Irina
Zavialova
Irina Zavialova, received her ballet education at the Vaganova Ballet Academy, St. Petersburg from 1977 to 1985, under legendary teachers such as Natalia Dudinskaja, Konstantine Sergeev and Adol Hamzin.
From 1985 to 1991 she was a soloist and then principal in the Maly Theater, St Petersburg, and from 1991 to 1995 she was a principal in the Kirov Ballet (Mariinsky Theater), St Petersburg. She then danced as a principal in Staatsoper Ballet Bonn (1995-1997), in Royal Ballet of Flanders (1997-2001) and with Peter Shaufuss Ballet (2001-2004). Irina Zavialova has been a guest dancer with Tokyo Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Essen Ballet, Stuttgart Ballett, English National Balle. In her repertoire she danced Don-Quixot, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Coppelia, Le Corsaire, Les Sylphides, La Sylphide, Theme and Variations, Apollo, Serenade, La Fille Mal Gardèe, La Bayadére, Paquita, Nutcracker, Harlequinade, Legend of Love, Cinderella and others. She has worked with choreographers like Oleg Vinogradov, Yuri Grigorovich, Konstantin Sergeev, Jean Christoph Mallot, Christopher D’Amboise and Mauricio Wainrot.
Irina Zavialova is a teacher of classical ballet and repertoire. From 2004 she was teaching in the National Conservatory of Dance in Lisbon, Portugal, where she was also coordinator of the Dance Department from 2009 to 2013. As an associate professor at the Academy of Dance, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, she will work with the students in the bachelor programme in classical ballet.
Rafi
Sady
Rafi Sadi was trained at The Bat-Dor Beer-Sheva/Tel-Aviv school of Dance, Israel.
He was a member of the Cullberg Ballet for 14 years where he danced many lead roles, including Carabosse in Mats Ek's "Sleeping Beauty", Don José in Mats Ek's "Carmen" and Romeo in Birgit Cullberg's "Romeo and Juliet".He has worked with many world known choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, Jirí Kylián, Christopher Bruce, Oscar Araiz, Rudi van Dantzig, Didy Veldman, Robert North, and Kenneth Kvarnstrom to name a few.Before joining Cullberg, Rafi was a soloist at the Bat-Dor Dance company in Israel and a principal dancer with “Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève” for 7 years.
He has made guest appearances with Het National Ballet in Amsterdam and the Royal Swedish Opera’s soloist Company "59 North" in the U.S.A and Finland.Rafi has also been touring with Cristina Caprioli, and has recently been responsible for staging Mats Ek’s “ Casi Casa" on Danza Contemporánea de Cuba " in Havana, Cuba, and "The Sleeping Beauty" with the Zurich Ballet.In 2010 he danced in Orphée directed and choreographed by Mats Ek at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, and the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm with "The Tempest".Rafi has been invited to participate in many performances and galas around Europe, the USA and Israel.
Lesley
Telford
Lesley Telford is based in Vancouver, Canada as choreographer and director of Inverso Productions as well as on Faculty at Arts Umbrella's Professional Dance Program leading the Performance Research Project (PReP).
Lesley finished her studies in Montreal at L´École Supérieur de Danse du Québec before joining the company Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. She went on to dance with Nacho Duato´s Compañia Nacional de Danza in Madrid, Spain. Most recently she danced with Netherlands Dans Theater 1 where she worked with choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, Crystal Pite and others and performed in major theatres worldwide. She has set and staged the work of Jiri Kylian as well as Lightfoot/Leon.
As a choreographer, she has created for Ballet BC, Netherlands Dans Theater 1, Hubbard Street Dance Company 2 (US), Compañia Nacional de Danza 2 (Spain), Ballet Vorpommern (Germany), International Project for Dance in Rome- DAF (Italy), Butler Ballet (US), University of Utah (US) and Arts Umbrella Dance Company. She won the Pretty Creatives choreographic competition at Northwest Dance Project in 2014. Her work has been presented in the CaDance Festival and Korzo Theatre in the Netherlands, International Festival Madrid en Danza and the Reina Sophia Museum in Spain, Chutzpah Festival, the Banff Festival of the Arts, The Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival and the Schmiede Festival. She is the founder of Inverso Productions, a platform for interdisciplinary performance, through which she produced and choreographed a full-length work: Brittle Failure which has been a part of tours and festivals in Spain, the Netherlands and Canada. Inverso is presently developing Spooky Action.
As a teacher, she has given workshops and classes internationally in many companies and schools such as Ballet BC, Spring Seminar Vancouver, Prague International Contemporary Dance Intensive, Danscentrum Gothenburg, Madrid Conservatory of Dance, PIES Seminar Argentina, NDT Summer Intensive and NDT educational projects. She teaches classes of repertoire, ballet, contemporary, movement exploration and improvisation/composition.
Interested in furthering her artistic research and exploration into the field, she has a Master of Arts in Cultural Production from the joint program of the University of Salzburg and the Mozarteum. Her thesis examined the use of the museum as a performance space for dance. She was also a fellow in a joint research project with the Zurich University of the Arts in 2013.
Yevgeniy
Kolesnyk
Yevgeniy was accepted into the Ukrainian National Ballet School at the age of 10 and trained there until he was invited to join The Kiev Ballet as corps de ballet at the age of 18. He was promoted directly to Principal dancer two seasons later and danced the full range of main roles in classical and contemporary ballets.
Yevgeniy came to the Royal Ballet of Flanders as a half soloist in 2000 and was promoted to soloist in 2002, first soloist in 2005, and has been promoted to principal as of 2013. As a dancer he has enjoyed working with such choreographers as Kylian, Balanchine, Haydée, Forsythe, Elo, Spuck, Godani, Fonte, Dawson, McGregor and many others. He has been awarded three gold medals, “Best Dancer” and best solo at international ballet competitions in Brazil, Russia and the Ukraine.
As a choreographer Yevgeniy has created 6 pieces for the Royal Ballet of Flander’s annual choreography workshop Coupe Maison, two of which have been accepted into the International Choreography Competitions in Copenhagen and Moscow.
Geraldine
Meslier
Géraldine started ballet training with Monique Bertagnol from Paris Opera Ballet. After wining 1st place at the International Ballet Competition of Houlgate (France), she joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders in Belgium.
As soloist, she danced leading roles as Gisele and Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) and different roles from the Repertoire (Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, La Bayadère, La Fille mal gardée, Coppelia, Cinderella…).
She performed Balanchine’s pieces and worked with many choreographers as W. Forsythe, K. Pastor, X.P. Wang, A. Prokovsky, J. Lazzini, D. Dawson, R. Tanner, M. Wainrot, C. Soto… Since 2011, she’s teaching at National Conservatoire of Avignon (France) and graduated with a “Certificate of Aptitude”. She is also often invited as Guest teacher in International Ballet dance intensive courses.
Ciro
Carcatella
Ciro Carcatella’s interest in dance reveals an historical approach. Dance is matter, in the same way that it is for painters and sculptors, ever evolving, open to interrogation. Concept and form blend in harmony within the matter; it would be unfavourable to exclude form in its pure essence. Incessantly creating new forms in dance is in itself and intrinsically a concept.
“The analysis of movement takes me first to its technical development isolating various elements of movement composed throughout the creation. My scenic work is an assemblage of my rigorous choreographic vocabulary and its continuous development.”A rational evolution in contemporary dance necessitates a meeting between various artistic disciplines. Not to the detriment ofquality, on the contrary towards mutual and legitimate inspiration.“My work is not only about artistic discipline. Deep reflections on Science and Philosophy, which are natural nutrients of human evolution, are the driving forces on my choreographic body of work.”
Tamas
Moricz
Tamas is a Hungarian born dancer, teacher, choreographer most known for his decade long membership with William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt. Apart from Forsythe’s oeuvre he’s performed in pieces by Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Jan Fabre, Jacopo Godani, Saburo Teshigowara, Jonathan Burrows, Crystal Pite, Tony Rizzi, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and many more. Currently Tamas is a well-regarded teacher of both classical ballett and his own methodology called Movement and Awareness.