Tulsa Ballet Announces Additions to the Company
Tulsa Ballet welcomes new talent to its international roster of dancers.
Tulsa Ballet Artistic Director, Marcello Angelini, proudly presents the roster for Tulsa Ballet’s 2015/16 Season. Tulsa Ballet’s Company features twenty-eight dancers from fourteen different countries. The selected artists were chosen from 850 national and international applicants during the course of an audition tour that included stops in New York, Japan, Amsterdam, London, Vienna, Stuttgart, Prague and Rome.
“The dancers have to exhibit a commitment to the art-form, an eagerness to acquire new skills, superior versatility and excellent technical abilities in order to be considered for the company.” says Angelini. Tulsa Ballet offers one of the longest contracts and extensive seasons in the country which, while rewarding for dancers and audiences alike, requires also a high level of physical fitness to endure. Angelini says he is happy with the level of athleticism of the company for the upcoming season. At the same time it is important for the team to have the right mixture of accomplished artists and young talent. Angelini says, “I am happy with the balance of the company. There are numerous established, mature artists who can lead the company and lots of young, talented dancers who are the leaders of tomorrow. There is a great balance between dancers that have been with the organization for five/seven years, and embody the culture of the organization, and new artists joining us from all over the world.”
This year also features another milestone in the Tulsa Ballet’s storied history: 2015 marks the tenth anniversary of Tulsa Ballet II (). This anniversary brings many upgrades to the program including the hiring of international dancers to the roster. Marcello Angelini says, “This year, for the first time since its inception, will be just as international as its “big sister” Tulsa Ballet’s main company. The ten dancers that compose it join us from places as close as our own Center for Dance Education to faraway places like Japan, Spain, Italy, and Brazil as well as other states in our fabulous country.”
COMPANY DANCER PROMOTIONS
Cavan Conley, Andres Figueroa, and Jennifer Grace were all promoted to Demi-Soloist from the Corps de Ballet.
Maine Kawashima was promoted to the Corps from Apprentice.
Minori Sakita was promoted to the Corps from .
COMPANY DANCERS
Additions to the Roster include Arman Zazyan, Daynelis Muñoz Castell, Chong Sun, Julie Marquet, Chandler Proctor, Joseph Steinauer, Daniel van de Laar, and João Pedro Sampaio
Arman Zazyan, Senior Soloist, was born in Erivan, Armenia, where he started his ballet training in 1994. In 2003 he continued his education at the John Cranko Schule, Stuttgart, and graduated one year later. In 2002 he won the Vaganova Prize. In 2009 he participated in the Helsinki International Ballet Competition and danced in the finale. In 2004 Arman Zazyan joined the Stuttgart Ballet’s Corps de ballet. His promotion to Demi Soloist followed in 2007, and in 2012 he became a Soloist. In June 2012 he performed Valerio in Christian Spuck’s Leonce and Lena as a guest with the Aalto Ballet in Essen. His repertoire as a soloist includes Bolero (Béjart), Romeo and Juliet (Cranko), Slice to Sharp (Elo), Swan Lake (Cranko), The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (Forsythe), The Four Temperaments (Balanchine), La fille mal gardée (Ashton), and Dancers at a Gathering (Robbins), among many others. This is his first season with Tulsa Ballet.
Daynelis Muñoz Castell, Demi-Soloist, is a Cuban native, born in Matanzas. She graduated the School National Ballet in Habana with the Golden Title. She has worked with many ballet companies, including National Ballet of Cuba, Camaguey Ballet, Young Ballet of Jalisco in Mexico (as a Principal Dancer). Her repertoire includes performing roles such as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Kitri in Don Quixote, Giselle, La Bayadere, The Nutcracker, Carmen, Scheherazade, and Who Cares? (Martin), among others. She has been invited to many Galas in Europe and South America, and she has received Golden Medal in international competitions. This is her first season with Tulsa Ballet.
Chong Sun, Demi-Soloist. From Beijing, China, Chong began his training at age 12 at Beijing Dancing Academy, and later attended the Kirov Academy of Washington, D.C. on a full scholarship. He danced with Washington Ballet from 2010 – 2015. Awards: 3rd Place at the Beijing International Competition in 2008, Top 10 at 2009 and Gold Medal in in 2010. His repertoire includes the roles of Peter, White Rabbit and Lunatic in Septime Weber’s productions of Peter Pan, Alice (in Wonderland) and Sleepy Hollow, Beno in Swan Lake, Peasant Pas in Giselle, Blue Bird in The Sleeping Beauty, Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Stars and Stripes and Serenade, Rooster (Bruce), A Day in the Life (McIntyre), Petite Mort (Kylian) and The Nutcracker (Weber).
Julie Marquet, Corps de Ballet, was born in Perpignan, France. She started her dance education at the age of five at the Ecole de Danse Classique Pascale Pavageau in Perpignan. In 2001 she continued her training at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille and graduated in 2005. After graduation she danced at the Opéra Municipal de Marseille in the Corps de Ballet. Julie was a Corps de ballet member of the Stuttgart Ballet from 2006 – 2015. Her repertoire includes La Sylphide (Schaufuss), Othello (Neumeier), Romeo and Juliet (Cranko), Swan Lake (Cranko), among many others. This is her first season with Tulsa Ballet.
Chandler Proctor, Corps de Ballet, was born in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. He studied dance in North Carolina and attended summer intensives at San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, and Houston Ballet. He was a finalist in 2013 and a bronze medalist at the World Ballet Competition. In 2013, he moved to Houston as a member of Houston Ballet 2. This is Chandler’s first season with Tulsa Ballet.
Joseph Steinauer, Corps de Ballet, trained at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet under the direction of Marcia Dale Weary. He also attended Burklyn Ballet in Vermont and Boston Ballet’s Summer Intensive. After one season with Nashville Ballet, he joined The National Ballet of Canada where he danced for four seasons. There he danced in the North American premiere of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Wheeldon), the world premiere of Romeo and Juliet (Ratmansky), the North American premiere of Nijinsky (Neumeier), Emergence (Pite), black night’s bright day (Kudelka) and The Four Seasons (Kudelka). He danced with Boston Ballet for one season before joining Tulsa Ballet in 2015.
Daniel van de Laar, Corps de Ballet, studied for ten years at The Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands. He danced with Nederlands Dans Theater 2 before joining Scapino Ballet in Rotterdam. With these two companies he had the opportunity to work with well-known choreographers such as Kylián, Lightfoot & León, Pite, Goecke, and others. He is excited to take the next step in his dance career by dancing in the with Tulsa Ballet! This is his first season.
João Pedro Sampaio, Apprentice, began his dance studies at Nucleo de Danca Carlos Henrique Bonforte, Tres Rios/Rio de Janerio. In 2012, he moved to Balletarrj Escola de Danca, Rio de Janeiro, under the care of Romulo Ramos and Ana Palmieri. Invited to many Galas in Brazil and internationally, he won First Place at the World Ballet Competition (Orlando) in 2014, and First Place Ensemble at the Youth America Grand Prix-New York City Finals 2014. This is his first season with Tulsa Ballet.
Updated 09-13-2015
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