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Ballet dancers from around the world will ascend on Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, December 29 and 30, for Holiday Season with Ballet Stars. The evening is presented by Ballet Support Foundation (BSF), a non-profit based in NY, founded by producer Lola Abigail Koch (former ballerina), as part of their mission to support dancers and dance projects internationally. Koch said, “Ballet is an international language of love, peace, and friendship; this program, with dancers from around the world, is a testament to that.” The evening will begin with an award ceremony where the dancers will each be honored for their contributions in dance.
“Ballet is an an art that has the power to take us for a few hours into another reality”, said Argentinian Ludmila Pagliero as she prepares to perform, with her Paris Opera Ballet dancer partner Mathieu Ganio, Manon by Kenneth MacMillan and Le Parc by Angelin Preljocaj.
Prima Ballerina Natalia Osipova, a principal celebrating her 10th year at The Royal Ballet (born in Russia, she is a British citizen), will perform a world premiere choreographed by her husband and co-founder of Bloom Dance Project, Jason Kittelberger. Together they will also perform Ashes. “Human life is the most valuable, each person is the whole world”, Osipova told The Mirror (UK).
Ukrainian born Christine Shevchenko, a principal with American Ballet Theatre, will dance White Swan and Summer Pas by Alexei Ratmansky with her fellow ABT principal Aran Bell. Through social media Shevchenko has shared, “Human suffering, the violence of war, it’s all too painful to deal with… Let’s spread some love and peace through art”.New York City Ballet’s Mira Nadon and Peter Walker will perform George Balanchine’s festive holiday Nutcracker and Rodeo by Justin Peck.
Israel’s Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company presents Until We Find Our Place and Upon Arrival by artistic director Rami Be’er, starring Orin Zvulun and Francesco Cuoccio. The company wrote that “the quest for a place that is identified as home is part of the human existential experience.”
Xin Ying and Lloyd Knight from Martha Graham Contemporary Dance Company will dance Conversation of Lovers. They will also dance solos; Ying will perform, Rebirth, and Knight will perform Lucifer, originally created by Matha Graham for Rudolf Nureyev.
Joffrey Ballet School NYC scholarship students, 14-year-old Breeanna Palmer, and Alexander Marmolejos will dance the duet Reflections by Andrey Jouravlev.
Tickets range from $43 to $224 and can be purchased by visiting www.arshtcenter.org
About Ballet Support Foundation
Founded by former ballerina Lola Abigail Koch, Ballet Support Foundation (BSF) is a non-profit created to support talented ballet students, professional dancers, and dance projects internationally. Since 2020, BSF has been promoting and developing dance careers, connecting dancers with teachers, choreographers, schools, and companies as well as providing masterclasses, workshops, and intensive training.
About The Dancers
Aran Bell
Aran Bell was born in Bethesda, Maryland. He began studying ballet at age four, receiving the majority of his early training at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and with Denys Ganio in Rome, Italy. He continued his training with Fabrice Herrault in New York City and Magaly Suarez in Florida. He spent several summers at The Royal Ballet School in London, and at American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive in New York City.
Bell’s awards include the Hope Award at the Youth America Grand Prix Finals in New York City in 2009 and 2010, followed by the Junior Grand Prix in 2011, Grand Prix at the Milan International Ballet Competition (2010), the Premio Positano (2011), the Premio Amalfi Young Talent Award (2012), Gold Medal at Tanzolymp Berlin (2012), Gold Medal and Audience Choice Award at Rieti International Ballet Competition (2012), the Premio Roma Jia Ruskaja (2012), and the Premio Capri Danza International Award (2014). He has performed in galas throughout Europe and the United States. Bell was featured in the 2011 film First Position: A Ballet Documentary.
Rami Be’er
Born in 1957 to a family of Holocaust survivors, Rami Be’er, is the Artistic Director of Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. His parents immigrated to Israel in 1948 with the group that founded Kibbutz Ga’aton. Be’er grew up in a home filled with culture, literature, architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry and music. Be’er was educated in the collective system of Kibbutz Ga’aton. In his youth he studied dance at the Ga’aton dance studio, played the cello, and was a youth leader in Hashomer Hatsa’ir. Be’er joined the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in 1980 as a dancer and, shortly after, a choreographer. In 1987 he was appointed the House Choreographer and Assistant Artistic Director of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company.
Be’er’s achievements include the Rosenblum Prize for the Performing Arts (2005 and 2022). He also won a Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Sports (2022). Amongst the companies for which Be’er has created original works are Gratz Opera Ballet (Austria), Batsheva Dance Company (Israel), Hungarian National Ballet, New Danish Dance Theatre (Denmark), Staatsballett Berlin (Germany), Croatian National Ballet Theatre, Reykjavik National Ballet (Iceland), Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg (Germany), Ballett Basel (Switzerland), Poznan Opera House Ballet (Poland), National Theatre Ballet Brno (Czech Republic) and more.
Francesco Cuoccio
Born in 2000, Francesco attended his dance studies in School of Balletto di Toscana, directed by Cristina Bozzolini and DAW professional coaching project by Eugenio Buratti.
During his studies, he participated in many dance competitions, such as the first and critic prizes at the International Dance Prize in Rieti, 2016. In 2018, he got a three year contract with Delattre Dance Company where he works with Stephen Delattre, Jorg Mnnes, Felipe Portugal, and many others
Mathieu Ganio
Mathieu Ganio was born in Marseille, France, the son of Ballet National de Marseille principal dancers Dominique Khalfouni and Denys Ganio. He began dance lessons at the age of seven and studied at the École Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille from 1992 to 1999, before completing his training at the Paris Opera Ballet School. In 2001 he joined the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera Ballet and won promotion to the rank of coryphée in 2022 and sujet in 2003. On the 20th of May in 2004, following a performance of Don Quixote, he was appointed étoile, bypassing the rank of premier danseur. In 2005 he was awarded the Benois de la Danse as outstanding male dancer.
Jason Kittleberger
Jason Kittelberger hails from Rochester, New York, where he began training and performing at Performance Plus, Draper School of Dance and School of the Arts, studying dance, acting, musical theater and production design, and where he had plentiful opportunities to perform, choreograph and create. He continued his dance education at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where as a ballet major he was able to focus on technique and perform works by Twyla Tharp, George Balanchine, Carlos Orta, Lynne Taylor Corbett and Duncan Noble.
Kittelberger has performed with the Rochester City Ballet under Timothy Daper, Carolina Ballet under Robert Weiss and Hubbard Street II under Julie Nakagawa, where he appeared in works by Robert Battle, Aszure Barton and Kevin O’Day. With Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, under the direction of Benoit-Swan Pouffer, he was able to work with Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter, Didy Veldman, Jo Stromgren, Jacopo Godani, Jill Johnson, Emanuel Gat and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
His interest in commercial work has lead Kittelberger to training actors such as Emily Blunt and Benedict Cumberbatch. He appeared in films like The Adjustment Bureau, MA, Afloat (in 10 Crosby), Looking Glass and Samsung advertising spots. Recent projects include working with photographer and director Anton Corbijn on a music video for Depeche Mode’s In Your Room and contributing to Jagged Little Pill at A.R.T. as associate choreographer.
Lloyd Knight
Lloyd Knight joined the Company in 2005 and performs the major male roles of the Graham repertory including in Appalachian Spring, Embattled Garden, Night Journey and many others. Dance Magazine named him one of the “Top 25 Dancers to Watch” in 2010 and one of the best performers of 2015. Mr. Knight has starred with ballet greats Wendy Whelan and Misty Copeland in signature Graham duets and has had roles created for him by such renowned artists as Nacho Duato and Pam Tanowitz. He is currently a principal guest artist for The Royal Ballet of Flanders directed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Born in England and raised in Miami, he trained at Miami Conservatory of Ballet and New World School of the Arts.
Mira Nadon
Mira Nadon was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and began her ballet training at the age of six at the Inland Pacific Ballet Academy in Montclair, California under the direction of Victoria Koenig and Jill Voznick. She attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of NYCB, in 2014 and 2015, before entering SAB full-time for the 2015 winter term. In November 2017, Ms. Nadon became an apprentice with NYCB and as an apprentice she originated a corps role in Gianna Reisen’s Judah. She joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in November 2018. Ms. Nadon was promoted to the rank of soloist dancer in January 2022, and to principal in February 2023.
Natalia Osipova
Osipova was born in Moscow and began dancing at the age of five. Aged eight she joined the Mikhail Lavrosky Ballet School. From 1995 to 2004 she trained at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography and on graduating entered the corps of the Bolshoi Ballet, where she was promoted to principal in 2010. Her repertory there included Kitri (Don Quixote), Giselle, Nikiya and Gamzatti (La Bayadère), La Sylphide, Esmerelda, Princess Aurora and Swanilda (Coppélia). In 2011 she left the Bolshoi to join the Mikhailovsky Ballet as a principal.
Osipova has appeared as a guest artist with companies around the world. In March 2012 she became a principal of American Ballet Theatre, where she created the title role in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Firebird. Her awards include Golden Masks for her performances in In the Upper Room (2008) and La Sylphide (2009), Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards (Best Female Dancer, 2007, 2010 and 2014, Outstanding Female Classical Performance, 2022), Positano Dance Awards (Best Female Dancer, 2008 and 2011) and a Benois de la Danse Award (Best Female Dancer, 2008)
Ludmila Pagliero
In March 2012, Ludmila Pagliero was made an Étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet following a performance of La Bayadère (Nureyev), in which she performed the role of Gamzatti. Since then, she has added to her repertoire the ballets of Balanchine, the title role in Giselle (after Coralli and Perrot), Tatiana in Onegin (Cranko), the title role in La Sylphide (Lacotte after Taglioni), Manon in L’Histoire de Manon (MacMillan), Kitri in Don Quixote, Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, the title role in Cinderella (Nureyev), Répliques (Paul), the title role in Carmen, Esmeralda in Notre-Dame de Paris (Petit), Other Dances and Glass Pieces (Robbins), Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (Waltz), and The Dying Swan (Fokine).
Christine Shevchenko
In 2006, Shevchenko joined the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, where she danced in several classical and contemporary pieces. The following year, she joined the main company as an apprentice and became a full time member of the corps de ballet in 2008.
She became a soloist in 2014. In the 2017 Metropolitan Opera House season, Shevchenko debuted as Kitri in Don Quixote, which was her first leading role. The following week, she filled in for an injured dancer as Medora in Le Corsaire, after learning the role during the weekend. She ended the season with her debut in Balanchine’s Mozartiana, and was promoted to Principal Dancer later that year. She has since danced other principal roles such as Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, Myrtha in Giselle and Mademoiselle Marianne Chartreuse in Whipped Cream. Shevchenko was coached by Irina Kolpakova at ABT, and had traveled to St. Petersburg to work with Margarita Kullik of Mariinsky Ballet.
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is from Fort Myers, Florida, where he began his early dance training at age eight with teacher Judy Murray in tap dance and the next year at the Gulfshore Ballet with Melinda Roy. Mr. Walker began studying at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of the New York City Ballet, during the 2006 and 2007 summer courses and enrolled as a full-time student in the winter of 2007.
In the spring of 2011, Mr. Walker became an apprentice with NYCB and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in Fall 2012. In October 2018, Walker was promoted to soloist at the NYCB, and in February 2022 he was promoted to principal dancer. Mr. Walker’s first work for the Company, ten in seven, premiered at NYCB’s Fall 2016 Gala. His second work, dance odyssey, premiered in Winter 2018.
Xin Ying
XIN YING joined the Company in 2011 and performs lead roles in Cave of the Heart, Chronicle, Diversion of Angels, Clytemnestra, Woodland and I used to love you, among others. In 2008 she received the China Dance Lotus Award. She was the director of the Dance Department at Sichuan College of Arts & Culture and a guest teacher at the Graham School, the Beijing Dance Academy and Nanjing University of Arts. She was awarded a full scholarship to the Graham School, and was a member of Graham 2.
Orin Zvulun
Born in Israel in 2001, Orin Zvulun Graduated with honors from the dance program at Tel Aviv’s Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts. In 2015, she participated in the summer course of the Academy of Ballet with a full scholarship. Later, she became a part of the Batsheva Dance Company’s Program for Outstanding Dance Students in 2017-2018. Orin received a scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation in 2019 and won first place in the Mia Arbatova Ballet Competition in the same year. She joined the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company’s second company KCDC 2 in September 2019 as an apprentice and its main company in September 2021.
