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Elie
Lazar - Artistic Director
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ELIE
LAZAR - ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Before moving to Montgomery to direct The Montgomery Ballet, Mr. Lazar founded
and directed the Joffrey Ensemble Dancers, the performance group associated
with the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City and founded LazarBalletNYC.
Born in Israel, Mr. Lazar began his ballet training at age 17, with the
Israel National Ballet Company. This led to appearances with the Israel
National opera, the Haifa Ballet and the Inbar Dance Company.
Dance fans are familiar with Mr. Lazar’s work as
a principal dancer with the New Jersey Ballet where, beginning in 1986,
he was known for athletic roles in ballets such as Balanchine’s
Tarantella and Stars and Stripes, both coached by Edward Villella.
He also danced the role of “Mercutio” in Romeo and Juliet
and the principal role in Le Corsaire.
In
addition to his acclaim as a dancer, Mr. Lazar is building a reputation
as a versatile and inventive choreographer. He received commissions to
create ballets for the New Jersey Ballet Company, the Ruth Mitchell Dance
Theatre, Atlanta’s Georgia Youth Ballet, and Japan’s Kumamoto
Ballet. He was awarded a grant from the New York State Council on the
Arts to create a new work for the Berkshire Albany Ballet.
Mr. Lazar
organized and trained students from the Joffrey Ballet School to form
his first company. Since its inception in 2000, he has expanded the company’s
repertoire and commitments. Performances include works that Mr. Lazar
choreographed specifically for the ensemble. Among them are “Surrender
@ Love”, “A Night in the Tropics”, “Concerto for
Dancers and String Orchestra” (known as “Ripples”),
“Come In”, “Dance with Me to the End of Love”
and “Masa”.
Also to
his credit, Mr. Lazar designed a program of lecture demonstrations to
educate school children about dance and the commitment required to pursue
the art as a career. He teaches master classes and develops intensive
dance programs that are presented as summer workshops or as part of week-long
residency seminars that include public performances, lecture demonstrations,
master classes and pas de deux classes, as well as general instruction.
His teaching commitments include classes at the Joffrey Ballet School,
Broadway Dance Center, Peridance NY, New Jersey Ballet, East Carolina
University, University of Kansas City, Tokyo Ballet, Kumamoto Ballet,
and SERBA. Mr. Lazar directs and supervises the Summer Intensive he founded.
He strives to dispel the idea held by viewers that their individual preferences
for one genre of ballet or another cannot be challenged. He contends that
those who love traditional story ballets can enjoy modern “abstract”
ballets (and visa versa) and endeavors to expand viewers horizons to enjoy
all types of dance. |
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PRISCILLA
CROMMELIN-BALL - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
A
native Montgomerian, began her professional career as a member of the prestigious
Harkness Ballet of New York, performing in the United States, Canada and
on five European tours. Ms. Crommelin-Ball continued her career as a soloist
with Ballet Felix Blaska in Grenoble, France and as a principal dancer with
the Maryland Ballet, Birmingham Ballet and Ballets Classique de Paris in
Paris, France. She has also served on the jury of several international
ballet competitions in France.
Since returning to Montgomery, Ms. Crommelin-Ball has
served as Ballet Mistress, School Director and Associate Artistic Director
of The Montgomery Ballet. She was named Artistic Director of The Montgomery
Ballet in 1996. Since then, she has implemented the International Summer
Seminar exchange program, involving ballet students from Paris and the
Montgomery Ballet School. She has also developed an extensive touring
program for The Montgomery ballet Company and Linking Education and Arts
Performances for schools across the state.
Due
to the success of the outreach ballet program initiated by Priscilla Crommelin-Ball
for at-risk students living in Title I housing, she was awarded the Legacy
Service Award, a celebration of women who serve the Alpha Kappa Alpha
Sorority, Inc. Beta Nu Omega Chapter. The outreach program is now in it’s
11th year and over 500 students have been given the opportunity to learn
the art of classical ballet, which has improved their learning skills,
taught them discipline, and given them self esteem and leadership abilities.
Priscilla implemented another ballet program for 4th, 5th & 6th grade
from the Chisholm Community, through a partnership with the Council on
Substance Abuse. This successful outreach is now in its 3rd year of serving
at-risk youth.
During Ms.
Crommelin-Ball’s tenure as Artistic Director, the following ballet’s
were produced through her collaboration with Oskar Antunez - Romeo
& Juliet, The Planets, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gatsby, Alice
in Wonderland, Paquita, Don Quixote, Esmeralda, Sleeping Beauty, Carmen,
Peter & the Wolf, Carnival of the Animals, Les Sylphides, Firebird
and The Nutcracker.
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