Attila Ficzere, artistic director and
choreographer, joined the faculty of the University of Utah Department of
Ballet in 1988 after a successful international performing career with
the Hungarian National Ballet Company, Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet and
the San Francisco Ballet. Ficzere has set and staged ballets by Tony and
Emmy Award-winning choreographer Michael Smuin and Willam Christensen
on Ballet West, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Florida Ballet, Oakland Ballet,
Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and the Utah Ballet Company.
In January 1995, he assisted in the staging of the Gala Performance of
Ballet Theatre International in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ficzere is a
proud parent of twin sons, Niko and Maxim.
John Duffy, Marriott Center for Dance
technical director and lighting designer, teaches courses in theatre
production and lighting design. Since joining the University of Utah in
1993, he has overseen more than 80 dance performances in the
Hayes/Christensen Theatre. During his 19-year career, he has worked for
Ballet West, Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland Civic Ballet, Dance Aspen,
and Weber State University. He has designed lighting for numerous local
and regional touring companies and has worked with Broadway lighting
designers Marc Weiss, Annie Wrightson, Beverly Emmons, Richard Winkler,
and Dennis Parichy. Duffy holds a bachelor's degree from Weber State
University.
Marina Harris, choreographer and costume
designer, began dancing at the age of four, studied ballet in Brazil with
Maryinsky graduate Maria Olenewa, spent a year at the Royal Ballet School
in London, and graduated with a BFA in Ballet from the University of Utah
in 1968, having studied with Gordon Paxman, Bené Arnold, and Willam
Christensen. She taught for a year at the San Francisco Ballet School
and then left dance altogether for four years. She returned to dance as a
designer and costumer for Repertory Dance Theatre, becoming a modern
dance choreographer as a result of that relationship. She has received
two Choreographer's Fellowships from the NEA and a New Forms grant. She
has choreographed works for San Francisco Ballet, Valerie Huston Dance
Theatre, Repertory Dance Theatre, and the University of Utah's Performing
Dance Company. She has designed and built costumes for Repertory Dance
Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Ballet West, Bill T. Jones/Arnie
Zane and Company among others. In 1990 she received an MFA in creative
writing from the University of Utah.
Kylene Marie Mason, ballet mistress and
choreographer, is a master of fine arts candidate in ballet with a
choreography and teaching emphasis. She holds a bachelors of fine arts in
ballet from the University of Utah, and has studies at Joffery, Pennsylvania
Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Ballet West Conservatory. She has
been a member of Utah Ballet Company for the past six years, performing
leading roles in Michael Smuin's The Tempest, and the Blue Bird
Pas d Deux from Sleeping Beauty. Her recent choreography includes
Concerto in F, Gesualdo, and Schnell.
Steve Rasmussen, Marriott Center for Dance
costume director and designer, teaches dance costume design theory and
execution. During his 15-year career, he has designed for Salt Lake
Acting Company, Dance Theatre Coalition, TheatreWorks West, Egyptian
Theatre, and the Saliva Sisters. He also has had several textile art
shows in local galleries. He holds a bachelor of science in clothing and
textiles from the University of Utah.
Michael Smuin, choreographer, studied ballet with
Willam Christensen at the University of Utah before joining the San Francisco
Ballet in 1957. From 1966 to 1985, was co-artistic director with Lew
Christensen of the San Francisco Ballet. Smuin's Romeo and Juliet,
produced for the San Francisco Ballet, was the first three-act classical
ballet to be presented over public television by the PBS series Dance
in America. The Tempest earned three Emmy Award nominations,
including one for outstanding achievement in choreography. In 1986, Smuin
staged his Romeo and Juliet for Ballet West. Smuin won a 1988 Tony
Award, a Drama Desk Award and a Fred Astaire Award for choreography for
the Lincoln Center revival of Anything Goes.