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Ballet Careers

Trailblazing Women: Female Choreographers Shine at Victoria Morgan's Cincinnati Ballet

Victoria Morgan pushes dancers' boundaries in the studio. Jennifer Denham, Courtesy Cincinnati Ballet.

Victoria Morgan's normally bright smile is even brighter entering her 22nd season as Cincinnati Ballet's artistic director. That's because the 55-year-old company is in the best shape it has ever been: Attendance, ticket sales and the company's annual operating budget are at all-time highs. But the road to Cincinnati Ballet's current successes required an early revamp in Morgan's thinking about programming. When she took over leadership in 1997, the former San Francisco Ballet dancer had trouble accepting that the company simply didn't have the budget for her ideas about duplicating the repertoire she was used to.

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Everything Nutcracker

World Famous Hippo, Fiona, to Join the Cast of Cincinnati Ballet's "Nutcracker"

From left: Courtesy Cincinnati Ballet; Michael Curley, Courtesy Cincinnati Zoo.

Yesterday Cincinnati Ballet announced an exciting addition to this year's Nutcracker cast: a character based on Fiona, the world's most famous hippopotamus.

Fiona was born at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden in January 2017. Six weeks premature, she weighed only 29 pounds at birth as opposed to the standard 55-120, and required round-the-clock care from dedicated zoo staff. Cincinnati Children's Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit even got involved. The zoo chronicled her progress on Facebook, creating the heart-warming Fiona Show (see the first episode below). The baby hippo's story went viral, winning hearts in Cincinnati and around the world.

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News

At Cincinnati Ballet's Kaplan New Works Series, Dancers Take On the Role of Choreographer

From left: David Morse; Cincinnati Ballet's Michael Mengden and Bella Ureta in rehearsal for Morse's upcoming work. Photos by Jennifer Denham, Courtesy Cincinnati Ballet.

For Cincinnati Ballet artistic director Victoria Morgan, the company's annual Kaplan New Works Series is all about invention. "If you're comfortable, then you're not in the right place," she says. This year's program, held September 13–23 at the Aronoff Center, features a new kind of invention: Two company dancers will step into the role of choreographer for the first time. Soloist David Morse and corps dancer Taylor Carrasco will join contemporary queen Mia Michaels, Cincinnati Ballet resident choreographer Jennifer Archibald and San Francisco Ballet dancer Myles Thatcher in creating new works.


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Trending

Dance Resumés 101: What Directors Need to Know—And What They Don't

Andrew Neel via Unsplash

Artistic directors sift through hundreds of audition packets a season, and your resumé is often your first chance to catch their attention. Naturally, you want a document that makes a positive impression. But some surprising (and seemingly minor) details can inadvertently turn a director off. So, how do you make your resumé stand out—for the right reasons?

Focus on Essentials

At an audition, directors need to see your essential information at a glance: where you trained and what companies and choreographers you've worked with. Cincinnati Ballet artistic director Victoria Morgan scans for names she recognizes. "It's good to know if a dancer has worked with a respected leader in the industry, and if there's a colleague I can call as a reference. I'm also more inclined to take a second look at a student if I recognize a particular school or teacher," she says.

Your resumé should be no longer than one side of one page. "When I've got 600 resumés sitting here, a three-page resumé is a disincentive to me," says Kansas City Ballet artistic director Devon Carney. "It comes down to time—how quickly can you present your information to an unknown pair of eyes?"

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Ballet Training

Valentina Kozlova IBC Winners Announced

Photo by Katherine Bibilouri, via VKIBC Facebook

Some may consider New York's Symphony Space a smaller theater, but big things were happening inside June 6–10. Just under 200 young dancers from all over the world were testing their luck at the Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition in hopes of receiving scholarships, medals and company contracts. Their jury? An international panel of company and school directors, chaired by Andris Liepa, that included State Ballet of Georgia's Nina Ananiashvili, Boston Ballet School's Peter Stark, Dance Theatre of Harlem's Virginia Johnson and Cincinnati Ballet' s Victoria Morgan.

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News

Cincinnati Ballet’s New Works Series Focuses on Women

Morgan works with Sirui Liu and Daniel Wagner. Photo by Jennifer Denham, Courtesy Cincinnati Ballet.

Cincinnati Ballet's Kaplan New Works series, which runs April 20–29, is an institution at the midwestern company. Now in its 12th year, and sixth season presenting an all-female lineup, it has positioned itself at the forefront of a global conversation around gender imbalances in ballet. Namely, why do so few women create and lead in an art form dominated by female performers?

During the beginning of her tenure at CB, artistic director and CEO Victoria Morgan didn't prioritize the lack of female voices. “Then I started to realize that the representation is really skewed," she says. “I thought, as a leader, I should do something."

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