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 Val Caniparoli’s versatility has made him one of the most sought after American choreographers in the United States and abroad.
He has contributed to the repertories of more than thirty-five dance companies, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre, Pennsylvania Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Ballet West (Resident Choreographer 1993-97), Washington Ballet, Israel Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, State Theatre Ballet of South Africa, Louisville Ballet and Tulsa Ballet, where he has been resident choreographer since 2001. When Boston Ballet danced the company premiere of Caniparoli’s full-length Lady of the Camellias in 2004, the critic for the Boston Herald wrote, “Why have we had to wait so long to see a ballet by this gifted choreographer?”
Caniparoli is most closely associated with San Francisco Ballet, his artistic home for over thirty years. He began his career under the artistic directorship of Lew Christensen, and in the 1980s was appointed resident choreographer of San Francisco Ballet. He continues to choreograph for the company under Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson.
Caniparoli has created a body of work that is rooted in classicism but influenced by all forms of movement: modern dance, ethnic dance, social dancing, and even ice-skating. His extensive knowledge and appreciation of music is reflected in the range of composers that have inspired his choreography: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (Béla Bartók), Gustav’s Rooster (Hoven Droven), The Bridge (Dmitri Shostakovich), boink! (Juan Garcia Esquivel), Aria (George Frederic Handel), Open Veins (Robert Moran), Prawn-watching (Michael Nyman), Torque (Michael Torke), Jaybird Lounge (Uri Caine), Hamlet and Ophelia, pas de deux (Bohuslav Martinu), Bird’s Nest (Charlie Parker), Death of a Moth (Carlos Surinach), Going for Baroque (Antonio Vivaldi), Aquilarco (Giovanni Sollima), Book of Alleged Dances (John Adams), Aubade (Francis Poulenc), Slow (Graham Fitkin), Djangology (Django Reinhardt), Vivace (Franz Schubert), and one of his most performed works, Lambarena (Johann Sebastian Bach and traditional African rhythms and music), which is performed by 16 companies and has become an international sensation.
Lady of the Camellias, choreographed in 1994 and co-produced by Ballet Florida and Ballet West, was Caniparoli’s first full-length work. He has also choreographed The Nutcracker (2001) for Cincinnati Ballet, and Val Caniparoli’s A Cinderella Story, danced to themes by Richard Rodgers, for Royal Winnipeg Ballet (2004), and in 2009 created a new version of The Nutcracker for Louisville Ballet. Caniparoli has choreographed operas for three of this country’s major companies: Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. In addition, he has worked on several occasions with the San Francisco Symphony, most memorably on the Rimsky-Korsakov opera-ballet Mlada, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, a major success of the 2002 Russian Festival. In 2005, he received rave reviews for his choreography in Carey Perloff’s new production of A Christmas Carol at San Francisco’s esteemed American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.). Additional work with A.C.T. includes choreography for Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore and the creation, with Carey Perloff, of a new movement-theatre piece, The Tosca Project.
The recipient of ten grants for choreography from the National Endowment for the Arts, Caniparoli was also awarded an artist fellowship from the California Arts Council in 1991. He has twice received the Choo-San Goh Award from the Choo-San Goh and H. Robert Magee Foundation: in 1994 for Lambarena, choreographed for San Francisco Ballet, and in 1997 for Open Veins, created for Atlanta Ballet. Lambarena was also nominated for the Benois de la Danse Award from the International Dance Association at a gala at the National Theater of Warsaw, Poland, in 1997. Dance Bay Area acknowledged Caniparoli’s contributions to the local dance scene with an Isadora Duncan Award (or Izzy) for Sustained Achievement in 1996. In addition, he has twice won Izzies for Outstanding Choreography. He was also honored to have been selected to choreograph a pas de deux for Evelyn Hart and Rex Harrington for the Royal Jubilee Gala for Queen Elizabeth in Toronto.
Born in Renton, Washington, Caniparoli opted for a professional dance career after studying music and theatre at Washington State University. In 1972, he received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to attend San Francisco Ballet School. He performed with San Francisco Opera Ballet before joining San Francisco Ballet in 1973. He continues to perform with the company as a principal character dancer.
 Richard Rodgers' contributions to the musical theatre of his day were extraordinary, and his influence on the musical theatre of today is legendary. His career spanned more than six decades, and his hits ranged from the silver screens of Hollywood to the bright lights of Broadway, London and beyond. He was the recipient of countless awards, including Pulitzers, Tonys, Oscars, Grammys and Emmys. He wrote more than 900 published songs, and forty Broadway musicals.
Rodgers (1902-79) began his professional career in 1920 with a series of musicals for Broadway, London and Hollywood written with lyricist Lorenz Hart. Among their greatest: ON YOUR TOES (1936), BABES IN ARMS (1937), THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE (1938), and PAL JOEY (1940). The Rodgers & Hart partnership came to an end with the death of Lorenz Hart in 1943, at the age of 48. Earlier that year Rodgers had joined forces with lyricist and author Oscar Hammerstein II, whose work in the field of operetta throughout the '20s and '30s had been as innovative as Rodgers' own accomplishments in the field of musical comedy.
OKLAHOMA! (1943), the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, was also the first of a new genre, the musical play, representing a unique fusion of Rodgers' musical comedy and Hammerstein's operetta. It also marked the beginning of the most successful partnership in Broadway musical history, and was followed by CAROUSEL (1945), ALLEGRO (1947), SOUTH PACIFIC (1949), THE KING AND I (1951), ME AND JULIET (1953), PIPE DREAM (1955), FLOWER DRUM SONG (1958) and THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1959). The team wrote one movie musical, STATE FAIR (1945; adapted to the stage, 1995), and one for television, CINDERELLA (1957; remade in 1965 and 1997). Collectively, the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals earned 34 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes and two Grammy Awards. In 1998 Rodgers & Hammerstein were cited by Time Magazine and CBS News as among the 20 most influential artists of the 20th century, and in 1999 they were jointly commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp.
Despite Hammerstein's death in 1960, Rodgers continued to write for the Broadway stage. His first solo entry, NO STRINGS in 1962, earned him two Tony Awards for music and lyrics, and was followed by DO I HEAR A WALTZ? (1965, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim), TWO BY TWO (1970, lyrics by Martin Charnin), REX (1976, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick) and I REMEMBER MAMA (1979, lyrics by Martin Charnin and Raymond Jessel).
Richard Rodgers died at home in New York City on December 30, 1979 at the age of 77. On March 27, 1990, he was honored posthumously with Broadway's highest accolade when the 46th Street Theatre, owned and operated by the Nederlander Organization, was renamed The Richard Rodgers Theatre, home to The Richard Rodgers Gallery, a permanent exhibit in the lobby areas presented by ASCAP which honors the composer's life and works.
In 2002, the Richard Rodgers Centennial was celebrated around the world, with tributes from Tokyo to London, from the Hollywood Bowl to the White House, featuring six new television specials, museum retrospectives, a dozen new ballets (including Val Caniparoli's NO OTHER), half a dozen books, new recordings and countless concert and stage productions (including three revivals on Broadway), giving testament to the enduring popularity of Richard Rodgers and the sound of his music.
 Pianist, bassist, composer and big band leader, Ron Paley hails from Winnipeg. After playing bass with the big bands of Buddy Rich and Woody Herman, including a month long tour with Frank Sinatra, Ron Paley returned to Winnipeg to form and play piano, in the Ron Paley Big Band. The band has performed on numerous television and radio shows, and toured throughout Western Canada and the Northwest Territories.
As well as playing on two Woody Herman albums and one Frank Sinatra album, Ron has recorded four of his own albums and a fifth big band album, “Bring ‘Em Back!” is nearly complete.
In addition to jazz concerts, the Ron Paley Big Band has also performed original works by Ron for big band and orchestra, and trio and orchestra, with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
He was commissioned to write the Golden Jubilee Fanfare for Queen Elizabeth II performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at the Golden Jubilee Gala at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto. He also orchestrated Dr. Oscar Peterson’s “Hymn to Freedom”, performed by the Oscar Peterson Quartet, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir for that same performance. He was commissioned to write a “new music” work for big band by Winnipeg’s new music series Groundswell, and by the Royal Canadian College of Organists to compose a work for choir and organ based on a Biblical Psalm. In 2004 the big band performed with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, playing jazz arrangements of songs by Richard Rodgers for Val Caniparoli’s A Cinderella Story.
Sandra Woodall has contributed scenic and costume designs to such companies as San Francisco Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Houston Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and Singapore Ballet Theatre. Current projects include Firebird for San Francisco Ballet, with choreography by Yuri Possokhov, and Hedda Gabler at the American Conservatory Theatre. Ms Woodall has worked frequently with Val Caniparoli, designing the costumes and sets for Lambarena, Death of a Moth, Slow, Ciao Marcello, Prawn Watching, and many other productions. Other recent work includes set and costume designs for Sleeping Beauty at the National Ballet of Norway, costumes for Helgi Tomasson’s Fifth Season at San Francisco Ballet, and costumes for Yuri Possokhov’s Cinderella at the Bolshoi Ballet. Other design credits include the Eureka Theater’s original production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, The Duchess of Malfi directed by Robert Woodruff for American Conservatory Theater, and the 1994 Magic Theatre production of Tongues/Savage Love with Joseph Chaikin.
Ms Woodall was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan in 1999/2000. Her art work and designs have been shown in exhibitions at the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum, the American Cultural Center in Taipei, Taiwan, and the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.
 Sheryl Flatow is a freelance writer, editor, curator and interviewer with a special interest in dance and theatre. She wrote the program notes for San Francisco Ballet for more than a decade and has also contributed to the programs of many other companies, including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet and Houston Ballet. Ms Flatow writes a monthly column for the national edition of the theatre magazine Playbill, a publication she has contributed to for more than two decades. Her work has also appeared in many national publications in the United States, including Dance magazine, The New York Times, Parade, Ballet News, Stagebill, Performing Arts and Biography, among others. In addition, Ms Flatow wrote the liner notes for the CDs of the original Broadway productions of Into the Woods, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway and the revival of Kiss Me, Kate.
Ms Flatow has curated numerous acclaimed exhibitions for the Museum of Performance & Design (MPD), formerly known as the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum. Those exhibitions include George Balanchine: Ballet Master, a Centennial Exhibition; With a Song in His Heart: A Celebration of Richard Rodgers; Stephen Sondheim: The Art of Making Art; and Natural Selections: Stage Designs by Sandra Woodall. Under the auspices of MPD, she has also curated exhibitions for San Francisco Ballet, American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Symphony. Ms Flatow also hosted many “conversations” at MPD, public interviews with major figures in dance and theatre. Among her guests have been Val Caniparoli, Barbara Cook, Suzanne Farrell, Judith Jamison, Tina LeBlanc, Patti LuPone, Natalia Makarova, Maureen McGovern, Kevin McKenzie, Arthur Mitchell, Kyra Nichols, Helgi Tomasson and Sandra Woodall. Additionally, she is a former publicist for Boston Ballet.
 Alexander V. Nichols’ design work spans from lighting and projections to scenery and costumes for dance, theater, opera and art installations. His designs have been set on companies and artists including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Arena Stage Co. (Washington D.C.), Alley Theater (Houston), California Shakespeare Festival, National Theater of Taiwan, San Francisco Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Hong Kong Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, ODC/SF, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Paul Dresher Ensemble and Rinde Eckert.
Mr. Nichols served as Resident Designer for the Pennsylvania Ballet, Hartford Ballet, American Repertory Ballet and as Lighting Director for American Ballet Theater. Other dance credits include designs for choreographers: Christopher d’Amboise, Val Caniparoli, Sonya Delwaide, Marguerite Donlon, Dominique Dumais, Jean Grand-Maître, Joe Goode, Allyson Green, Susan Hadley, Joanna Haigood, Robert Hill, Margaret Jenkins, Bill T. Jones, Graham Lustig, Mark Morris, Matjash Mrozewski, KT Nelson, David Nixon, Kevin O¹Day, Lawrence Pech, Kirk Peterson, Stephen Petronio, Dwight Rhoden, Michael Smuin and Brenda Way. Recent projects include lighting for Bridge and Tunnel, an off-Broadway production by Sarah Jones, scenery and projections for Visual Music by the Kronos Quartet and the exterior lighting of the Sentinel Building, Francis Ford Coppola's historic headquarters in San Francisco. | |
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