleeping Beauty. His Nutcracker roles began as a student with young party guest, later graduating to the principal roles of Fritz, Russian dancer, Chinese dancer, Doll, Mouse King, and Prince.
Yosuke Yamamoto
Yosuke comes to the Minnesota Ballet from his native Japan, where he studied at the Yamamoto Sanae Ballet School, the Art Educational School in London, the Homura Tomoi Ballet School, and as a dance major at Osaka University of the Arts. He has danced as guest artist at many companies and schools in Japan and at the Northeast Youth Ballet Company in Boston. Most recently he danced for the Roxey Ballet in New Jersey, where he performed in such contemporary works as Mark Roxey’s Carmen, Othello, and Dracula. He has danced such classic roles as Prince Desiré in Sleeping Beauty, Franz in Coppélia, and Actéon in Diana and Actéon. Yosuke is married to company member Kaori Takai.
Suzie Baer, Sr. Apprentice
A Stillwater native, Suzie began ballet training at the St. Croix Academy for the Arts. Suzie began study at the School of the Minnesota Ballet in the Summer Intensive 2003 at the Ballet VII level and has also studied at the Joffrey Midwest Workshop in Flint, Michigan, and on scholarship at Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in San Francisco. For the Minnesota Ballet she has danced in the corps and has danced Nutcracker roles of Arabian dancer and Mirliton. She was pronounced “lovely and graceful” for her role with Robert Gardner in his “Limelight.”
George Balanchine, Choreographer
Regarded as the leading contemporary choreographer in ballet, Balanchine produced more than 450 works from 1920 to 1982, brilliantly infusing classic ballet with his own genius and creating groundbreaking works that changed the direction of ballet. His native Russia had trained him in the Russian Imperial ballet tradition; his adopted country of American inspired him to create works uniquely reflecting the energy and spirit of American culture. Balanchine is widely recognized as Americanizing ballet technique, revitalizing it with dazzling speed and athleticism.
As a child he was attracted first to music, then to ballet. After graduating from the Imperial Ballet School, St. Petersburg, Russia, he studied piano and musical theory at the state’s Conservatory of Music. Such a background helped him become an extremely musical choreographer and allowed him to collaborate with the famed composer Igor Stravinsky.
Balanchine made his dance debut as a cupid in the Maryinsky Theatre Ballet Company production of The Sleeping Beauty. He later danced and served as ballet master for the Ballets Russes in Paris; a knee injury restricted his performing but gave him greater time for his real love, choreography.
After the American Lincoln Kirstein convinced Balanchine to come to this country to establish a company, the pair founded the School of American Ballet in 1934. Following years of projects elsewhere, Balanchine returned to New York to form in 1946 the Ballet Society, which two years later was renamed the New York City Ballet.Until his death in 1983, he served as its artistic director, choreographing most of the company’s productions, including The Firebird (1949), The Nutcracker (1954), Agon (1957), Stars and Stripes (1958), and Who Cares? (1970). Known best for his ballet works, Balanchine also choreographed for musical theater, including Babes in Arms and On Your Toes, as well as creating works for operas, films, and television.
Antony Tudor, Choreographer
In 2008, the 100th anniversary of Antony Tudor’s birth, there has been a flowering of interest in the world-renowned British-born choreographer and his small but highly influential body of works, ones giving rise to the label of “psychological ballets” and noted for their perfection of the smallest gesture that artfully replaced traditional pantomime.
Tudor choreographed with great economy of movement that portrays emotion, not just in facial expressions but in the whole body. With his attention to detail, he created masterful, expressive transitions than go beyond merely connecting movements. And there is an intimacy about Tudor’s choreography that makes audiences feel that they are listening to a private conversation.
Tudor began his dance career with Marie Rambert, in London creating his first ballet, Cross-Garter’d, for her company in 1931, followed by two of his most important works—Lilac Garden and Dark Elegies.
At the urging of Agnes de Mille, he came to the United States, where he became a staff choreographer for the American Ballet Theatre and over ten years restaged the works he had created in England and choreographed new works, including his famed Pillar of Fire. In the middle of his dance career, Tudor concentrated on teaching, serving as director of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School and teaching at Juilliard School of Music. Returning to choreography in the 1960s, Tudor created Echoing of Trumpets as guest choreographer for the Royal Swedish Ballet; and at age 70; and after becoming a Zen Buddhist, he created the lyrical work The Leaves Are Fading.
Penelope Freeh
Guest Choreographer
Penelope Freeh is a fifteen-year member of the James Sewell Ballet in Minneapolis, where she serves as Artistic Associate. In 1998 she received a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and won a McKnight Fellowship for Dancers. In 2003 she received a Jerome Foundation Travel Grant, which she used to collaborate with London-based colleague Donna Schoenherr on a new work. Her choreography has been commissioned by the James Sewell Ballet, Minnesota Orchestra, Walker Art Center/Southern Theater, and the Weisman Art Museum. Her site-specific work We’ll Survive if We Don’t Protect Ourselves was among the top ten best-attended shows of the 2007 Minnesota Fringe Festival. She is the dance writer for the Twin Cities publication METRO Magazine. In May of 2008 she was featured in and wrote the bimonthly column Why I Dance for Dance Magazine. To read her thoughts on dance, visit barefootpenny.blogspot.com.
Jerri Kumery
George Balanchine Trust Repetiteur
Ms. Kumery began her studies with Roman Jasinski and Moscelyn Larkin in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the School of American Ballet. She danced with the New York City Ballet 1977—87, under the direction of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Peter Martins. She has served as Repetiteur for Ballet Teatro Lirico Nacional, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and in 1990 became Repetiteur and Associate Artistic Director with North Carolina Dance Theatre, under the direction of Salvatore Aiello. Ms. Kumery served as Acting Artistic Director for the 1995–1996 season after the death of Mr. Aiello. Ms. Kumery served as Co-Associate Artistic Director with Patricia McBride, under the direction of Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux.
In May 1997, Ms. Kumery was awarded an Arts & Science Council Fellowship for her meritorious contribution to the artistic community of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Ms. Kumery is currently Ballet Master with the Richmond Ballet, Repetiteur with The George Balanchine Trust, and the Curator of the Salvatore Aiello ballets.
Jack Bowman
Director, The Festival Orchestra
Jack Bowman, Dean of the UMD School of Fine Arts, is passionate about international collaborations. The Italian American Festival 2004, the Turkish American Alliance 2006, and the Sieur Du Luth Festival have brought international acclaim to the arts at UMD and have enabled UMD faculty and students to build dynamic international connections.
Jack also serves as Music Director/Organist at Pilgrim Congregational Church in Duluth. Jack has conducted professional orchestras in France, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Poland, and has recorded CDs with an orchestra in the Czech Republic. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Michigan.
Kenneth Pogin
Production Manager/Tour Manager
Since joining the Minnesota Ballet in 1997 in his role of Production Manager and Lighting Designer Ken has been gathering high praise for his lighting. The Duluth News Tribune applauded him for his
“blue velvet lighting” and more recently for his lighting in Madame Butterfly: “The lights even have their big number at the end of Act Two...The sun sets, the moon rises, the stars come out and slowly start to fade -- a veritable dance of lights.” Ken’s set construction blueprints for the 2001 production of Three Virgins and a
Devil are on permanent record with the Agnes de Mille Estate in New
York. Ken’s pyrotechnic career has allowed him to work with David Copperfield, Carrot Top, Toby Keith, Godsmack, Poison, and Quiet Riot among others. Ken also enjoys being the Technical Director and Lighting Designer for the Duluth Festival Opera since 2006, as well as with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra for their Pops Concerts. Other companies he has worked with are the New York City Opera, The Acting Company, and Ballet Oklahoma. Ken’s favorite accomplishments are lighting for the Duluth Festival Opera’s Madame Butterfly, the Minnesota Ballet’s Rhapsody in Blue, Route 66, The Nutcracker, plus the pyrotechnic show for the NCAA Frozen Four.
When not on tour, Ken enjoys his role as daddy to two little girls.
Sandra Ehle
Wardrobe Mistress/Designer
An accomplished seamstress and tailor, Sandra has served as Wardrobe Mistress since 1998, traveling with the company on tour. She specializes in historic costumes, preparing the lighthouse keeper’s uniforms, 1912-vintage, for the lighthouses at Split Rock and the Apostle Islands. She worked under Walt Disney Productions costume designer Betty Madden for Iron Will and Twentieth Century Fox costume designer Juliet Jones for Good Son. Sandra created long tutus for the Baltimore Opera’s production of Die Fledermaus and all the new short tutus worn by the Minnesota Ballet corps de ballet in Swan Lake Act II.
Cheryl Vander Heyden, Stage Manager
Cheryl is thrilled to be in her fourth year as Stage Manager for the Minnesota Ballet. She holds technical theater degrees from Cottey College in Missouri and from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Before coming to the Minnesota Ballet, Cheryl toured with the Italian American Festival’s production of Guys and Dolls in Italy. Other groups she has worked with are Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, The Spencers Theatre of Illusion, Riders in the Sky, and the United States Air Force Band of Mid-America.
Ann Gumpper, Scenic Designer, The Nutcracker and Cinderella
Ann has created theatrical scenery for over twenty years. In addition to the Minnesota Ballet’s Nutcracker, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle Act II, and Swan Lake Act II, she has designed sets for Minnesota Repertory Theatre, University of Minnesota Duluth, College of St. Scholastica, Dark Horse Theatre, Duluth Playhouse, and Rochester Civic Theatre. Her Art Window celebrating Duluth’s gardeners was installed in the Holiday Center, and she “performed” as painter with the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra. Ann’s designs and paint work have also been featured in theatres on the East and West Coasts and as far away as Exeter, England. She has taught at the College of St. Scholastica and University of Minnesota Duluth and is a muralist and decorative painter.
Elena Knezevich has served as Company Pianist since 1998.
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