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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Composer
As the composer of three of the most well known ballets in history, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky transformed ballet into a staged musical drama with his colourful and emotional orchestration. Born in Russia in 1840, Tchaikovsky turned to serious composition at the age of 14. He studied at the new St. Petersburg Conservatory before teaching at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1877 Madame Nadezhda von Meck became his patron and long time correspondent, which allowed him to dedicate himself to composition.
Under her patronage he began a period of rich productivity that included Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. His final ballet The Nutcracker was created in 1892 and has become one of the most popular ballets performed in Western countries. In 1893 he died of cholera, though some experts believe that the cause was actually suicide. Tchaikovsky wrote 11 operas, six symphonies, three string quartets, three ballets, suites and symphonic poems, and numerous songs and short piano pieces.
Nina Menon
Choreographer
Nina trained at Het Koninklijk Conservatorium van Den Haag in The Netherlands, before joining the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Professional Division. In 1989, she joined the RWB as an apprentice and became a member of the company’s corps de ballet in 1990. Nina made her choreographic debut at the RWB’s Fast Forward Choreographic Workshop in 1992 with a pas de deux from Eudia.
Since then, she has created numerous new works, including Four Shades for the RWB Professional Division’s Concert Hour Ballet tour, and a solo piece, Lost Gift, for Toronto’s Ballet Jörgen. In 1994, she created Mobius Band for the RWB’s Fast Forward, with music especially composed by Barry Mirochnick. She later teamed up with him again and presented Comforts of Funambulism at Fast Forward 1996. Nina left her dancing position at the RWB in June 1995 in order to further develop her choreographic skills.
In April 1996, she premiered Les Noces, set to Igor Stravinsky’s music. Commissioned by The Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir, the ballet was performed live with 80 singers. La Soif, her first ballet for the RWB Company, premiered in Bermuda in January 1998, made its Winnipeg debut in May 1998 and was performed on the RWB’s Atlantic Canada tour in September 1998.
Ms Menon began a two-year term as the RWB’s Resident Choreographer during the 1998/1999 season. For Fast Forward 1999, she debuted The little games that we play, a ballet in four movements. That season she also created Drunken Butterflies, which made its world premiere in May 1999.
During the 1999/2000 season Ms Menon, along with Galina Yordanova, created a new version of Nutcracker for the Company which premiered in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre on December 2, 1999. She also premiered Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White, set to the music of Cuba’s Perez Prado, in Winnipeg that season. Her most recent new work for the RWB was The Gitagovinda which premiered in May 2001 and featured original music by Mychael Danna.
Galina Yordanova
Choreographer
Galina Yordanova is an internationally recognised teacher and coach in the Russian tradition of ballet and is highly respected for her ability to inspire and motivate dancers.
Madame Yordanova trained for nine years at Baku in the USSR and for five years with the Bolshoi Ballet where she received her Teacher's Diploma in 1960. She holds diplomas in Choreography and Teacher Training from the G.I.T.S. in Moscow. Starting in 1960, Madame Yordanova was Ballet Mistress of the Varna Norodna Opera in Bulgaria where she staged a number of classics including Romeo and Juliet, Raymonda, Le Corsaire, Coppélia, Les Sylphides, Giselle and Nutcracker. She has also worked extensively with the Ballet der Deutschen Oper, Berlin and with companies in Madrid and Valencia, Spain and in Nagoya and Kyoto, Japan.
Starting in 1980, Madame Yordanova began to spend a portion of each year in Winnipeg, teaching at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Professional Division Summer Session. Her expert teaching of the Russian style has been an important component of the development of the teaching style of the School.
In 1995, she joined the artistic faculty full-time as Resident Guest Teacher. She worked extensively with the RWB dancers to prepare them for the Company's 1987 premiere of Swan Lake, which she staged in the Russian style. In 1990, Madame Yordanova shared her expertise and talent in the staging of the RWB's premiere of La Bayadère, Act II, featuring members of the Company together with young artists from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the RWB School in 1996, she staged Don Quixote, as a special Gala performance, at the Manitoba Centennial Concert Hall. The entire school’s 100 students performed in the production alongside company members who were school graduates in the lead roles.
For the RWB’s 1999/2000 season, Madame Yordanova, along with Nina Menon, choreographed a new version of Nutcracker for the Company which premiered in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre on December 2, 1999.
Paul Daigle
Costume Designer
Paul Daigle has a first-hand understanding of how to design for dance, since he was a dancer himself not so long ago. “It’s not that I set out to please dancers specifically, but I do know what works for them and what doesn’t,” explains Daigle.
A former student in the Professional Division of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Daigle performed for two seasons with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet before leaving in 1988 to pursue a career in painting, his first love. Raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Daigle studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design with John Clark before beginning a career in dance at the age of 18.
Paul Daigle has established a very creative and productive relationship with choreographer Mark Godden. Together they have collaborated on a variety of creations for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, including sets and costumes for Sequoia, Godden’s 1989 Clifford E. Lee Choreographic Award winning ballet, Godden’s two award-winning pas de deux, Myth and La Princesse et le Soldat, as well as Forms of Distinction, Rapsodie espagnole, and seven one-act Godden ballets Symphony No. 1, Angels in the Architecture, Dame aux Fruits, La Folía, A Darkness Between Us, Shepherd’s Wake and Miroirs.
Mr. Daigle has also created set and costume designs for ballet companies other than the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, including Ballet British Columbia, Ballet Jörgen in Toronto, Alberta Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Compañía Nacional de Danza in Mexico. Recently Mr. Daigle has designed new works by Mark Morris and Kevin O’Day for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens as well as designing the sets and costumes for Alberta Ballet’s new Nutcracker.
During the 1997/1998 season he redesigned the sets for Antony Tudor’s The Leaves Are Fading and the costumes for Paquita. He also collaborated with Mark Godden on two new works, The Rite of Spring and Anywhere But London.
During the 1998/1999 season Daigle designed the scenery and costumes for Mark Godden’s first full-length ballet, Dracula, as well as the world premiere of Nina Menon’s Drunken Butterflies. He also created new designs for Ballet British Columbia and Alberta Ballet.
Mr. Daigle designed the costumes for the RWB’s new Nutcracker, which premiered at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre on December 2, 1999. A recent work is the set and costume design for Mark Godden’s newest full-length creation, The Magic Flute, which premiered in Winnipeg in October 2003.
Brian Perchaluk
Scenic Designer
Brian Perchaluk is a set and costume designer based in Winnipeg. Born and raised in rural Manitoba, Brian graduated from the University of Winnipeg and the National Theatre School of Canada and later went on to apprentice at the Banff Centre. Over the past twenty-five years his designs have been featured on stages across the country including the Neptune Theatre, Atlantic Ballet Theatre, Canadian Stage, Theatre Passe Muriaille, the Grand Theatre, the Blyth Festival, the National Arts Centre, Persephone Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Alberta Theatre Projects, the Citadel Theatre, The Vancouver Playhouse, the Arts Club theatre, the Belfry theatre and two seasons at each the Stratford and Shaw Festivals.
In Winnipeg he has often worked for Prairie Theatre Exchange, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Rainbow Stage, Le Cercle Moliere, Manitoba Opera and the Manitoba Theatre Centre, where he has designed more than forty productions.
Among his favorite credits are M. Butterfly for the Manitoba Theatre Centre and the National Arts Centre, Les Miserables for the Neptune Theatre, Time and the Conways for the Shaw Festival, Nutcracker for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Hay Fever for Theatre Calgary.
In 1999 Brian received a Gemini Award for outstanding production design for his work on Journey and in 2003 a Jessie Richardson Award for outstanding set design for Mary’s Wedding.
Michael J. Whitfield
Lighting Designer
Michael J. Whitfield comes to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet with an extensive background in lighting design for theatre, opera and ballet.
A native of Victoria, B.C., Mr. Whitfield received his training in theatre during the 1960's and early 1970's at the University of Victoria, Villanova University and the University of Illinois. Since 1974, he has enjoyed a long association with the Stratford Festival, where he has for many years been Resident Lighting Designer and has been responsible for the lighting design of a great variety of plays and musicals. He has also worked extensively in Canadian regional theatre, and his work is often seen at Winnipeg's Manitoba Theatre Centre.
Mr. Whitfield is also much in demand as a lighting designer for opera, and his designs have been featured at the San Francisco Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Minnesota Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Welsh National Opera and at Canadian companies in Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton, Edmonton, Calgary, Banff and Vancouver. His lighting has been featured at the Canadian Opera Company for over 20 years, where recent designs include Salome, Jenufa and Madama Butterfly.
In the world of ballet, Mr. Whitfield's work has been represented by Alice and The Nutcracker at The National Ballet of Canada, The Merry Widow at the American Ballet Theatre, and Romeo and Juliet at the Finnish National Ballet. His lighting has also been seen at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty and Anne of Green Gables.
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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
      
Nina Menon
Galina Yordanova
Paul Daigle
Brian Perchaluk
Michael J. Whitfield
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