Richmond Ballet is pleased to announce the return of the innovative New Works Festival March 21-26 at the intimate Richmond Ballet Studio Theatre. A fan-favorite, the New Works Festival has introduced some of the Ballet’s most beloved choreographers, including Associate Artistic Director Ma Cong, to Richmond audiences. This year’s festival will feature the diverse and remarkable talents of Norbert De La Cruz III, Nancy Paradis, Claudia Schreier, and Yury Yanowsky.

The New Works Festival is meant to give both established and up-and-coming choreographers the opportunity to create new work with the full support and resources of Richmond Ballet. The four choreographers, all new to working with the company, have 25 hours each to create a 10-15 minute piece. In addition to working with company dancers, the choreographers will also work with Richmond Ballet’s in-house production team and costume shop to create lighting, sound, and costume designs for their new works.

At the end of the brief residencies, company dancers will perform all four pieces in Richmond Ballet’s state-of-the-art studio theatre March 21-26. The festival provides a wholly unique platform for audiences to experience exciting, never-before-seen works that are brand new and, potentially, still in progress. Associate Artistic Director Ma Cong explains, “The New Works Festival is very close to my heart as it was my first introduction to Richmond Ballet when I was a guest choreographer for the 2009 festival. It is such an incredible opportunity for our dancers and Richmond audiences to meet four creative, new voices.”

2023 NEW WORKS FESTIVAL CHOREOGRAPHERS

 Norbert De La Cruz III, born in the Philippines and raised in Los Angeles, received a BFA in Dance from the Juilliard School and an MFA in Dance from Hollins University. He is a NY and LA based freelance artist. He was a soloist with Ballet Torino, Aszure Barton, the Metropolitan Opera, Complexions, and was cast as a dancer for Warner Bro’s In The Heights movie. De La Cruz has been commissioned by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Barak Ballet, Hubbard Street, BalletX, Peridance, Grand Rapids Ballet, the Juilliard School, and Olympic Ballet Theater. He was a finalist of Hubbard Street’s National Choreographic Competition, a Princess Grace Foundation-USA award recipient, Alvin Ailey New Directions Choreography Lab, Joffrey Academy of Dance’s Winning Works, the National Choreographic Initiative, and a recipient of the New York City Ballet’s NY Choreographic Institute. He was formerly on the dance faculty at the Juilliard School. De La Cruz’s honorable mentions include the Asian Arts Alliance Jadin Wong Award, McCallum Theatre Choreography Festival Award, and being featured in Dance Magazine’s “Top 25 to Watch”.

 Nancy Paradis is artistic director of her company LA Dance Moves, a dance, music, art and media company. Combining her passion for music by collaborating with composers, she creates a new genre of performance art by weaving the composer and dancers into each other’s lives. She shares inspiring works of the human spirit in her most recent work, a feature film and documentary titled Back to the Heart. Paradis is a former dancer with Richmond Ballet, joining as an original member in its first year as a professional company and dancing for four years until leaving in 1985. She also danced professionally with Louisville Ballet and Washington Ballet. As a principal and soloist, she danced a diversity of roles ranging from classical, neo-classical, Balanchine, and modern ballets. Paradis has also performed in film & television, while also guest teaching at American Ballet Theater summer program & Orange Co. School of Performing Arts.  She has created works for Grammy award-wining new-age composer Peter Kater, multi-instrumentalist David Fertello, cellist Simon Huber, vocalist Kimera Morell, and conductor Brendan McMullin.

 Claudia Schreier has choreographed, directed, and produced for dance, opera, and film across the U.S. and internationally. She is the Choreographer in Residence at Atlanta Ballet and has been commissioned by San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Vail Dance Festival, Juilliard Opera, and Guggenheim Works & Process, among others. Schreier is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Choreography, Dance/NYC Dance Advancement Fund Grant, Lotos Foundation Prize for Dance, and Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize, and she was the 2017 Virginia B. Toulmin Fellow for Women Choreographers at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU. Her live performance and film collaboration with visual artist Rashid Johnson, The Hikers, has been presented at the Aspen Art Museum, Hauser & Wirth NY, Storm King Art Center, and Museo Tamayo in Mexico City. Her film Places, commissioned by Miami City Ballet, was named a standout performance by The New York Times. Schreier served as choreographer and artistic co-director for Juilliard Opera’s New York premiere of Dido and Aeneas and international tour to Opera Holland Park in London and Opéra Royal de Versailles. She has contributed to programs at the White House, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center, including the Kennedy Center Honors. Her work is the subject of two documentaries, most recently PBS’s Emmy Award-winning Dancing on the Shoulders of Giants (Capital Region). Schreier presented her TEDx talk, “Thinking On Your Feet,” at Columbia University in 2018. She has been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC News, NPR, ABC News, NBC News, Dance Magazine, Pointe, Marie Claire, and ELLE.

Yury Yanowsky’s robust career as a Principal Dancer with the Boston Ballet and as an international guest artist spanned over two decades. Yanowsky won First Prize at the Prix de Lausanne and the Silver medal at the Varna and U.S. International Ballet Competitions. His passion for choreography began early in his dancing career and over the past decade he has had the opportunity to showcase his work around the world. He has been commissioned to create new works for Boston Ballet, Bundes Jugend Ballet, Jacobs Pillow Gala, Atlanta Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, and Festival Ballet Providence. In 2015, he was awarded the Choreographic Prize at the prestigious Erik Bruhn Competition and his ballet Smoke and Mirror for Boston Ballet was named “Best in Dance for 2016” by The Arts Fuse and hailed as a “visual and choreographic masterpiece.” Yanowsky was named Artistic Curator of Festival Ballet Providence in 2020.

Tickets to Studio Three start at $25. Tickets may be purchased online at etix.com, by phone at 804.344.0906 x224 or in person at the Richmond Ballet Box Office, 407 East Canal Street, Monday – Friday, 11:00am – 6:00pm.

Studio Three: New Works Festival

March 21-26, 2023 | Richmond Ballet Studio Theatre

407 E Canal Street, Richmond, VA 23219

Tuesday, March 21                         6:30PM

Wednesday, March 22                  6:30PM

Thursday, March 23                       6:30PM

Friday, March 24                            6:30PM

Saturday, March 25                        5:00PM & 8:00PM

Sunday, March 26                           1:30PM & 4:30PM