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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.
Suzie Baer
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.
Lisa Barrieau
As a child, Lisa studied in Guilford, Connecticut, with Starship Dance Theater and the New Haven Ballet. Summer programs included the American Academy of Ballet in New York and the Boston Ballet. After studying two years at the Milwaukee Ballet School, she was appointed trainee with the Milwaukee Ballet, where she trained with Rolando Yanes, Mireille Favarel, Karl von Rabenau, Nadia Thompson, Denis Malinkine, and Michael Pink, and where she worked with such guest artists as Trey McIntyre, Bruce Wells, and Sally Brayley Bliss. With the Milwaukee Ballet she performed in “Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadere, Bruce Wells’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Antony Tudor’s Offenbach in the Underworld, and Michael Pink’s The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, and Candide Overture.
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.
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.
Nikolaus Wourms
A native of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Nik has returned to the Minnesota Ballet Company. He began studying ballet at the Academy of Dance in Dickinson, North Dakota, then studied at the Miles Reif Performing Arts Center in Grand Rapids. He also studied at the Cecchetti Council of America’s summer program in Holland, Michigan. For the Minnesota Ballet he has danced such notable roles as the Prince and Cavalier in The Nutcracker, Von Rothbart in Swan Lake Act II, and in George Balanchine’s Valse Fantaisie. His role as the Devil in Agnes de Mille’s Three Virgins and a Devil won the praise: “While already a powerful performer, Wourms’ characterization as a rude, arrogant, smarmy Beelzebub displayed his theatrical potency.”
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.
Allen Fields
Artistic Director Emeritus
Allen Fields served as Artistic Director 1992–2007. Under his leadership, the Ballet grew from a small company that seldom toured outside the region into a premier Midwestern company that tours nationally and internationally. As Artistic Director Emeritus of the Minnesota Ballet, he keeps his connection with the Ballet by teaching, consulting, and doing special projects.
As the artistic director with the longest tenure in the Ballet’s history, Fields provided not only leadership but continuity to the growing organization; the longest any previous director had served was five years. Knowing the broad appeal of story ballets, he added Acts II of Swan Lake and Giselle to the Ballet’s repertoire. He choreographed and staged the troupe’s first three-act ballet, Coppélia, a comic favorite in since 1994, as well as his sparkling Cinderella production, set in Renaissance Tuscany, another favorite since 2003. He also created elegant classical ballets and, from his wide performing background, created big production numbers sparkling with popular dance from appealing ballroom, to sassy jazz, to kicky swing.
Fields’ first Nutcracker production for the Minnesota Ballet premiered in 1992 and proved a strong draw at the DECC Auditorium for five years. With Gardner’s help, in 1997 Fields gave the Northland its very own Nutcracker production with a distinct setting along Lake Superior’s North Shore. The production has also drawn big audiences in Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Thunder Bay, Ontario.
In 1995, Fields took the Ballet on its first international trip, to San Salvador, El Salvador, where the Ballet performed to a standing-room-only audience at the historic Teatro Presidente and conducted master classes at the National Ballet School, when the Salvadorans were rebuilding their arts programs after years of civil war.
During his tenure the Ballet developed the artistic strength to win the rights to acquire works by master choreographers Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, and George Balanchine, works in the repertoire of the world’s prestigious ballet companies. Fields has worked with other artists and organizations, choreographing pieces to such original works as Betsy Schramm’s “American Mosaic” and Mary Ellen Childs’ “Kilter,” and for his visceral modern piece, The Passions, created for the tenth anniversary gala performance and set to music he commissioned from Bruce Wolosoff. For the evening program of the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial dedication in September 2003, he wrote a dramatic script and choreographed a piece that the Minnesota Ballet performed to the spiritual “I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land.” He created the Ballet’s choreography for Old Turtle, performed in the highly praised collaboration with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra in March 2004 and again in 2007.
Fields also led the capital drive to remodel the historic Grain Exchange for the Ballet’s new quarters; the Ballet’s office and main studio have been housed at the top of the Board of Trade Building since 1999, and the Ballet received an award from the Duluth Preservation Alliance for restoring this important landmark.
Fields brought international dance experience to his first directing position, having trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts and the American Ballet Theatre School in New York. A principal dancer for the Cleveland San Jose Ballet, he also performed with such companies as the Ohio Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet, and Atlanta Ballet; made guest appearances in South America, Europe, Canada, and Mexico; and danced with Hubbard Street Dance Company and as the Snow Prince in the Chicago Tribune Charities production of The Nutcracker.
Fields has been recognized as an state arts leader, being invited as one of twelve statewide artists to the Governor’s Artists in Minnesota Dinner; serving on the Series Presenter Panel for the Minnesota State Arts Board, the McKnight Foundation Artist Panel, and the Shubert Theater Committee; and working with the Laurentian Arts and Culture Alliance in Virginia to restore the historic State Theater. Fields received the 2004 George Morrison Artist Award from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council and the 2008 Lifetime Artist Award from the Depot Foundation. Under Fields’ leadership the Ballet received the inaugural Arts and Culture Award from the Depot Foundation.
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.
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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