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From Svetlana
My name is Svetlana. I am from Russia and like ballet a lot.
I think that Ballet is the most wonderful art. I always follow new ballets in the world. I would like to tell you that one
American choreographer impressed Russia with his work. His name is Eric Conrad. I would like to tell you about him. Eric Conrad
worked as a choreographer in the Moscow State Choreographic Academy of the Bolshoi Theater under the direction of Professor
Alexander Bondarenko and of the rector of the Academy Loenova Marina. In this role, He created innovative classical choreography
and coached some of the Academy's most gifted students in preparation for their coming International Competitions.
Eric
Conrad's recent experience has consisted of mentoring young ballet dancers from ages 16 to 20 in organizations such as the
Moscow State University of Culture and Art, Moscow School of Professional Choreography and Imperial Russian Ballet. His primary
aim is to help young dancers achieve a rare virtuosity and classical literacy which will distinguish them as they begin their
professional careers. In addition to Eric's work as a choreographer and pedagogue, I have a history of organizing successful
international cultural projects such as, founding Ballet Art Magazine of St. Petersburg , interviewing the late Natalia Dudinskaya
and directing the South Bay International Dance Series.
I believe that the Ballet Company is an environment where
Eric Conrad could successfully use his international experience and relationships to further enrich the endeavors and lives
of your dancers, and your company. Thank you most sincerely for your time and consideration.
Thursday, September 14, 2006.
Issue 3497. Page 8.
Love Leads the Way to Career in Choreography
By Maria Levitov
Staff Writer
The windfall
that Eric Conrad made during the 1990s Internet boom
gave the California native freedom to travel. Meeting a girl in St.
Petersburg
then set him on a course to become a guest
choreographer at Moscow's renowned Bolshoi Theater academy of
dance.
"You
don't come here to do ballet," the tall, soft-spoken Conrad said
in a recent interview. "Oil or real estate maybe. But
not ballet. There
is no money in it."
All the same, Conrad, 32, isn't about to abandon ballet and return
to his
old business career. "I can't imagine doing anything else," he
said.
Igor Tabakov / MT
Eric Conrad is a guest
choreographer
at Moscow 's Bolshoi Academy
Lacking the characteristically sinewy look of a dancer, it is only Conrad's
measured hand
gestures that betray his connection to the dance world. Precise movements like these are
normally a
byproduct of years of arduous training, but dance did not even enter Conrad's mind
until after he turned 18.
"I took
my first dance class because of a girl," he said, recalling that the dance course's
predominantly female student body
seemed like a good reason to enroll.
Conrad said the class made him realize he enjoyed dance, whether girls were present
or not.
Although he continued studying business administration at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California,
evening dance
classes became part of his regular routine. In 1996, he co-founded Webvibe,
which managed high-tech contractors, acting
as a third-party vendor for the KPMG consultancy.
In 1999, just before the Internet startup bust, KPMG bought out Webvibe.
He traded computers for dance shoes and went to St. Petersburg in 2000 for a summer seminar
at the Vaganova Ballet
Academy, where the star-studded alumni list reads like a history-of-dance
primer: Anna Pavlova, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail
Baryshnikov. Conrad decided to stay beyond the
two-week seminar to take additional private lessons from the school's renowned
teachers.
"The intensity is a lot higher here," Conrad said, referring to the grueling studio work.
In the United
States, male dancers are expected to do three to four jump combinations per class.
But they do 10 to 12 such combinations
per class in Russia, he said.
Intensive training was not his only reason for sticking around the northern capital, however.
There
was also a girl, of course.
Page 2
"I had these romantic ideas about life and about Russia," he said.
Falling for a ballerina in her
final year at Vaganova fit Conrad's picture of Russia perfectly.
He stayed in St. Petersburg
until 2002, taking pedagogy classes at the academy. Conrad went on
a brief jaunt to the United States the following year
to teach ballet, but returned to Russia less
than a year later.
"Most people don't want to really dance. They just
want to feel like they are dancing," he said of
his teaching experience in Boston and New York.
Conrad decided to move
to Moscow, where his favorite Vaganova ballerina had come to work at
the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater.
"I like taking risks," he said.
When the two split up, Conrad decided to stay in Moscow.
His first big break here came
nearly two years later, when the dean of the classical male and duet
dance department at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy decided
to give him a try. Until then, he had
been doing freelance choreography for student competitions and one-off projects for
dance
groups.
Dean Alexander Bondarenko, whom Conrad had met through his contacts at the Stanislavsky
theater,
gave him several professional dancers and a week to show what he could do as a
choreographer, Conrad recalled. What was
his inspiration for setting an original combination to
Beethoven's score?
"My inspiration was, I wanted to get a break,"
Conrad said.
Conrad said he was accepted as a guest choreographer by the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, creating
a one-act
neoclassical ballet called Generation X.
"We don't have enough modern choreography of this kind," Bondarenko said, adding
that despite
the academy's worldwide renown, it finds established foreign choreographers are often too
expensive to
hire as guest teachers. Conrad is a young choreographer, but he proved himself
fine, Bondarenko said.
In addition
to "Generation X," which Conrad hopes to take on tour to the United States in
December, he said his work included numerous
variations for students to perform at dance
competitions the world over.
"They spend eight years on the same movements,"
he said, adding that he aimed to make
students come alive as performers, not merely well-trained clones.
Teaching
dance in a country with such a rich classical ballet tradition has been humbling, Conrad
said, but it also brought him
into contact with a hyper-competitive and sometimes-cutthroat
professional environment.
To Conrad, making it means
founding his own dance company. He is in the process of
establishing Prodigy, a school and youth ballet company, with
groups in Moscow, New York and
Los Angeles .
"I don't like to compromise in art. In life or in business -- OK, but
not in art," Conrad said.
© Copyright 2006. The Moscow Times. All rights reserved.
Eric Conrad ● Choreographer
● Pedagogue
Phone: 818.445.3306 Email : bolshoi2006@gmail.com Site: http://bolshoi2006.googlepages.com/
Professional Summary
2005, 06 B olshoi Ballet Academy, Moscow Russia - Guest Choreographer, Teacher.
My primary role in the academy is to help their most gifted dancers make the transition from being students to being
professional artists. I have successfully created a true synergy of Russian classical tradition and American creative innovation.
This gives our dancers the ability meet the needs and increasing choreographic demands required from young dancers in the
21st Century
Choreography:
Ballet entitled
Generation X- Will tour to the U.S. in December 2006.
Boys
and Girls Variations and Pas De Deux for the following competitions: Perm, Kiev, Vaganova International, Youth American Grand
Prix, Grigarovich International and Jackson International ( U.S.A.)
2006 De'ath Ballet Los Angeles, CA - Guest Choreographer,
Teacher.
Teaching: Company Teacher.
Choreography: Currently completing the following:
Ode
to Amity - Ballet set to music by Evgeny Doga.
Chopinana
- Adaptation after Fokine.
2006 Le Studio, Pasadena, CA - Guest Ballet Teacher for Directors Charles and Philip Fuller.
2005
Moscow State University of Culture and Art - Guest Ballet Teacher.
Teaching: Advanced Boys and Girls Technique and
Partnering.
2005 New Imperial Russian Ballet, Moscow - Guest Choreographer.
Choreography:
Matisse
Dances - Pas De Deux and Solo Dances set to music by Beethoven.
2005 Moscow State Youth Ballet Theater - Summer Intensive
Teacher/ Choreographer.
Choreography:
Prodigy - Classical dance set to music by Evgeny Doga.
Teaching: Boys and Girls Technique, Point and Partnering.
2004,
05 Moscow School of Professional Choreography- Ballet Teacher/ Choreographer.
Choreography:
Tears
of Joy - music by Chopin
Italian Jazz- music
by Nino Rota.
Teaching : Boys and Girls Technique, Point and Partnering.
2003 International Dance Academy,
Ca. - Artistic Director.
During my tenure as Artistic Director I successfully launched a successful community outreach
program, secured a long-term, rent-free agreement with a theater for our annual performances and fund raising events, and
invited world renowned guest artists and teachers.
Choreography:
Maya
Krasyevetsa (My Beauty) - Classical dance premiered by Ilya Kuznetsov of the Mariinsky Theatre and Anastasia Meskova of the
Bolshoi Theatre set to music from Fidelio O Welch Lust by Beethoven.
Balanchine
Suite - This project was set to an original and very rare waltz composed in the 1940's by the late George Balanchine .
Teaching:
Boys and Girls Technique, Point and Partnering.
2002 Steps on Broadway, New York City- Guest Ballet Teacher.
Special
Projects
2005-Current Ellison Ballet Foundation NYC .- Founding Member, Board of Directors.
The mission of this
professional t raining program is to provide exceptional ballet education to students who possess the physical, mental and
creative aptitude necessary to attain a high level of artistic achievement in the professional world of dance. Students will
develop the essential skills to fully explore and discover their greatest individual potential and receive unprecedented opportunities
to study and perform in Russia.
2003 South Bay International Dance Series - Artistic Director.
Produced a successful
evening of dance and music featuring Bolshoi Theatre Soloist Anastasia Meskova and Mariinsky Theatre Principal Ilya Kuznyetsov.
We have provided scholarships for children attending the International Academy of Dance, and we have produced several local
evenings of contemporary Dance and Music in the South Bay in California.
2001-03 Ballet Arts Magazine of St. Petersburg,
Russia - Executive Director, Co-founder.
Published in Russian and English, it is the only ballet journal in St. Petersburg
representing, most notably, the Mariinsky Theatre and the Vaganova Academy. Ballet Arts is distributed throughout many parts
of Russia and in over 15 countries worldwide. Our staff includes such distinguished and legendary artists as Altynai Asylmuratova
and the late Natalia Dudinskaya served as Honored Chairman.
2002 Interview of Natalia Dudinskaya.
Had the privilege
of filming a very comprehensive and candid interview with Madam Dudinskaya in her St. Petersburg residence. This interview
includes many fascinating historical details about Soviet ballet of the 20th century and is the last recorded interview of
Madam Dudinskaya.
Performance Experience
2006 The Ballet Collective Los Angeles.
Performed as a soloist
in the production of Sweet Revenge, a 2-Act ballet based on the Strauss Comic Operetta Die Fledermaus.
1997-99 Santa
Clara Ballet/ Salinas Performing Arts.
Participated as a guest artist in these two companies performing soloist roles in
classical works such as Apollo, Nutcracker, La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty as well as several contemporary programs.
Complete
list available upon request
1993-96 Musical Theater/ Modern Dance.
Participated as Dancer and Choreographer
in; Brigadoon, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas , Subversive Laughter, Carousel, Funny Girl as well as numerous modern
dance concerts throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Complete list available upon request
Education
2004
Academic ( MFA equivalent), Department of Culture, Russian Federation Academy B.O.P
Concentrations: Classical Ballet,
Choreography .
Dissertation: The Neoteric Reformation of Classical Ballet . Submitted to United Nations Education,
Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) for review by Russia's National Program Director, Professor Valery Meskov.
2002
Moscow State University- Russian Language Program.
2001, 02 Vaganova Academy of St. Petersburg, Russia - Pedagogy,
with Professor V. Afanoskov and E. Borchenko.
1998-00 The Academy of Classical Ballet, San Francisco, Ca - Karen Morel.
1997
Zohar School of Dance, Palo Alto, Ca- Kristine Elliott.
1993-95 The Studio, School of Classical Ballet, Santa Cruz,
Ca - Gene Dunphy.
1991-93 Cabrillo College Aptos, Ca - Business Administration, Ballet and Modern Dance, Choreography,
Theater Management, Stage Management.
Very Best Regards,
Svetlana Vedernikova
Eric Conrad's contacts
are Phone: (U.S.) 818.445.3306 (RU) 011.7.903.276.64.03 Email: bolshoi2006@gmail.com
Site: http://bolshoi2006.googlepages.com/
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