Artistic Director
In 1995 renowned Italian dancer Marcello Angelini was appointed Artistic Director of the Tulsa Ballet. Angelini managed to successfully solve the internal conflicts within the company and raise the artistic achievements of the company simultaneously. He was successful at unifying the board members, working well with artistic director emerita Larkin, and establishing friendly relationships with his predecessors. "His gracious yet fierce tenacity, tough professional reputation, and superior negotiating skills soon earned him the nickname 'The Italian Tornado'."
Since Angelini began directing Tulsa Ballet in 1995, he has built a strong and highly versatile company that is capable of tackling both classical and contemporary works by well-known choreographers. The Italian-born, Kiev Institute-trained director expects dancers to achieve a technical level and artistic range comparable to that of the major companies he danced with (Deutsche Oper Berlin, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet West). To grow a company, Angelini says, you have to stretch the dancer one way, then the other.
Angelini believes different styles—classical, modern and contemporary—are parts of the same language. "It's all dance," he says, forming a large circle with his arms. "It's like my shoulder connects to my arm which connects to my hand. You can't separate them." Angelini's incredible gifts have helped shape Tulsa ballet into one of America's best ballet companies.
Read more about this topic: Tulsa Ballet
Famous quotes containing the words artistic and/or director:
“I think “taste” is a social concept and not an artistic one. I’m willing to show good taste, if I can, in somebody else’s living room, but our reading life is too short for a writer to be in any way polite. Since his words enter into another’s brain in silence and intimacy, he should be as honest and explicit as we are with ourselves.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)
“When General Motors has to go to the bathroom ten times a day, the whole country’s ready to let go. You heard of that market crash in ‘29? I predicted that.... I was nursing a director of General Motors. Kidney ailment, they said; nerves, I said. Then I asked myself, “What’s General Motors got to be nervous about?” “Overproduction,” I says. “Collapse.””
—John Michael Hayes (b. 1919)