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 After retiring from the stage as a principal dancer, Jorden began to study and explore choreography. He spent a summer at NYU studying dance and theatre arts under the direction of Dr. Gregory Scott. During this time Jorden also worked with Claude Bessy and Serge Golovine from the Paris Opera, studying early French choreography.
In 1999 Jorden premiered his first work, The Three Musketeers, for RWB School Director David Moroni. This work was a 55 minute one act ballet depicting the classic Alexander Dumas novel. The ballet was successful and has since been remounted for RWB performances of Ballet in the Park.
In 2000, Jorden choreographed Elle est Quatre for the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Alabama. Set to the music of Aaron Copland, the piece was taken to the Birmingham Arts Festival after its premiere at ASFA. He then set the work on RWB Aspirants for performances in Winnipeg.
Jorden was commissioned by RWB Artistic Director André Lewis to choreograph two works for the visit of Queen Elizabeth in 2000. Faure, a pas de deux for Company dancers Tara Birtwhistle and Johnny Wright as well as Pas Espagnol, a classical group piece for the RWB School, Professional Division, were performed for Her Majesty and broadcast nationally on CBC television.
In 2002, Jorden took on the concept, direction and choreography of “Head Start, Feet First”. This project was a collaboration between the RWB School and four inner city junior high schools. Jorden choreographed the popular jazz work Free Zone for this project, as well as the finale, which incorporated 160 dancers on stage.
In 2003, Jorden took the popular children’s television show “The Toy Castle” and transformed it into an interactive live dance performance. This show, directed and choreographed by Jorden, played to sold out houses during its run. In 2005 he re-staged the work for Atlanta Ballet. Jorden starred in the television series and was nominated for a Genie award in 2003. During the production of “Toy Castle,” Jorden was also creating a classical work for the RWB School to celebrate the career of David Moroni, founding director of the RWB School, Professional Division. Jorden used every student in every level of the school in a 45 minute classical spectacle known as a Defilé. Sections of this work were also re-staged for Ballet in the Park.
In 2004, Jorden choreographed Miss Independent for Kelly Bale, Principal of the RWB Recreational Division. The work took top honours at the Manitoba Provincial Dance Festival.
In 2005, Jorden choreographed the Celtic themed ballet Deverell. A favourite of critics and audiences, the piece was taken on tour throughout Manitoba and Ontario with Concert Hour Ballet.
Jorden also choreographed the “Salute to Vienna Concert” series in 2005 and 2006. After the success of Jorden’s work on the Winnipeg 2005 series, his choreography was taken to Hamilton and Kitchener performances.
In December of 2006, Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet presented the world premiere of Jorden’s full length classical ballet Peter Pan. “The choreographer succeeds mightily in his adroit portraits of his leading players, namely Peter, Wendy, Michael and John, with Tinker Bell as his finest creation. The tapestry of the fairy’s flat-footed walk, splayed feet, precision toe work, thrust pelvis, and staccato arms perfectly captures her hair-trigger temper and abrupt mood swings,” described reviewer Paula Citron from The Globe and Mail. The critically acclaimed work played to sold out houses over the 2006 Christmas season, making it the biggest box office success for the Company to date. The RWB toured Morris’ hit across Canada last year.
Jorden also choreographed a contemporary solo for Professional Division student Ryan Booth to perform at the 2008 Youth America Grand Prix in New York City. Most recently, he was commissioned by André Lewis to choreograph Moulin Rouge – The Ballet for the RWB’s 70th anniversary season.
 Anne Armit was born in St. Andrews, Scotland but moved to Ottawa at age four. She attended Seneca College in 1972, was named Student Designer of the Year in 1975 and was awarded a scholarship to the Ontario College of Art.
After graduation, she worked for one year in the fashion industry before obtaining work as a seamstress at the St. Lawrence Centre. Anne also freelanced for organizations such as The National Ballet of Canada, Shaw Festival, Stratford Festival, Charlottetown Festival, the National Arts Centre and the Canadian Opera Company. A promotion to Junior Cutter at the St. Lawrence Centre was followed by an offer of employment from The National Ballet of Canada.
From 1979 to 1989 Anne owned her own business creating costumes for film, television and theatre, including the contract for Cats. She joined Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1989 as Director of Wardrobe and this position has given her the opportunity to travel and design productions such as Peter Pan, Quantz by Quanz, In Tandem, L.I.F.E., La Bayadère, Raymonda, Creaturehood and more.
Shannon Lovelace
Costume Designer
 Winnipeg visual artist and costume designer Shannon Lovelace received her training at the University of Manitoba and Concordia University in Montréal, Quebec. In 1980 she graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts.
Since returning to Winnipeg in 1981 Shannon has exhibited her paintings extensively in North America and abroad. Her paintings are currently represented by Art Mode Gallery in Ottawa.
In 1993 she began her association with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, working as milliner, decorator, dyer and designer. Moulin Rouge – The Ballet is the third full length ballet she has designed for the RWB. In 2001, she designed David Nixon’s Butterfly, followed by co-designing The Sleeping Beauty with Anne Armit. Her other works include designs for RWB’s Fast Forward, numerous pieces for the Anchorage Classical Ballet Academy, designs for Koba family entertainment group and others.
Shannon has worked in the film industry as sketch artist, illustrator and costumer, but her real love remains in the world of dance.
Her life studies and portraits can be found in private and corporate collections including Wood Gundy, KPMG LLP, Government offices and CP Calgary, Alberta. She is a longtime member of the Mentoring Artists for Women’s Arts.
 Andrew Beck was born in Staffordshire, England in 1961 and was brought to Winnipeg as a child in 1967. He was educated in the Fine Arts Department at the University of Manitoba and completed a thesis of painted steel sculptures in 1983. Since that time he has worked on landscape painting and steel sculptures, which have been exhibited in parallel and commercial galleries across Canada. His work is included in private and public collections such as at Great-West Life, Power Corporation, Manitoba Legislature and Manitoba Arts Council Art Bank.
In addition to his own work, Andrew has worked as a scenic artist and designer for fifteen years. In this capacity he has worked for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Manitoba Theatre Centre and Rainbow Stage. Other credits include the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards and the TV series Falcon Beach.
 Pierre has been active in dance since 1982, first in Toronto as stage manager for most of the city’s modern dance companies, then in Montréal for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. There he had the great opportunity to work closely with his mentor, lighting designer Nick Cernovitch. Pierre started designing lights in the 90’s for Margie Gillis and has since designed every new work in her repertoire. He also creates lights for many independent modern dance artists in Montréal. Pierre’s versatility is seen in how easily he can sustain both modern and classical vocabulary.
He has designed to rave reviews at Alberta Ballet where he is resident lighting designer, and for Christopher Wheeldon’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Val Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias and Jean Grand-Maitre’s Carmen, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliette and the acclaimed Fiddle and the Drum with Joni Mitchell. Other ballet credits include Don Quixote, Swan Lake, Taming of the Shrew and Nutcracker at Boston Ballet, Cinderella at Milwaukee Ballet and a mixed jazz program at Ballet Memphis.
Pierre has also ventured into the world of music where he has designed the lighting for the last three creations of tango music septet Ensemble Romulo Larréa: Homage to Astor Piazzola, Tango for La Milonga and Tango for a Century. For opera he designed the world premiere of Facing South in Toronto, Norma and Rigoletto at Pacific Opera in Victoria and Romeo and Juliette for the Opéra de Québec.
Pierre has previously designed for Royal Winnipeg Ballet productions: Mark Godden’s As Above, So Below and The Magic Flute and André Prokovsky’s Anna Karenina.
 As dramaturge for the RWB’s production of Moulin Rouge – The Ballet, Rick Skene draws upon his extensive experience as a theatre and film professional. Rick is a highly respected playwright, director and physical theatre specialist (MTC, Theatre Projects, Rainbow Stage, PTE, MTYP, SIR, Manitoba Opera, RWB) having worked in professional theatre for over 30 years. He is also considered to be the leading stage fight choreographer and film stunt coordinator/2nd unit director in Manitoba with over 140 film and television credits. Along with his diverse professional endeavours Rick has taught at the University of Winnipeg Department of Theatre & Film since 1986 where he specializes in physical theatre, acting, stage combat and film.
 After graduating from high school, Melissa Gibson went into fashion retail in her hometown of Toronto while she figured out what she really wanted to do with her life. Since she had always loved make-up, a photographer friend of hers asked her to do the make-up for a fashion test. When she saw the photo blown up to life-size in front of the store she realized that she could make this a career and she began a make-up course.
Later, one of her teachers suggested that she work with MAC. That first encounter with MAC was 16 years ago. Within a year she had moved up from the make-up counter to Creative Artist and went from store to store doing make-up, which was great training. There have been many memorable moments in her career including working with Cher and Tilda Swinton.
She loves making people feel good and look beautiful. “What I do is disposable art,” she says, “even though there are photos that last. There is something really interesting to putting something on the face or on the body and knowing that it is a one-time deal. I love the fact that it can be washed away. It’s make-up, it’s fleeting.”
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