Beauty & the Beast

Choreographer Bruce Wells has created more than 50 ballets. His career as a dancer began under the direction of George Balanchine at New York City Ballet, where he danced as a soloist.

Mr. Wells’ choreographic career began in workshops that Mr. Balanchine coached in the early 1970s. From there, he was resident choreographer for Connecticut Ballet from 1975 to 1979, choreographing his first full-length production, Coppélia in 1976. From 1979 to 1989, he was resident choreographer for Boston Ballet under the direction of E. Virginia Williams and Bruce Marks. He created more than 20 works for the company, including The Nutcracker, La Fee Mal Gardée, Swan Lake, and a highly acclaimed A Midsummer Night’s Dream. From 1984 to 1989, Mr. Wells was also Associate Artistic Director of Boston Ballet. He next joined Patricia Wilde’s Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre for six seasons as resident choreographer, creating new productions of Romeo & Juliet, The Firebird, and The Great Gatsby, among others. Mr. Wells has also created works for the Australian Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Cincinnati Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Jacob’s Pillow, among others.

Mr. Wells was on the faculty of Pacific Northwest Ballet School for 18 years. His first children’s ballet for the School was Snow White in 2001, followed by Hansel & Gretel, and Pinocchio.

Léo Delibes (1836-1891) was born in St. Germain du Val. As a child, he learned music from his mother, a talented amateur musician, and his uncle. At the age of 12, he entered Paris Conservatoire and became a pupil of Adolphe Adam, the French composer famous for the ballet Giselle. Delibes became a church organist, but he was drawn to the theater, writing operettas in the style of Adam, who remained a lasting influence in his life.

Renowned as a composer for dance, Delibes had a gift for illustrating action, creating atmosphere, and inspiring movement. The decisive advance in his career came in 1870, with his full-length ballet Coppélia, which includes melodic national dances, descriptive passages introducing the main characters, and musical effects that have captured audiences for more than one hundred years. His other ballets include Sylvia (1876) and also La Source (1866), which he wrote with Ludwig Minkus.

Delibes also composed operas, the last to be completed being Lakmé (1883), which contains the famous coloratura showpiece, the Bell Song (“Où va la jeune Indoue”), and the Flower Duet. His operas impressed Tchaikovsky enough for the composer to rate Delibes more highly than Brahms.

Reed Nakayama is a Seattle-based Lighting and Projection Designer. He joined PNB in 2013 as a stagehand, and in 2019, was promoted to caretaker of the company’s copious designs. Here, he has illuminated stages in collaboration with artists such as Alexei Ratmansky (Wartime Elegy), Jessica Lang (Ghost Variations), Danielle Rowe (The Window), and Christopher Wheeldon (Curious Kingdom). He received a BFA in Performance Production from Cornish College of the Arts.