In the continuation of our highly-popular New Works series, three renowned choreographers have been commissioned to conceptualize new works for the stage.
This program features world premieres from recipient of the Danza Award for Best Choreography Andonis Foniadakis, Hope Boykin acclaimed Bessie Award Winner and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater member, and our own Resident Choreographer Juliano Nunes.
Learn more about choreography and the process of creating a new work at the Choreography Panel on Saturday, February 4 from 4-5pm. This intimate discussion will feature New Works: Forward Motion choreographers Hope Boykin and Andonis Foniadakis, along with Philadelphia Ballet Artistic Director Angel Corella and moderator Dr. Miriam Giguere.
Note: pieces are listed alphabetically by choreographer, program order is subject to change!
ENdure (Boykin) – 0:21
Intermission – 0:15
CIRCUMSTELLARS (Foniadakis) – 0:22
Intermission – 0:15
PS (Nunes) – 0:25
Performances By Date
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A laboratory.
The classical ballet that jostles us all to the ecstasy of physical and imaginative ability.
A one-way ticket into confused bliss followed by the epilogue.
PS postscript.
— Juliano Nunes
Often, we find ourselves pushed to our limits. Physically and emotionally the stress and strains do not stop, but we press on. Forced to fall in line, keep up with standards, suffering patiently, waiting, and anticipating for a future we can see but cannot touch—we endure. We endure because we must. We endure because we are called to something; our gifts, our talents, our dreams and goals rule our hearts. We endure through the loneliness, the trials, and heaviness because our path is clear, nothing else will do. Our steps are ordered in such a way that no matter the stumbling block, we will ENdure.
— Hope Boykin
Human relationships are always at the center of my work. We create actions that determine our energy and emotions through accidental or predetermined contacts. A landscape then is formed that becomes, for the specified moment, a familiar place, a shared experience, and results in a standard memory and imprint.
Inspired by the idea that materials within each Circumstellar can potentially create new stars, I dived into a creation process letting myself into the vortex of the specific moment. I interacted with the company’s dancers using their technical abilities while, at the same time, I searched to provoke new reactions and sensations around it.
Under the thrilling composition of Julien Tarride, I created a circular and inexhaustible energetic choreography in need of forming a unique world that captures my union with the energy and artistry of Philadelphia Ballet.
— Andonis Foniadakis
Juliano Nunes, born in 1990, trained at the Brazilian Dance Conservatory in Rio de Janeiro before furthering his studies at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts and completing an apprenticeship with the Karlsruhe Ballet. His professional career began the following year, when he was hired by the company. His need for discovery took him to the Ballet Hagen in Germany, and he went on to join Gauthier Dance, also in Germany, for two years.
After a season at the Leipzig Opera Ballet, Nunes joined the Royal Ballet Flanders, under the direction of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. He has worked with, among others: Akram Kahn, Ohad Naharin, Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe, Jonah Bokaer, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Hans van Manen, and Yury Grigorovich, always fueling his curiosity while at the same time acquiring experience and a versatility that make him unique among contemporary dancers.
Nunes has also been successful as a choreographer. In 2017 he created Back Forward Back for Ballet Flanders, which he presented the same year at the 31st International Competition for Choreographers Hanover. Nunes has gone on to receive critical acclaim for his own choreography and has created pieces for the Royal Ballet in London, Nederlands Dans Theatre 2, Acosta Danza, Philadelphia Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Mariinsky Theatre, Ballet Zürich Opera House, Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Staatstheater Hannover, Origen Festival Cultural, and Teatro San Carlo. Nunes has also contributed choreography for the hit Netflix series Tiny Pretty Things.
Hope Boykin is a choreographer, educator and former member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Performing professionally for over two decades, she has traveled the world and learned many lessons, which she never hesitates to use as food and fuel for her performances. As a result, Boykin has garnered many awards and honors, including a much-acclaimed New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie).
Born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, Boykin is a three-time recipient of the American Dance Festival’s Young Tuition Scholarship. She attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. before moving to New York City to study at The Ailey School. Boykin worked as assistant to choreographers Milton Myers and the late Talley Beatty and was an original member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. She danced for many years with Philadanco, The Philadelphia Dance Company.
Boykin joined The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2000, where she performed her duties as a dancer as well as her work as an educator, mentor, speaker and choreographer until 2020. She has choreographed three works for the Company: Acceptance In Surrender (2005), in collaboration with fellow Ailey company members Abdur-Rahim Jackson and Matthew Rushing; Go in Grace (2008), for the Company’s 50th anniversary season with music by the award-winning singing group Sweet Honey in the Rock; and r-Evolution, Dream. (2016), inspired by the speeches and sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with original music by Ali Jackson. Recently, Boykin was selected as a 2019-2020 Urban Bush Women Choreographic Fellow and is also working in theater where she has choreographed for the Atlantic Theater’s Homecoming Queen, Public Theater’s Public Studio The Loophole and New York City Center’s Encores Off-Center Promenade.
Boykin strives to bring young, aspiring students to a healthy understanding and efficient methods of technical and artistic movement. As she shares her knowledge and expertise of the Horton Technique, classical and other modern, jazz and contemporary dance styles, she insists on an honest and positively driven atmosphere which allows her classes, coaching and studio time to be effective, exciting and memorable.
Boykin combines life’s greatest influences and personal experiences to construct, design, inform and display her ideas, all while continuing to build her vocabulary of movement – defining her voice and style. Many have been a vehicle to help her create and share new works, collaborate with composers, and hone her ‘Movement-Language’ as a dance-maker and choreographer. Working with Philadanco, University of The Arts, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Minnesota Dance Theater, Ballet East, The Ailey School, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the company in her name, HopeBoykinDance, continues to bring confirmation that her voice is relevant and remains important within the dance world today.
In 2019, Boykin joined the faculty of the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance as an Artist in Residence for the 2019-2020 academic year. Find Boykin on Twitter and Instagram at hbdance and Facebook as HopeBoykinDance.
Greek choreographer Andonis Foniadakis is director of Andonis Foniadakis/Apotosoma Dance Company and has collaborated with many ballet companies worldwide as both dancer and choreographer. Work seen in the Linbury Studio Theatre includes Shaker Loops, performed by Ballet de Lorraine, and Selon Désir, performed by Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Foniadakis was born and grew up in Ierapetra, Crete. He studied at the National School of Dance in Athens and won a Maria Callas Scholarship to study at the Rudra Béjart School, Lausanne. He graduated in 1994 and went on to dance in many pieces by Béjart, and also choreographed several works for Béjart Ballet. He subsequently danced for the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, directed by Yorgos Loukos, and Saburo Teshigawara’s KARAS Company. As a member of Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon he danced in works by Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Bill T. Jones, Jiří Kylián, Maguy Marin and Ohad Naharin.
Foniadakis founded his Lyon-based dance company Apotosoma in 2003. His works for the company include Priority (Athens Festival). He has also choreographed for companies including Aterballetto, Tanz Luzerner Theater, Sydney Dance Company, CCN Ballet de Lorraine, Martha Graham Dance Company, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Geneva Ballet, Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Bern Ballet, Ballet du Rhin, Benjamin Millepied’s dance company, Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon and the National Dance Company of Wales. He was movement coordinator with Darren Aronofsky for the film Noah. His awards include the Danza e Danza Award for Best Choreography in 2012.
Arthur M. Kaplan and R. Duane Perry
Neal W. Krouse
Philadelphia Ballet Resident Choreographer Juliano Nunes is generously supported by Angel’s Angels – Madeleine Plonsker, Myriam Castillo, and Jennifer Malherbe