Ballet Uncovered ~ Balancing Pointe Podcast

Helen Pickett, born in San Diego, California, studied dance at The San Francisco Ballet School under the direction of Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin, and later, Helgi Tomasson. 

In 2005, Mikko Nissinen, director of the Boston Ballet, offered Helen her first choreographic commission,Etesian. The New York Choreographic Institute awarded her a Fellowship Initiative Grant in 2006. In the same year and through 2008, Helen choreographed for Boston Ballet, Washington Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Louisville Ballet and Ballet X. In 2007, Dance magazine named Helen one of "25 to Watch". She received a Choreographic Residency from Jacob's Pillow in 2008. From 2009 through 2011, Helen created new ballets for Royal Ballet of Flanders, Ballet West, Boston Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem. In 2012 and 2013, her commissions include Atlanta Ballet, Semper Oper/Dresden Ballet, Vienna State Opera, Scottish Ballet and Smuin Ballet. Helen was one of the first choreographers to receive the Jerome Robbins Foundation’s New Essential Works Grant.

For over a decade Helen performed with William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt. During her last season with Ballet Frankfurt, Helen simultaneously performed with The Wooster Group, director, Elizabeth Le Compte. She acted with the Group for five non-consecutive years in the OBIE award winning House/Lights,North Atlantic. In 2005, Helen returned to the role, as a guest artist with The Royal Ballet of Flanders, in William Forsythe Impressing the Czar. In 2009, Impressing the Czar received the Laurence Olivier Award and in 2012, the Prix de la Critique award for outstanding performance of the year.

Helen collaborates, as an actress and choreographer, with installation video artists and filmmakers including Eve Sussman, Toni Dove and Laurie Simmons. Helen, a founding member of Eve Sussman The Rufus Corporation, created the role of the Queen in 89 Seconds at Alcazar, which was shown at the 2004 Whitney Biennial, and now is in the permanent collection at Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2007, Helen acted in Sussman feature length film, The Rape of the Sabine Women. She played Sally Rand in Toni Dove's video installation and feature film, Spectropia.

Helen teaches Forsythe-based improvisation and her motivational creative workshop entitled The Expansive Artist throughout Europe and the United States. Dance Europe published Helen's article, Considering Cezanne,in 2006.

In 2011, Helen earned a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Hollins University.

Since the premiere of her first ballet in 2006, Emery LeCrone has choreographed more than fifty dance pieces and her highly acclaimed choreography has attracted numerous grants and new commissions across the country.

Ms. LeCrone has premiered new ballets for The Juilliard School’s annual New Dances program, the New York City Ballet’s renowned New York Choreographic Institute, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim’s iconic Works & Process performing arts series.  She has also worked with many esteemed regional dance companies including Oregon Ballet Theatre, Colorado Ballet, Minnesota Dance Theatre, and North Carolina Dance Theatre among many others.

In addition to participating in several prestigious choreography competitions, Ms. LeCrone has previously served as resident choreographer for Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet. She is also a founding member and former resident choreographer of Columbia University’s Columbia Ballet Collaborative. Ms. LeCrone has worked at renowned university dance departments including University of North Carolina School of The Arts, Hartt University, Barnard University, and Goucher College. Currently Ms. LeCrone resides in New York and continues to teach, choreograph, and perform.

Since the premiere of her first ballet in 2006, Emery LeCrone has choreographed more than fifty dance pieces and her highly acclaimed choreography has attracted numerous grants and new commissions across the country.

Ms. LeCrone has premiered new ballets for The Juilliard School’s annual New Dances program, the New York City Ballet’s renowned New York Choreographic Institute, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim’s iconic Works & Process performing arts series. She has also worked with many esteemed regional dance companies including Oregon Ballet Theatre, Colorado Ballet, Minnesota Dance Theatre, and North Carolina Dance Theatre among many others.

In addition to participating in several prestigious choreography competitions, Ms. LeCrone has previously served as resident choreographer for Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet. She is also a founding member and former resident choreographer of Columbia University’s Columbia Ballet Collaborative. Ms. LeCrone has worked at renowned university dance departments including University of North Carolina School of The Arts, Hartt University, Barnard University, and Goucher College. Currently Ms. LeCrone resides in New York and continues to teach, choreograph, and perform.

Founded in 2011, Jessica Lang Dance (JLD) is a New York City-based dance company dedicated to creating and performing the work of Jessica Lang. JLD enriches and inspires global audiences by immersing them in the beauty of movement and music. Hailed as "a master of visual composition" by Dance Magazine, Lang seamlessly incorporates striking design elements and transforms classical ballet language into artfully crafted, emotionally engaging contemporary works.

Since the company's inception, marked by Lang's receipt of a Joyce Theater Artist Residency supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, JLD has garnered significant attention and acclaim, thrilling audiences at major venues throughout the country including two consecutive seasons at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival where JLD made its full company debut in 2012, The Joyce Theater, New York City Center and most recently at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas where the company's performance was chosen as the best dance event of 2013.

In February 2014, JLD will perform a week-long engagement at the Joyce Theater, followed by tours to Park City, Cleveland, Guatemala and Beverly Hills where the company will close the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts' inaugural season. In May 2014, JLD will make its Washington, D.C. debut with the premiere of a new work commissioned by the Kennedy Center, choreographed by Lang and accompanied live by the National Symphony Orchestra as part of NEW MOVES: Symphony + Dance festival.

Jessica Lang has attained rare levels of success as a female choreographer continuously working with ballet companies across the U.S. and abroad since 1999. She is noted for her artfully crafted, emotionally engaging work and has been described as having "established a reputation for concocting ingenious choreographic interactions between dancing bodies and the movements of striking set and costume pieces." Kansas City Star. Lang has created more than 80 works on companies.

Lang has received numerous grants for her work on ballet companies from organizations including the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the NEA, and the Choo San Goh Foundation. Her receipt of a 2010 Joyce Theater Artist Residency, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, helped launch her own company, Jessica Lang Dance (JLD). Since its inception in 2011, JLD has garnered significant attention and acclaim, thrilling audiences at prestigious venues and festivals throughout the country,

Lang, a graduate of The Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, is a former member of Twyla Tharp's company, THARP!

Amy Brandt was born in Libertyville, Illinois, where she received her initial dance training at Dancenter North, the Ruth Page Foundation and the Milwaukee Ballet School. She later joined the Milwaukee Ballet, where she danced featured roles in works by Antony Tudor, George Balanchine, Simon Dow, Jean Paul Comelin and Alonzo King,among others. She joined The Suzanne Farrell Ballet in 2003, where her repertoire included featured roles in Balanchine Agon, Pas de Dix, Diamonds, La Valse,Divertimento No. 15. In 2005, she performed in honor of Ms. Farrell at the nationally televised Kennedy Center Honors. Ms. Brandt has also freelanced extensively in New York City, dancing leading roles with Dances Patrelle, Ad Hoc Ballet, New Chamber Ballet, and Ballet NY. She is a contributing writer and advice columnist for Pointe magazine, and has also written for Dance, Dance Spirit, and Dance Retailer News. She is now associate editor for Dance Teacher magazine.

Brooke Lockett began dancing at the age of three in her home town of Ballarat, studying classical ballet with Trudy and Lisa Harris. At the age of 13 she was accepted into The Australian Ballet School Junior Program; in 2002 she was accepted into the School's full-time program and moved to Melbourne to pursue her training. In 2004 and 2005, Brooke participated in The Dancers Company tour around regional Australia before joining The Australian Ballet in 2006. Since then she has had many on-stage highlights and has enjoyed many international tours with the company, including those to the UK, Auckland, Shanghai, Tokyo, Paris and New York. In 2008 she was awarded the Khirtercs scholarship, which enabled her to experience the world of ballet on an international scale and develop herself as an artist. In 2012 Brooke was promoted to coryphée.

Today's guest is Sarah Steele, a 19 year old member of the Tulsa Ballet Company who was born in New York and began her ballet training at Nunnbetter Dance Theater in Bergenfield NJ under the direction of Leath Nunn. At 16 Sarah began professional level training and coaching with Valentina Kozlova at Valentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory of New York (VKDCNY). While attending VKDCNY, Sarah also completed High School at Professional Children's School in NYC. She is the recipient of a gold medal from the Tanzolmp International Ballet Competition in Berlin, Germany and a silver medal from the Boston International Ballet Competition in Boston, Massachusetts. In today's interview Sarah provides inside information not only on audition tips and advice, but also the benefits of participating in ballet competitions. And finally, Sarah will share a bit about her new life as a professional ballerina.

In Part Two of the interview, Melanie Atkins Varga talks about auditions.  As a frequent Summer Intensive Adjudicator, she provides us with a "behind the scenes" look into what the adjudicators look for in the auditioning dancers.  Melanie provides insight and advice on how to prepare and approach auditions and also shares with us the best outlook on auditions in general.  Her sage advice and inside look into auditions is a valuable tool for dancers and their parents at any stage of their dance career.

Melanie Atkins Varga is a full time faculty member at the Boston Ballet School as well as the company's Childrens Ballet Mistress. Melanie's teaches dancers from the pre-professional division all the way through to the trainees.  Melanie trained at Walnut Hill School of the Arts after her family moved from England to Massachusetts. After graduating high school Melanie trained at the School of American Ballet in New York City before being chosen by Suzanne Farrell and Paul Mejia to join Mejia's company in Fort Worth Texas. After a few years of training and performing under this acclaimed master teacher, Melanie joined the Miami City Ballet where she quickly moved through the ranks to Principal. After many successful years with Miami City Ballet, Melanie moved to Alberta Canada to join Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen Within a few days of moving to Canada, Melanie learned that Mikko Nissinen was moving to Boston Ballet as their new Artistic Director. Mr. Nissinen asked Melanie to join him in Boston. While in Alberta Melanie met her husband Sabi Varga who was a soloist with the company. Fortunately for both of them, Mikko asked Sabi to join him in his move to Boston as well. After their move, Melanie enjoyed a successful ten years with Boston Ballet. After the birth of Sabi and Melanie's daughter, Melanie chose to retire from the rigors of being a company member and joined Boston Ballet as a full time Ballet Mistress for the Pre-Professional and Trainee program.