choreographers
Ballare Carmel commissions work by established and emerging choreographers. While we cherish creating work with master dance makers we are also committed to fostering new choreographic talent.
Ihsan rustem
Just don't end up in the pine cone, honey.
Music ~
Costumes ~ Lillian Barbeito
Dramaturgy & Set Design (Original Artwork) ~ Mark Baer
Lighting Design ~ Kendall Smith
Preview ~ September 18, 2021, Hidden Valley Music SeminarsWorld Premiere ~ November 4th, 2022, Sunset Center
Ihsan Rustem was born in London, where he trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. Ihsan is the Co-Founder of Swiss-based dance company Cie. La Ronde, Resident Choreographer for NW Dance Project, and former Artistic Director of the Dance Art Studio Ballettschule Luzern.
His work has earned numerous accolades, including Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest in 2012, the Public Prize at the 25th International Competition for Choreographers Hannover, and Dance Magazine's 2017 Readers' Choice Award for Best Collaboration. Rustem was the 2014 recipient of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's International Commissioning Project and named an Up & Coming Choreographer by Nederlands Dans Theater during their 2018/19 season. In 2021 he joined the Jury of the prestigious Prix de Lausanne.
Collaborations include Nederlands Dans Theater 2, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, National Ballet of Chile, Ballet Moscow, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago 2, Istanbul State Ballet MDT, Tanz Luzerner Theater, Konzert Theater Bern, Whim W'Him Seattle, Ballett Augsburg, Thuringer Staatsballett, Theater St Gallen, Staatstheater Braunschweig Tanztheater, Kazan State Opera and Ballet, Koblenz Ballet, Ballet Regensburg, Repertory Dance Theater Utah, Würzburg Ballet, Siberian State Ballet, Salt Contemporary Dance USA, Moving Arts Cincinnati, Ballare Carmel, Arts Umbrella Dance Company Vancouver, National Youth Dance Company, Palucca Hochschule Dresden, The Rambert School, Codarts and ZHdK. He was a featured choreographer for Russia's popular TV show 'The Bolshoi Ballet'.
From 2000-2014 Ihsan Rustem was a dancer with the Ballet Theater Munich, Introdans, State Theater Bern Ballet, Tanz Luzerner Theater and Adventures in Motion Pictures. He originated roles in creations by Wayne McGregor, Hofesh Shechter, Alexander Ekman, Matthew Bourne, Stijn Celis, Patrick Delcroix, Cayetano Soto, Felix Landerer, Cathy Marston and worked with choreographers Mats Ek, Jiri Kylián, Paul Lightfoot / Sol Leon, Hans van Manen and William Forsythe, amongst others.
James Gregg
Here Lies
Music ~ JOhannes Sebastian Bach's Chaconne
Costumes ~ Lillian Barbeito
Lighting/Set Design ~ Kendall Smith
World Premiere ~ November 4th, 2022, Sunset Center
Colorado born, Oklahoma raised. James Gregg is now an international choreographer. He has created choreographic works on Whim W’Him, Danceworks Chicago, Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, Ballet X, Northwest Dance Project, Nashville Ballet’s Emergence, Springboard Danse Project Montreal, River North Dance Company, Elements Contemporary Ballet, and L’Ecole Superieure de Danse de Quebec.
James was the recipient of the prestigious 2015 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award. He was also the winner for Ballet Austin’s 2014 New American talent choreographic competition, a finalist in Milwaukee Ballet’s 2013 Genesis Choreographic competition, and in 2011 the winner of the International Choreographic Competition at Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur.
As a performer, James has worked with Bodytraffic, Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Aszure & Artists, Rubberband Dance Group, and River North Dance Company. Throughout his career he had the opportunity to do the works of many renowned choreographers including Victor Quijada, Barak Marshall, Aszure Barton, Crystal Pite, Rodrigo Pedernieras, Frank Chauves, Danny Ezralow, Mauro Bigonzetti, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Cayetano Soto, and more. James also has been featured in several music videos, feature films, and in TV documentaries and specials.
His biggest interest is to create movement from the inside out and explore different paths and routes through which the body can move, and in doing so discover how these various avenues can evoke emotion and how those emotions translate throughout the body.
Jennifer Archibald
Jennifer Archibald is the founder and Artistic Director of Arch Dance Company and Program Director of ArchCore40 Dance Intensives. She is a graduate of The Alvin Ailey School and the Maggie Flanigan Acting Conservatory where she studied the Meisner Technique. Archibald has choreographed for dance companies including Atlanta Ballet, Ailey II, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Kansas City Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Ballet Nashville, Grand Rapids Ballet, and has worked commercially for Tommy Hilfiger, NIKE and MAC Cosmetics.
Archibald’s works have been performed at venues including New York’s City Center, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Aaron Davis Hall, Jacob’s Pillow Inside|Out Stage, and Central Park’s Summerstage Mainstage. Jennifer was awarded a Choreographic Fellow for Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab under the direction of Robert Battle. She is also a Joffrey Ballet Choreographic Winnings recipient. Additionally, Archibald is the first female Resident Choreographer in Cincinnati Ballet’s 40-year history.
Jennifer is currently an Acting Lecturer at the Yale School of Drama, a guest artist at several universities including Fordham/Ailey, Purchase College, Princeton, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of South Florida, Goucher College, Columbia College Chicago, and Bates College, and was the Movement Director for Director Michael Kahn’s closing season of The Oresteia. In 2015, she was appointed as Guest Faculty Lecturer to develop the Hip Hop dance curriculum at Columbia/Barnard College. She has taught in Brazil, Bermuda, Canada, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, France, Russia, Mexico, China, and Ecuador.
Noelle Kayser
Noelle Kayser began her professional career in 2011 at Luna Negra Dance Theater with an apprenticeship under the direction of Gustavo Ramirez Sansano where she performed the company's repertoire domestically and internationally. In 2013, Noelle joined glo, an Atlanta-based collaborative performance platform founded by Lauri Stallings. Other credits include the Proia Dance Project, Erik Thurmond’s Ripple, Gathering Wild, The Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Scrap Theater Group's one-woman play Leda.
Noelle has been rehearsal director and dancer for PARA.MAR Dance Theatre under the direction of Stephanie Martinez since its inception in July of 2020. Noelle was a member of Visceral Dance Chicago under the direction of Nick Pupillo from 2015 through 2018. While at Visceral, Noelle had the opportunity to perform works by Marguerite Donlon, Danielle Agami, Kevin O’Day, Alice Klock, Stephanie Martinez, and many others. Noelle was a member of Northwest Dance Project under the direction of Sarah Slipper from 2019 through 2020. While at Northwest, Noelle had the opportunity to perform works by Sarah Slipper, Wen Wei Wang, Ihsan Rustem, and Patrick Delcroix. Noelle has also performed with Benjamin Wardell’s The Cambrians and Atlanta’s Fly On A Wall. Noelle has set her own choreography on Chicago’s Cerqua Rivera Dance Theater, Moonwater Dance Project, and Atlanta’s Kit Modus. Her piece for Kit Modus - The Excursion: Realized - was named a 2018 Highlight of the Year by ArtsATL.
In addition to dance and choreography, Noelle has narrated 16 audiobooks for Listen Up Productions / audible.com, and appeared in industrial advertising for Grey Television, Kitchenaid, and Whirlpool.
Skye Schmidt
Skye Schmidt is an accomplished photographer and dancer hailing from Southern California. Skye has trained in dance with Salwa Rizkalla, Southland Ballet Academy, Houston Ballet Academy, Lillian Barbeito, BodyTraffic, Alex Ketley, and David Maurice. She earned her BFA degree in Dance Performance from University of California, Irvine in 2016, where she earned the prestigious William J. Gillespie scholarship and studied with Molly Lynch, Dr. S. Ama Wray, Diane Diefenderfer, Tong Wang, Jodie Gates, Saleemah E. Knight, David Zurak, Chad Michael Hall, and Shaun Boyle. Her photography mentors include Rose Eichenbaum, David Friedman, and James Doyle.
Skye is represented by Go 2 Talent Agency and has performed professionally for American Ballet Theatre in "The Sleeping Beauty," Florence + The Machine "Spectrum" music video, Festival Ballet Theatre (company dancer from 2012-2018), and Molly Lynch's National Choreographers Initiative. She is a founding member of Ballare Carmel and joined Benita Bike's DanceArt for their 2021-2022 season.