What a time we had! Louisville Ballet director Robert Curran, choreographer/dancer Brandon Ragland, and artist Vinhay Keo came in to discuss the Mozart Divertimento collaboration premiering this weekend. All have been my guests before, but never all at once! Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com at 10am each Thursday to hear artists talk about their work on LVA's Artebella On The Radio.
Trained at The Australian Ballet School and having enjoyed a thrilling and fulfilling career with The Australian Ballet as a Principal Artist, Robert Curran is now the Artistic Director of Louisville Ballet. Education and experience continually expanded his ability to move his own body on stage and through this, move an audience through a wide range of emotions. Beyond his dancing career he strives to continue to move people towards a satisfying encounter with dance. Robert is motivated by the form that a dancer gains from training in the traditions of classical ballet, where respect and discipline can facilitate breathtaking strength and freedom. He is also inspired by the innovation that forms the function of any artist, that being to bravely and boldly express oneself through art for the greater good of a community.
Born and raise in Birmingham, Alabama, Brandon Ragland received his early training from Jacqueline Crenshaw Lockhart and continued his dance training at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. In 2007, he graduated from Butler University with a B.S. in Dance-Arts Administration. Since joining the Louisville Ballet in 2010, he has had the opportunity to perform leading roles in a wide range of classical and neoclassical works choreographed by Andre Prokovsky, Val Caniparoli, Serge Lifar, Roger Van Fleteren, Christopher Bruce, Twyla Tharp and George Balanchine. Other works include Bruce Simpson’s Swan Lake, La Slyphide, Ma Cong’s Tethered Pulse, and works by Adam Hougland, Lucas Jervies, and Alun Jones. As an aspiring choreographer, he has created works for Louisville Ballet, Louisville Ballet Youth Ensemble, Alabama Ballet, Alabama Ballet School, AROVA Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Arkansas, Next Generation Ballet, J. Lockhart Performing Arts Institute, and Sedona Chamber Ballet.
Vinhay Keo is originally from Cambodia, where he spent the first 10 years of his childhood. He earned his BFA from the Kentucky College of Art + Design at Spalding University and I now a graduate student at CalArts. He received the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship to study at Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art, a Great Meadows Foundation recipient, participated in workshops such as Anderson Ranch Art Center and Anne West’s writing reflection. His work has been exhibited throughout galleries in Louisville, Kentucky with a recent solo exhibition at Moremen Moloney Contemporary Gallery.
That exhibit, Confront was one of the more important exhibits of 2017, a commentary that spoke to the chaos in American society, the worth and importance of the immigrant in that chaos, and the very core value of diversity that lies at the heart of the United States of America.
Oct. 12-13, 2018 - The Brown Theatre - louisvilleballet.org
Divertimento No. 15 Choreography by George Balanchine
World Premiere Work Choreography by Robert Curran
Scenic and Lighting Design by Vinhay Keo
World Premiere Work Choreography by Brandon Ragland