Another Exciting & Intelligent Step by Edward Villella, Artistic Director of Miami City Ballet
The creation of a national choreographic center, that is all encompassing, housed in one building, and supported by the same administrative staff, is a win, win, situation, and just another stroke of genius by Edward Villella, artistic director of the Miami City Ballet.
This broad reaching and absolutely ded-icated endeavor of one company, one way, etc will be accomplished via the brilliance of two beloved dancer / choreog-raphers, Yanis Pikieris and David Palmer, who currently serve as Program Directors for MCB's Contemporary Dance Series and Young People's Program. Master minded via Edward Villella, this extra-ordinary program, creates a new division presenting contemporary ballets of the highest artistic quality by national and international cutting-edge choreog-raphers, together with programs specially designed for young audiences and featuring choreography not currently in the MCB repertoire.
"I am thrilled to make this announcement and find it fitting that during our 20th Anniversary Season, we welcome home two distinguished artists," said Villella.
Palmer and Pikieris, both former Miami City Ballet principal dancers are also founding artistic directors of Maximum Dance Company.
"We are looking toward the future," says David Palmer, "We always felt we were serving the community, but this move propels our vision and is explosive. We are excited for the entire South Florida region. It is momentous of MCB to experiment and introduce new faces of many works never before presented. The idea is so unique, that nationally, I am unaware of any other major ballet company that has dedicated three complete artistically different series simultaneously."
"As a founding member of MCB, it is exciting to return after so many years," says Yanis Pikieris, My wife, Marielena Mencia and I have wonderful memories from countless successes here, and now we feel as though we are truly coming home. Bringing contemporary choreographers from around the world is a leap of visionary proportion."
Yanis Pikieris, received the silver medal at the Jackson International Ballet Competition. He is the first dancer from the western hemisphere to win the prestigious gold medal at Moscow's International Ballet Competition, launching a career that would bring him to over 40 countries around the world as one of this generations' premier dancers. He has danced as principal dancer with the International Ballet of Caracas, Bavarian National Ballet, Deusche Oper am Rhein-Dusseldorf, Miami City Ballet and Ballet du Nord. As a guest principal dancer he performed with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Nagoya Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet (1984 Olympic Games), Hungarian State Opera, Latvian National Opera (Honorary guest for the 1st Dance Festival of the Baltics) and Teatro Massimo di Palermo among
others. Other appearances include venues such as Wolftrap, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Munich's Olympic Stadium and Spoletto Festival in Italy.
Mr. Pikieris has enjoyed enormous success throughout Europe and received various critics' awards for his performances in John Cranko's "Romeo and Juliet" and "Eugene Onegin" as well as in a diverse classical and contemporary repertoire.
His video credits include Bavaria Studios Star Gala, Los Angeles Ballet, "Pas de Deux" and Dancing for Gold, Moscow International Ballet Competition."
Pikieris has astounded audiences of MCB. His power and passion was instrumental in the initial success of the company. From 86 - 94 he danced most of the ballets in the company's extensive Balanchine repertoire. He is mostly remembered during this period for his interpretations of "The Prodigal Son," "Apollo" and "Tarantella."
As a choreographer, he created several works, including "Dischordia," "Still Waters," "Mephisto," "Imagined Notions," "Gargoyles," and "The Four Seasons" (Sun Post Winner- Best Dance Concert of the 2002-2003 Season). He created works for the Bavarian National Ballet, Ballet Centrum Berlin, Ballet Randolph, Ballet du Nord, Ballet Theatre of Miami, Ballet Metropolitano de Medellin, Juegos del Arte Dance Ensemble, Maximum Dance Company and different colleges around the U.S. He has also choreographed the dance sequences in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" for the Florida Grand Opera.
Working in collaboration with David Palmer, they have produced "The Rite of Spring," (Sun Post Winner- Best Original Work of the 2002-2003 Season) "Spectrum," "Adiemus," "Carnival of the Animals" and "The Elements" for Maximum Dance Company.
In recognition for his outstanding contribution to the arts, Dade County and the City of Miami proclaimed Nov 15th and 16th, 2002 as Yanis Pikieris Day. He previously served as Artistic Director for Ballet du Nord, Juegos Dance Ensemble and the Ballet Metropolitano de Medellin. In 1986 Mr. Pikieris founded Maximum Dance Company with David Palmer. Together with his wife Marielena he currently owns and runs the Mencia-Pikieris School of Dance in South Dade.
David Palmer began his career as a dancer with the Australian Ballet. Since then he has danced as a Principal Dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Koninklijk Ballet Van Vlaanderen, San Francisco Ballet and Maximum Dance Company. He has also appeared as a guest artist with Sydney Dance Company, Ballet du Nord, PACT Ballet, the Queensland Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and the Australian Ballet. During his International career he has performed on many of the world's great stages such as, The Paris Opera, France, Lincoln Center, New York, The Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Sadler's Wells, London, The Sydney Opera House, Sydney, The Hungarian State Opera House, Budapest, The KVO, Antwerp, OCPAC, Irvine, California and The War Memorial, San Francisco, to name a few.
He is highly regarded as an International Guest Artist and principal dancer in both the classics and the more contemporary works of today's masters for over two decades. From Siegfried and Romeo to The Man in John Butler's "Threshold" and The Sacrificial Youth in Glen Tetley's "Sacre Du Printemps" his mastery of the dance form has been critically acclaimed. He has had many works created upon him including works by Mark Morris, Helgi Tomasson, Paolo Mohovich, Graham Murphy, Stanton Welch, Julia Adam, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Dietmar Seyffert, Gerald Arpino, and Val Caniparoli. Along with having danced all of the Classical Princes he has danced many of the leading roles in Balanchine works including, "Apollo," the "Prodigal Son," Tchaikovsky pas de deux, "Rubies," "Bugaku," "Donizetti," "Diana and Actaeon" pas de deux, "Scotch Symphony," "Divertimento 15," "La Source," "Raymonda Variations" and "Who Cares." He has also worked with many of today's other masters such as Paul Taylor, Jiri Kylian, Hans Van Manen, Lar Lubovitch, Christopher Bruce and William Forsythe.
As a choreographer to date David has created some 35 works, performed by Maximum Dance Company, the Australian Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Balletto D'Ell Esperia and Miami City Ballet. He has also created works for Marin Ballet, Miami Ballet Theater, Gateway Ballet of St. Louis, Marin Dance Theatre and Ballet Metropolitano de Medellin. He directed and choreographed the Geoffrey Beene Fall Fashion Show for the San Francisco Ballet and Saks Fifth Avenue. Among the many works he has created for Maximum Dance Company are "Passing Through," "Concerto," "Mist" and "Bound for Brubeck."
He won the Choo-San Goh Award for choreography for a completed commissioned World Premiere work for San Francisco Ballet, "Concerto Romantique" that premiered in March 2000. He was the runner-up in The Peter Stuyvesant International Ballet Competition in 1979, In 1999, 2000 and 2001 David was named South Florida's "Best Male Dancer" by the Miami Beach Sun Post. In 2004 David was awarded The New World School of The Arts Achievement Award for his work as founding Artistic Director of Maximum Dance Company. David led Maximum Dance Company on four international tours and has performed and worked in dozens of countries and venues. He has also performed in the ceremonial opening galas for The Sydney Entertainment Center and OCPAC (The Orange County Performing Arts Center) and in the National and televised Australian Bi-centennial Galas. He was a featured artist in the dance film "To Dream of Roses" presented at the world's fair in Osaka in 1991. He has two children Alexander and Madeleine and currently resides in Coconut Grove, Florida.
This season's performances for the new Contemporary Dance Series and Young People's Program will appear in a studio theatre where audiences will enjoy the finest quality contemporary dances among intimate settings, January 27-29 and April 7-9, 2006 at the Lynn and Louis Wolfson, II Theatre, Ophelia and Juan Js. Roca Center (Miami City Ballet Studios) on Miami Beach. Program 1 of Miami City Ballet Contemporary Dance Series is "The Reassuring Affects of Form and Poetry" by Trey McIntire with "Silhouettes" by Mark Morris, "Caught" by David Parsons and "Chiaroscuro" by Lynn Taylor-Corbett. Miami City Ballet has future plans to perform at the Miami Performing Arts Center, once this facility officially opens.
For more information the public should call Miami City Ballet's Box Office toll-free at (877) 929-7010.