The American Ballet Competition has three age divisions. Age of each competitor is determined as of June 1.
DIVISION I
Pre-Competitive: Ages 9 Pre-teen: Age 10 to 12
DIVISION II
Juniors: Ages 13 to 15
DIVISION III
Seniors: Ages 16 to 20
CATEGORIES
CLASSICAL BALLET SOLOS
Variations selected from the classical ballet repertoire are to be chosen from ABC’s approved variation list – see Music.
Variation maximum time limit: 2.5 minutes in length.
CONTEMPORARY SOLOS
Contemporary Dance is a genre of concert dance that uses methods found in modern, post-modern as well as classical and neo-classical ballet. Contemporary is based on the evolving philosophies of dance movement that often omits structured movement and form and draws on modern dance techniques. Some of the dance techniques and philosophies used includes those of the pioneers of contemporary dance such as Martha Graham, Loie Fuller, Jose Limon, Ruth St. Dennis, Merce Cunningham, Doris Humphrey and Mary Wigman, to name a few.
No tap or extreme hip-hop is to be incorporated in contemporary solo. Jazz and lyrical may be integrated as the choreography may require. Contemporary solos may be performed on or off pointe.
Contemporary solos time limits: no longer than 2.5 minutes and no shorter than 1.5 minutes.
ENSEMBLES
Ensembles include duets, trios, groups of 4-30 dancers and Classical Pas de Deux couples.
Choreography may be from the classical ballet repertory or original choreography combining elements of contemporary and classical dance styles.
Ensemble time limits: Duets & Trios – up to 3 minutes Ensembles – 4 to 9 dancers up to 3:45 minutes; 10-20 dancers up to 5:30 minutes; 21-30 dancers up to 7 minutes
Pas de deux – up to 6 minutes, may include adagio and coda sections. No variations.
50 States Initiative
We understand the importance of nurturing and supporting emerging talent, which is why an anonymous donor has offered dance scholarships to ballet students from each state across the nation. We believe that every aspiring ballet dancer deserves a chance to participate and grow, regardless of their financial circumstances. This scholarship will cover the full entry fee for one participant from each state to compete at this national competition American Ballet Competition in June 2024 in beautiful Ogden, Utah.
WE ARE TAKING APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2024 BOURNONVILLE WORKSHOP WITH THE MASTERS
*Includes Participation in Performance of Bournonville repertory, staged by Dinna Bjorn
* Workshop will take place Monday-Saturday, June 3rd-8th. Daily schedule will consist of class, Bournonville rep, mime, and lectures on August Bournonville (history, methodology, and interesting anecdotes). During the week, Ms. Bjorn and the others will also be teaching and staging Bournonville repertory. This will be performed by workshop participants, in full costume, on the final evening (Saturday, the 10th), at the historic Peery’s Egyptian Theater.
** Read about 2015 Bournonville Workshop with the Masters in this featured article by Kathy Adams, for Dance Studio Life Magazine: “Ballet, Danish Style”.
Dinna Bjorn began her dancing career in 1964 with the Royal Danish Ballet and had her soloist debut in 1966. She went on to perform a wide range of major roles in Denmark and abroad as a guest artist. From 1985-88 Ms. Bjorn taught at the Royal Danish Ballet School. She has choreographed many works for the Royal Danish Ballet as well for Dinna Bjorn Dancers. In 1996, she was appointed Artistic Advisor to the Royal Danish Ballet. In addition to these directorships, she was the Artistic Director of Dinna Bjorn Dancers, a company she formed with Frank Andersen, consisting of soloists from the Royal Danish Ballet, which toured extensively throughout the world. She has also created five Hans Christian Andersen ballets for Tivoli’s Pantomime Theatre for which Queen Margrethe designed the décor and costumes. In 1990, she was appointed artistic director of the Norwegian National Ballet, and in 2001, she became ballet mistress for the Finnish National Ballet.
Ms. Bjorn has been teaching and coaching the works and technique of Bournonville since 1975 and has participated in Bournonville research and reconstructions internationally. Her best-known reconstructions are the pas de trois from Soldier and Peasant (1981), the dance of the Three Graces in The Muse of the Homeland (1983) and the pas de deux from The Toreador (1989). Ms. Bjorn is much in demand as a guest teacher and lecturer and has given master classes and lectures at universities and theatres in Scandinavia, England, France, Italia, Germany, USA, Canada, China, and Hong Kong. She is the author of several articles on the technique and legacy of August Bournonville. Augmenting her numerous accomplishments, Dinna Bjørn has received the Danish Order of the Dannebrog, the Finnish Order of The White Rose, and the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit.
Eric Viudes began his ballet training in Biarritz, France. At age 14, he won the first prize at the Concours de la Scène Francaise in Paris, directed by Serge Lifar, and achieved jury recognition in character dance. Thereafter he was admitted to the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris where he completed his ballet education. He also studied with Maitre Yves Brieux. Upon graduation he joined the Ballet du Rhin and in 1984 was engaged at the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo, where he was promoted to Principal Dancer after two years. His leading roles include “Vaslav Nijinsky” in Ulf Gadd´s Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the 1985 premiere in Oslo and in the Norwegian television production of the ballet in 1996. Other leading roles include the young bridegroom in Jerome Robbins´ Les Noces, the husband in Glen Tetley´s La Ronde, “Gurn”in Bournonville’s La Sylphide, “EdvardGrieg” which Sølvi Edvardsen created for him in Grieg àJour and the Red Pas de Deux in Jiri Kylian´s Forgotten Land.
In 2003, he received the French Diploma for teaching classical ballet. He has served as guest teacher with many ballet companies including for the Aspirant classes at The Royal Danish Ballet (2003-2008). He was a member of the faculty for the Bournonville summer seminars in Tokyo, Japan and in France for Bournonville à Biarritz where he has served as Artistic Consultant since 2009.
Born in Denmark, Henning Albrechtsen was engaged as dancer at Royal Danish Ballet in 1985. Since 1997, he has been on the faculty at the Royal Danish Ballet School. In his career as a professional dancer he has danced a variety of soloist and principal roles in classical and neo-classical repertoire ranging from Bournonville to Balanchine.
From 2000 to 2007, he was the Deputy Artistic Director of Royal Danish Ballet. In 2007, he enrolled in the Teachers Training Program for former professional dancers at the National Ballet School of Canada where he completed the one-year educational program and in 2008 was invited back to the Royal Danish Ballet School as a full-time member of the faculty. Henning Albrechtsen has taught at various schools throughout the world including, among others, the National Ballet School of Cuba and the National Ballet School of Canada. In addition, he has taught the Bournonville technique in Australia, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Norway, and Spain.
Karina Elver was born in 1962 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She began to dance cha-cha at the age of 3, and at 9 years old she was accepted as a ballet student at The Royal Danish Ballet School. In 1978 she was accepted as an apprentice at The Royal Danish Ballet and after 2 years she became a ballet dancer at The Royal Danish Ballet. During her time at The Royal Danish Ballet, she had many solo parts in several famous ballets by August Bournonville, Balanchine, Alvin Ailey, Clara in Nutcracker and many more.
Ms. Cuni Mancini trained at the Royal Danish School of Ballet and became an Apprentice with the company in 1991. In 1993, she joined the Corps de Ballet and was promoted to Soloist in 2001. Her roles in Bournonville ballets include “Teresina” in Napoli, “Eliza” & “Victorine” in The Conservatory, “Senorita” in La Ventana. Principal roles include “Clara” & “Princess” in various versions of Nutcracker, “Helena” in Midsummer Nights Dream and “Kitri” in Alicia Alonso´s version of Don Quixote. Her soloist roles include “The Pupil” in Flemming Flindt’s The Lesson, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Russian Girl in Serenade, Pas de Deux from Flower Festival in Genzano, “Effy” in La Sylphide,and various roles in Dances at a Gathering, Napoli, Folktale, Sleeping Beauty, Twyla Tharp´s The Fugue, and Balanchine’s Symphony in 3 Movements.
Diana Cuni has been teaching the Bournonville technique at the Royal Danish Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet School since 2013. She also taught at the first annual Royal Danish Ballet Summer School in 2014, and has been teaching Bournonville master classes and staging Willhelm Tell and Napoli at the Perm State Choreographic College in Russia. In addition, she has taught at the Bournonville seminars in Biarritz, France, the Inoue Ballet in Tokyo, and master classes in Paris. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ The 2023 Bournonville Worksop with the Masters will take place at Peery’s Egyptian Theater and the Imagine Ballet Theatre Studios, both located in downtown Ogden. This workshop will be the only one of its kind to take place in the United States.
Tuition
$750.00 per student. Because of the uniqueness of this workshop, with its accompanying performance opportunity, acceptance will be limited to the first 30 applicants. A limited number of full and partial scholarships will be offered, on merit basis and as available. To be considered for scholarship, please submit a video excerpt, preferably of class work, on pointe if applicable.
Audit Options for Teachers: A. $200 for full week. B. $50/day. C. $20/class. **All registration materials should be e-mailed to ibtmason@comcast.net or sent to P.O. Box 7, Bountiful, UT 84011.
This event is being sponsored by: Imagine Ballet Theatre, The American Ballet Competition, Institute for Dance Education Arts, Utah Division of Arts and Museums, ArtWorks, The Ralph Nye Charitable Foundation, and the Lawrence T. and Janet T. Dee Foundation.
Immediately following Bournonville Workshop with the Masters, Imagine Ballet Theatre offers a unique summer intensive experience. A discount is offered for students who enroll in both of these fantastic opportunities. Please see https://imagineballet.org/summer-intensive/ for more information on guest faculty for IBT’s Summer Intensive.
Imagine Ballet Theatre will present the ballet “Alice: Adventures in Wonderland,” based on the beloved novel by Lewis Carroll, this spring. The full-length ballet features choreography by IBT Artistic Director Raymond Van Mason. The company will offer three opportunities to see the show in Ogden on May 12th and 13th at the Allred Theater at Weber State University.
Van Mason’s ballet tells the story of Alice, a young girl who falls down a rabbit hole and finds herself in a magical and unusual world. In search of the elusive White Rabbit, Alice meets and interacts with the odd characters in Wonderland throughout her journey, which ultimately ends in mayhem in the Queen of Hearts’ court. Van Mason’s choreography stays true to the fun and often chaotic intertwining personalities in the classic Carroll book, and audience members can look forward to seeing all their favorite characters in a new yet familiar way, from the Cheshire Cat to the Mad Hatter and the Doormouse.
The buoyant score, composed by Joseph Horovitz, translates beautifully to the quirky and playful style of the overall story. Nicolas Maughan will play the score on just the piano. This music was commissioned by London Festival Ballet in 1953, Coronation year for Queen Elizabeth II. IBT is the only Company allowed to use this score for performances.
Keeping with tradition, Imagine Ballet Theatre’s “Alice” will also pull from the local community to bring the ballet to life. Sherry Ferrin, a well-known Ogden artist, hand-painted the enormous backdrop for the stage, while additional set pieces and props have been constructed by other artisans in the area.
Meet the Composer, Joseph Horovitz and the Pianist, Nicholas Maughan!
JOSEPH HOROVITZ was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1926 and settled in England in 1938. After gaining a music degree from Oxford, he studied at the Royal College of Music, London, and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His first contact with ballet was as rehearsal pianist for Boris Kochno. He became Music Director of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre in 1950 and then conductor of the Ballets Russes on its final UK tour under Serge Grigoriev, Diaghilev’s Ballet Master. They premiered his first major ballet score, Les Femmes d’Alger, at London’s Festival Hall in 1952.
In 1953 Anton Dolin commissioned him to write the music for Alice in Wonderland, London Festival Ballet’s contribution to Coronation Year. It ran for three years in Britain, Europe, North and South America and was televised by the BBC . Revivals have since been staged in USA, Britain, Germany, Austria and New Zealand. Ben Stevenson’s production for Houston Ballet in 1992 resulted in seasons in Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Fort Worth, Texas. A recent version has been performed by the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain (choreography Wayne Sleep) for three seasons.
In all Horovitz has composed twelve ballets, including Concerto for Dancers for the Edinburgh Festival and Miss Carter Wore Pink for Britain’s Northern Ballet Theatre, and has made a complete revision of the score for Giselle, commissioned by the Royal Ballet in 1990, with frequent revivals, the latest currently showing at the Royal Opera House, London.
His compositions range widely: concertos for oboe, clarinet, violin, euphonium, tuba, percussion, trumpet, oboe and Jazz Concerto for harpsichord or piano; wind and brass band works, five string quartets and other chamber music; choral works including an oratorio (Samson), humorous cantatas for the Hoffnung Concerts and the popular Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo, sung in six different languages and televised as an animated film and a children’s ballet; two one-act operas and a full-length opera, Ninotchka, and over seventy TV scores such as Lillie, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers series, two BBC Shakespeare plays (Twelfth Night and The Tempest),Dorian Gray and Rumpole of the Bailey.
A Fellow of the Royal College of Music, London, he was President of the International Council of Composers and Lyricists (CIAM) from 1981 to 1989. He holds two Ivor Novello Awards, the Commonwealth Medal for Composition, the Gold Order of Merit of the City of Vienna, the Nino Rota Prize of Italy, the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art First Class, and the Cobbett Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, UK.
Whether Nicholas Maughan is music directing a production of Rocky Horror at a barn in Kennebunkport, Maine, coaching a high school violinist on the Mendelssohn Concerto, or playing tunes from Wicked with Kristin Chenoweth and the Utah Symphony, he is at a piano doing what he loves: making music with other people.
Collaboration is the theme in Nic’s musical life. His first piano lessons, taught by his mother, included duets. He was accompanying choirs in middle school and high school. At Utah State (Charlene Shelzi Jarvis, Annette Colledge) and Weber State (Ralph van der Beek), Nic worked extensively with singers and string players. Nic credits much of his ability to adapt his playing to “styles-beyond-classical” to the work he did under the mentorship of Jim Christian (musical theater), Viktor Uzur (chamber music), and Cristin Tillinghast (voice).
Currently, Nic enjoys working as the full time Company Pianist at Ballet West, where he’s able to incorporate all kinds of musical favorites into his playlist for Company class. Dancers might hear anything from Scarlatti & Chopin to Jerome Kern & Katy Perry. Nic finds the ballet repertoire (Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and more) challenging and exciting. This season, he’s enjoyed performing Concerto Barocco (Balanchine/Bach), Rodeo (De Mille/Copland) and In the Night (Robbins/Chopin). Nic very much enjoys performing as a member of the Ballet West Orchestra.
Nic is looking forward to playing Alice in Wonderland with Imagine Ballet Theater this Spring.
Special projects during the 2022-2023 season included performing the world premiere of Alfonso Tenreiro’s Piano Concerto 1 with Dr. Michael Palumbo and Chamber Orchestra Ogden, the world premiere of J. Taylor Arnold’s The Bitter Price with NEXTensemble, and expanding Nic’s original score for choreographer Jessica Baynes’ modern dance piece, Bloom, a Grantee of Salt Lake City’s Arts Council’s 2022 Artist Career Empowerment Grant.
You can hear Nic on Aubrey Adams-McMillan’s 2021 album, Beautiful Dreamer, and Ginger Bess’s 2014 album, Give Me the Simple Life, available on all streaming services.
