CBC News at Six Manitoba, aired Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Peter Quanz knew he wanted to be a choreographer at age nine. In his first year at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School he was given the opportunity to choreograph for dancers from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company. By clearly defining his need to choreograph at a young age, Peter chose to pursue his creative development and education rather than follow a dancer's traditional career. He performed with the Stuttgart Ballet, but decided in 2002 to become a free-lance choreographer. Peter has choreographed ballets for some of the world's leading ballet companies including the Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre, American Ballet Theatre, the Royal Ballet (Linbury Theatre), Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada. He has also choreographed for dancers from the Martha Graham Dance Company.
Maestro Valery Gergiev, Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, invited Peter to create Aria Suspended for the Stars of the White Nights Festival in 2007. Set to Igor Stravinsky's Symphony in C, Peter's ballet features 32 dancers and marked the first time a Canadian has choreographed for the legendary company. The ballet was enthusiastically received by audience and press.
In May 2008 Peter staged his ballet, Kaleidoscope, for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. Originally created for American Ballet Theatre and listed as "one of ballet's glories" by Newsday in the Best of New York Dance 2005, Peter has since fine tuned the choreography and commissioned a new stage design so that the ballet earned standing ovations at every Montreal performance.
While Peter enjoys making large, classically based works, he has also created narrative works such as his Charlies Kreuzfahrt (Charlie's Cruise) for Ballett Chemnitz in Germany. Set in the 1920s and peopled with personalities from Hollywood's elite, Charlie's Cruise explored an unsolved scandal involving Charlie Chaplin. Tadeusz Biernacki made an orchestral arrangement of 23 Cole Porter songs for this two act ballet. The Dancing Times wrote that "Quanz tells the story clearly and economically, and deploys his large cast with confidence, drawing from them naturalistic acting that gives credence to the characters".
Peter is a recipient of the Clifford E. Lee Award, Canada's national award for young choreographers. He has also been supported by grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Chalmers Foundation and the Judy and Henny Jurriens Choreographic Fellowship.
TODAY IN REHEARSAL
Friday, September 4, 2009
Great day today! Great beginning to a long weekend! We had our first costume rehearsal and I am THRILLED with the costumes that Anne has designed. They are perfect for this ballet and unlike anything that I have had before on other ballets. I will soon post photos.
The dancers decided to do a run through in their lunch break rather than wait to the last block of the day. They had just run an evening length ballet and yet they pushed hard. I have tremendous respect for these dancers! Later in the afternoon we went through corrections and quietly fixed musical misunderstandings and enriched sections. We are looking forward to NYC!
Monday will be our test in the theatre. I cannot wait, but also am looking forward to a calm weekend before the real hysteria begins.
