VAIL INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL HISTORY

In l990, a four-week summer academy for American students named the Bolshoi Academy at Vail was introduced.  At the conclusion of the course, four American students were invited to travel to Moscow, to study for a semester at the Bolshoi Academy.   In 1992, the Vail Valley Foundation recognized the need to engage a dance professional to direct and develop the project.  Katherine Kersten, a former dancer, teacher and choreographer, who was serving as the school director for the Milwaukee Ballet at the time, became the managing director of the Academy.  Programming then began to develop and to include a variety of educational programs and broader stylistic and international performance elements.

In the summer of 1993, the first International Evenings of Dance were created, featuring principal couples representing major international dance companies.  Principal dancers performing in the International Evenings have included some of the world’s most celebrated principal dancers as guest artists including: Agnes Letestu and Jose Martinez, the Paris Opera Ballet; Vladimir Malakhov, Galina Stepenyanko, Nadezda Gratcheva, Sergei Filin, the Bolshoi Ballet; Joan Boada in his first USA appearance;  Bernice Coppietiers, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo; Damian Woetzel, New York City Ballet; Ethan Steifel, American Ballet Theatre and Evelyn Hart and Rex Harrington, National Ballet of Canada; to name but a few. 

1993 saw the introduction of the International Dance Teachers’ Conference and, in l995, the creation of the Vail International Workshop for younger dance students, while in l994, the name Vail International Dance Festival was introduced. In l998 the Bolshoi Academy at Vail became the World Masters at Vail and internationally recognized master teachers were engaged to teach at the summer intensive.  Teachers included Gilbert Mayer from the Paris Opera Ballet School in Paris, France, among others. In 1998, a choreographic dimension was introduced and the Festival began to commission and world-premiere new works.  The project, named the Choreographers Collection, was developed as a collaborative effort with strong regional American dance companies wherein each year a new work is world-premiered.  New works were created by: Stuttgart Ballet’s Stephen Greenston, Over Here (1998); Vladimir Anguelov’s El Torero (1999); Bird’s Nest, set on the Washington Ballet by Val Caniparoli (2000); Dwight Rhoden’s Higher Ground set on Complexions (2001); Damian Woetzel’s Shostakovich Suite (2002) set on New York City Ballet dancers; San Francisco Ballet choreographer Julia Adam created If a rose falls on the Atlanta Ballet (2003); Trey McIntyre choreographed Chasing Squirrel on Cincinnati Ballet (2004); Jessica Lang’s From Foreign Lands and People (2005) set on Colorado Ballet; and 2006 showcased the world premiere of Trey McIntyre’s Go Out set on his company of dancers, the Trey McIntyre Project.

In 2006, the Vail Valley Foundation appointed New York City Ballet star, Damian Woetzel, to lead the Festival into a new era of success. 

Under Woetzel’s direction in his initial season, the Vail International Dance Festival served as the world premiere stage to the much-anticipated launch of Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company in 2007, after a two-week residency in Vail.  The Festival has also hosted the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Miami City Ballet, and Paul Taylor Dance Company, and began engaging live musicians to accompany many performances, including guest appearances by such noted and diverse musicians as Philip Glass, Eddie Palmieri, and Jennifer Koh.  Mr. Woetzel’s commitment to education through the arts continues to reveal itself in the successful Celebrate the Beat program; which has grown from its original 2-week summer program to a complete winter residency during the school year - currently serving more than 1,000 elementary aged students throughout Eagle County.  To further validate his impact in the arts, Mr. Woetzel was appointed to serve on President Obama’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities in November 2009. 

Woetzel continues to be active as a producer of dance and music performances around the world. In 2009 and 2010, Woetzel directed and produced the Gala Performance of the World Science Festival at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, creating performing  arts salutes to science which featured performances by musicians Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, and Marin Alsop, and actors John Lithgow, Anna Deavere-Smith, Alan Alda, and Christine Baranski, among others.  In the fall of 2009, Woetzel helped create and began directing the Jerome Robbins Foundation's New Essential Works (NEW) Program, which supports choreographers and dance companies during the current financial crisis by giving grants to enable the production of new works. Woetzel also recently launched as curator and director the new Studio 5 performance series at New York’s City Center, which features in-depth examinations of today’s most compelling dance artists and companies highlighted by in-studio performances and demonstrations.

Woetzel was a Principal Dancer at New York City Ballet from 1989 until his retirement from the stage in 2008. He is the recipient of a Choo San Goh award for new choreography, and he was the artistic director of the New York State Summer School for the Arts School of Ballet from 1994-2007. Woetzel serves on the Artists Committee of the Kennedy Center Honors and as a judge for the Astaire Awards; he has also served as a juror for the Princess Grace Awards. Woetzel sits on the Board of New York City Center. Woetzel was the 2008 Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence of the Aspen Institute, and he is a frequent speaker on the arts and arts policy. He holds a Master in Public Administration Degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and he served on the recent Harvard Task Force on the Arts. In the fall of 2010 Woetzel co-taught a new course at Harvard Law School on Performing Arts and the Law.