Pontus Lidberg choreographs in loops and swirls.

Lidberg’s experience in film translates to the stage, with highly visual and rich movement palettes.

Dance is cherished for many things. But the fact that it exists only in the moment, destined to change with each succeeding performance, gives this physical art form a unique brand of excitement all its own. Swedish choreographer Pontus Lidberg has taken that quality a step further.His works are created one way and have evolved in such a way that they can be viewed as new.

There's a sense that Mr Lidberg approaches dance as if he's behind a camera, drawing out his dancers' solitude. All the same, he does show his skill at revealing the elasticity of sustained dancing in undulating duets.

Lidberg succeeded in presenting the universal grace of both art and nature, the unrelenting storm of life experience.

Pontus Lidberg

A Swedish choreographer and dancer of international acclaim, Pontus Lidberg is mostly recognized for his dance film The Rain (2007), for which he has received numerous awards around the world. He has been called a rising star of the world choreography and he has already secured a personal page in the history of dance manuals for future generations. The art lovers all over the world applaud to the works of this Swedish dancer, director and choreographer. His career has been developing rapidly: within a few years he has gained a reputation of a creative and mystical artist who skillfully combines art with film. His most prominent work is The Rain, a film that has received a whole collection of awards from different corners of our planet. They include Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for Film at the Dance Media Honors (Los Angeles); Best Film at the London International Dance Film Festival; Best Dance Short at the Tiburon International Film Festival; a nomination for the Rose D’Or in Lucerne; and the Jury’s Special Mention at the Gothenburg International Film Festival. Lidberg is also leading a successful dancing career. He was dancing at the Royal Swedish Ballet, The Norwegian National Ballet, Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and The Göteborg Ballet. Apart from that, he performed for the Headlands Center for the Arts (2008) and Joyce Soho (2010). Throughout his professional life Lidberg was awarded with various grants. He received the support from the Baryshnikov Art Center, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy Foundation, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, as well as the Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, co-sponsored by Harvard University's Department of Music. As a choreographer he staged more than 35 works all over the world. He collaborated with Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève he Royal Danish Ballet, Beijing Dance Theatre, Norwegian National Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Stockholm 59° North Theatre, Morphoses Theatre, as well as his own company, Pontus Lidberg Dance, that debuted in 2011 with their work “Fauna” at the Fall For Dance in New York. His focus is on cinematography features in choreography language and in the means of creative self-expression. Lidberg’s first work for the camera, Mirror (2003), was commissioned by Swedish National Television and appeared on television as well as in dance film festivals around the globe. His Labyrinth Within (2011) received an award from the jury of the Short Film Festival in Rennes (France) in 2011 and it was named the Best Film at Dance on Camera Awards in Lincoln Center in New York in 2012. In the same year Lidberg was awarded with the Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise in Dance.

Dance Open 2014: «Innervisions» performed by Complexions Contemporary Ballet

Dwight Rhoden

Dwight Rhoden has established a remarkably wide-ranging career, earning distinction from The New York Times as “one of the most sought out choreographers of the day.” A native of Dayton, Ohio who began dancing at age 17, Rhoden has performed with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Les Ballet Jazz De Montreal and as a principal dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. As a performer, he has appeared in numerous television specials, documentaries and commercials throughout the United States, Canada and Europe and has been a featured performer on many PBS “Great Performances” specials. For nearly 2 decades, Rhoden’s choreography has been the lynchpin in the development of the Complexions repertory. For over 19 years, Rhodens’ work has filled some of the most prestigious theaters across the globe including, The Bolshoi Theater, (Moscow) The Marinsky Theater,(St Petersburg) Maison De La Danse, (Lyon) The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion,(Los Angeles) Cairo Opera House (Egypt) The Arts Center, (Melbourne Australia) Telaviv Opera House (Israel) The ASB Theater, (New Zealand) Holland Dance Festival, Isle De Dance Festival (Paris) to name a few. CCB and Rhodens’ work has been presented on 5 continents and in over 20 countries. “Musicality, innovation, purpose, consistency, a brilliant use of stage space and the ability to tell a story – all these qualities make him (Rhoden) one of today's elect choreographers (The LA Times). Since 1994, Rhoden has created over 80 ballets for Complexions, as well as numerous other companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Arizona Ballet, The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Company, BalletMet, The Dance Theater of Harlem, Colorado Ballet, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, New York City Ballet/Diamond Project, North Carolina Dance Theater, The Pennsylvania Ballet, Marinsky Ballet (Kirov), Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, amongst others. Mr. Rhoden has also directed and choreographed for TV, film, theater and live performances including So You Think You Can Dance, E! Entertainment’s “Tribute to Style”, Amici, and Cirque Du Soleil’s Zumanity, and choreographed and appeared in the feature film “One Last Dance”. He has also worked with, and/or created works for such high-profile artists as Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Kelly Clarkson, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, U2, and Patrick Swayze. Rhoden was commissioned to create a work for the centennial celebration of renowned collage artist Romare Bearden. “Rhoden’s work is post-Balanchineanchoreography, a new aesthetic in movement, stage, picture, and performance concepts reflecting a post-modern, techno-savvy worldview” (Dance Magazine). Widely known as “a dancer’s choreographer,” Rhoden has worked with, coached and created for some of the most diverse artists spanning the worlds of ballet and contemporary dance including legendary dance artists Carmen De Lavallade, Wendy Whelan, Maria Kowroski, Diana Vishneva, Desmond Richardson, Sandra Brown, Jodie Gates, and Gus Solomon, to name a few. Mr.Rhoden is the Resident Choreographer of North Carolina Dance Theatre and has lectured, taught, created works for and served as Artist in Residence at universities around the United States including New York University, Juilliard, UC Irvine, Skidmore College and The University of Mississippi, where his 2004 Racial Reconciliation Project was credited as a catalyst for dialogue in a community that has been historically divided. Rhoden is a beneficiary recipient of various honors and awards including the New York Foundation for the Arts Award, The Choo San Goh Award for Choreography, and The Ailey School’s Apex Award in recognition of his extensive contributions to the field of dance.

Juanjo Arques

Trained as a dancer at the Conservatorio de Danza. During his dancing career he worked with Ballet Victor Ullate, English National Ballet and Dutch National Ballet as a soloist and performed renown parts in classical and contemporary ballets of such choreographers as Hans Van Manen, Rudi Van Dantzig, William Forsythe, Natalia Makarova, Christopher Wheeldon, Krzysztof Pastor, Mark Morris, Derek Deane, Alexey Ratmansky, and David Dawson; as well as appeared in the works of George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, Frederick Ashton and Rudolf Nureyev. Alongside his dancing career, Arques is a gifted choreographer working with modern language fueled by a desire to communicate thought-provoking material. Juanjo describes himself “as a choreographer who mixes modern dance language with the influences I have accumulated during my life and career. These influences include dance, new media, historical periods and their ideals, mythology, literature, architecture as well as sculptural form. This creates a “cloud” of creation that enables me to develop a very personal form of dance within the classical form, continually pushing the boundaries of recognised dance/theatre conventions”.

Helen Pickett emerges as a storyteller as well as a choreographer.

The dance world needs more Helen Picketts. Choreographers who can take the genre of narrative ballet and hurl it into visually and aurally dynamyc of the 21st century.

Helen Pickett

Helen Pickett was born in San Diego, California, studied dance at the San Francisco Ballet School. For more than a decade she was principal dancer with William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt and was inspired by work with him so much, that she started teaching Forsythe-based improvisation at various universities in the USA and Europe. Her career as a choreographer started after an assignment from Boston Ballet in 2005, and since then worked with numerous American companies: Washington Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Louisville Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Atlanta Ballet, where she became a resident choreographer (since 2012). Besides, she choreographed ballets for the Semperoper Ballet Dresden, Vienna State Opera and the Scottish Ballet. Upcoming commissions – Chicago, Kansas City, Oregon and other cities. Helen Pickett also collaborates as an actress and choreographer with installation video artists and film makers. She created the role of the Queen in 89 Seconds at Alcazar, which was shown in 2004 at the Whitney Biennial and now is a part of the permanent collection of the museum of modern art in New York. Developed her motivational creative workshop entitled “the expansive artist” and a unique and immersive dance think-tank “Choreographic Essentials”. In 2014, for her ballet, The Exhiled, she was named Best Choreographer in Atlanta. In 2015 Helen premieres her first full-length ballet, Camino Real by Tennessee Williams.