A Midsummer Night's Dream Main Page A Midsummer Night's Dream April 3—13, 2008 About the Artists Francia Russell Founding Artistic Director Director and Stager, A Midsummer Night's Dream Francia Russell served Pacific Northwest Ballet as Artistic Director and Director of the School from 1977 until her retirement in June, 2005. She is responsible for the addition to the Company's repertory of many works of George Balanchine. Born in Los Angeles, Ms. Russell grew up in San Francisco, London, Nice and New York. Her teachers included Felia Doubrovska, Antonina Tumkovsky, Vera Volkova, Robert Joffrey and George Balanchine. In 1956, Ms. Russell joined New York City Ballet, where she was promoted to soloist in 1959 and appointed Ballet Mistress in 1964. She was also a member of the faculty of the School of American Ballet and performed with Jerome Robbins' Ballets U.S.A. From 1975 to 1977, Ms. Russell and Kent Stowell were Co-Artistic Directors of Frankfurt Ballet. Ms. Russell was one of the first ballet masters chosen by George Balanchine to stage his works and has staged over one hundred productions of Balanchine ballets throughout North America and Europe. In 1987, she staged the first Balanchine ballet in the People's Republic of China for the Shanghai Ballet. During the 1988–89 season, she staged the historic first authorized performance of Balanchine's work in his homeland for the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg. Ms. Russell's numerous awards include the Washington State Governor's Arts Award, the Dance Magazine Award, an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Seattle University and the Brava Award from Women's University Club of Seattle. In 2004, Ms. Russell received the ArtsFund Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award, the Seattle Mayor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and was recognized by the King County Council for her achievements in the arts. George Balanchine Choreographer, A Midsummer Night's Dream Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchine (1904–1983) is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet. He came to the United States in late 1933, at the age of 29, accepting the invitation of the young American arts patron Lincoln Kirstein (1907–96), whose great passions included the dream of creating a ballet company in America. At Balanchine's behest, Kirstein was also prepared to support the formation of an American academy of ballet that would eventually rival the long-established schools of Europe. This was the School of American Ballet, founded in 1934, the first product of the Balanchine-Kirstein collaboration. Several ballet companies directed by the two were created and dissolved in the years that followed, while Balanchine found other outlets for his choreography. Eventually, with a performance on October 11, 1948, the New York City Ballet was born. Balanchine served as its ballet master and principal choreographer from 1948 until his death in 1983. Balanchine's more than 400 dance works include Serenade (1934), Concerto Barocco (1941), Le Palais de Cristal, later renamed Symphony in C (1947), Orpheus (1948), The Nutcracker (1954), Agon (1957), Symphony in Three Movements (1972), Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1972), Vienna Waltzes (1977), Ballo della Regina (1978) and Mozartiana (1981). His final ballet, a new version of Stravinsky's Variations for Orchestra, was created in 1982. He also choreographed for films, operas, revues, and musicals. Among his best-known dances for the stage is Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, originally created for Broadway's On Your Toes (1936). The musical was later made into a movie. A major artistic figure of the twentieth century, Balanchine revolutionized the look of classical ballet. Taking classicism as his base, he heightened, quickened, expanded, streamlined, and even inverted the fundamentals of the 400-year-old language of academic dance. This had an inestimable influence on the growth of dance in America. Although at first his style seemed particularly suited to the energy and speed of American dancers, especially those he trained, his ballets are now performed by all the major classical ballet companies throughout the world. Copyright © 2002 The George Balanchine Foundation. Reprinted by permission. Martin Pakledinaz Scenic and Costume Design, A Midsummer Night's Dream Martin Pakledinaz's costumes have been seen both on and off Broadway, in opera houses in Seattle, Santa Fe, Dallas, Brussels, Toronto, Tokyo, as well as at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His New York credits include The Life (Tony and Drama Desk nominations); David Henry Hwang's Golden Child (Tony nomination); The Diary of Anne Frank, directed by James Lapine; Anna Christie, directed by David Leveaux; Kevin Kline's Hamlet (Public Theatre/WNET Great Performances); Francesca Zambello's production of Lucia di Lammermoor for the Metropolitan Opera and Xerxes at the New York City Opera, directed by Stephen Wadsworth. Since 1994, when Mr. Pakledinaz designed the costumes for Kent Stowell's Cinderella, he has established an excellent creative relationship with Pacific Northwest Ballet. In 1995, he designed new costumes for Stowell's Zirkus Weill. Then, in 1997, he designed the costumes and created his first set ever for Francia Russell's acclaimed staging of Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which PNB performed not only in Seattle in 1997 but at the 1998 Edinburgh International Festival and at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. Mr. Pakledinaz's other dance credits include the costumes for The Hard Nut, Orfeo et Euridice, Medium, Rhymes with Silver and A Lake, all for the Mark Morris Dance Group; Tuning Game and Silver Ladders for Helgi Tomasson/San Francisco Ballet; and works for Lila York and Eliot Feld.