That one dance about that one thing #2

Olivier Wevers (he/him/his) is the Founder and Artistic Director of Whim W’Him, Seattle’s acclaimed contemporary dance company. A native of Belgium, Wevers trained in classical ballet before immigrating to North America at age 19, where he gained exposure to a wide range of dance forms, deepening and expanding his artistic perspective.

Wevers built his performing career as a principal dancer, beginning with Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet and spending most of it with Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. Those years onstage — interpreting classical and contemporary works by choreographers from around the world — solidified his belief that dancers are the heart and soul of any company, and that their dignity, creative growth, and psychological safety are as essential as technical excellence.

Alongside his performing career, Wevers developed a passion for choreography, drawn to how movement exploration and imaginative storytelling illuminate the human condition. He has created works for more than a dozen companies internationally, including the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Ballet X, Grand Rapids Ballet, and the New York Choreographic Institute, among many others.

In 2009, Wevers founded Whim W’Him as an artist-centered company where kindness, empathy, and collaboration are foundational values. The company is known for its annual Choreographic Shindig — in which dancers themselves select the choreographers — its commitment to new works, equitable pay, and its dedication to amplifying emerging voices in contemporary dance.

Wevers’s honors include the Princess Grace Choreographic Fellowship Award (2011), the City of Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award (2012), and recognition as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.”

Born in Baltimore, Philip Glass studied the violin and flute, and obtained early admission to the University of Chicago. After graduating in mathematics and philosophy, he went to New York’s Juilliard School, drove a cab and studied composition with Darius Milhaud and others.

At 23, he moved to Paris to study under the legendary Nadia Boulanger. While there, he discovered Indian classical music while transcribing the works of Ravi Shankar into Western musical notation. A creative turning point, Glass researched non-Western music in India and parts of Africa, and applied the techniques to his own composition.

Back in the United States, Glass spent the late 1960s and early 1970s creating a major collection of new music. In 1976 his landmark opera Einstein on the Beach was staged by Robert Wilson to a baffling variety of reviews. His compositions were so avant-garde that he had to form the Philip Glass Ensemble to give them a venue for performance. Although called a minimalist by the Western classical mainstream, he denies this categorization. His major works include opera, theater pieces, film soundtracks, dance and song. Glass remains one of the most important American composers. More recently, a major reexamination of Glass’s oeuvre has led him to be labeled “The Last Romantic” by the musical press.

Through his opera, symphonies, compositions for his own ensemble, and collaborations with artists, Glass has had an extraordinary impact on the musical and intellectual life of his times. In the past 25 years, Glass has composed more than 25 operas; twelve symphonies; three piano concertos; concertos for violin, piano, timpani, saxophone quartet, and orchestra; soundtracks for films; string quartets; and a growing body of work for solo piano and organ.

Randall G. Chiarelli (1949-2024) devoted his career to lighting for dance, much of it at Pacific Northwest Ballet, and also for American Ballet Theatre, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, among others. His many collaborators included choreographers Donald Byrd, Mark Dendy, Ronald Hynd, Kent Stowell, Susan Stroman, and Christopher Wheeldon. Chiarelli graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in painting and sculpture.