Featuring Guest Choreographer
Danielle Diniz
A dancer and choreographer based in New York City.
Saint Louis Ballet welcomes Ms. Dinez to St. Louis to choreograph for the first time a piece for Saint Louis Ballet dancers this coming May 2025.
About DANIELLE
Danielle recently completed her time as Artist in Residence at Tribeca BMCC via CUNY Dance Initiative for the 2022/2023 season, fully choreographing and directing her own evening of repertory. This past spring she choreographed 'My Way' at Theatre by the Sea and became Associate Artistic Director of Jazz Choreography Enterprises. She is choreographing for the Ailey BFA program and New York Dance Project this fall as well as St. Paul's ballet program in the winter of 2024 and Ballet Hartford in the spring.
She has been commissioned to create new works for Jacob's Pillow, Performance Santa Fe, Avant Chamber Ballet, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Stars of American Ballet, Ballet Hartford, Woman in Motion, Ballet Excel Ohio, Central Utah Ballet, Earl Mosley's Diversity of Dance and the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. She was a featured choreographer for DanceBreak (musical theater's leading platform for upcoming Broadway choreographers), made her Off-Broadway choreographic debut at the AMT Theatre with 'An Unbalanced Mind,' presented work at the McCallum Theatre/Palm Desert Choreography Festival and the New York Theatre Barn Choreography Lab held at Baryshnikov Arts Center and was awarded a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts/City Artist Corps to present a full evening of her choreography. She is a winner of the New York Dance Project Choreography Competition, a junior board member of Jazz Choreography Enterprises and a choreographic mentor for We Are Queens. She also choreographed the AEA production of the Vaudevillian musical 'On the Air,' currently choreographs and assistant directs intermittent musical theater showcases at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy and has served as Associate Choreographer for Lorin Latarro. She is on faculty at Kanyok Arts Initiative and Manhattan Youth Ballet and also enjoys teaching for Steps on Broadway, Mark Morris and Peridance. Danielle has a B.A. in English (concentration in Shakespearean Studies, minor in Dance) from Cornell University.
Las Flores
Choreography by Danielle Diniz
Music by Fandango III
Fandanguito and Danzon No. 2
by Arturo Marquez
Program Notes:
"Inspired by the magnificent melodies of Arturo Marquez and my Latin heritage, this piece displays a combination of ballet technique and traditional elements of Mexican culture via the complex beauty and refinement of orchids. These flowers flaunt stunning differences through color, texture and winding shapes, meandering through trees and neighboring blooms, creating stories of their own and boasting varying personalities. I've always been particularly taken with them and as there are about 30,000 species worldwide, it has been equally exciting and enlightening pairing those stemming from Mexico (12% of the world's population) with this music and dancers' unique qualities and characteristics."
"Please immerse yourself in how the "Dancing-Ladies," "Wildcats" (along with Queen's-wreaths) and "Stone Lovelies" showcase their individuality while finding power in the picture of the collective, allowing their relationships to grow and thrive."
Le Reve
Choreography by Gen Horiuchi
Music by Joseph Morra
Program Notes
Originally choreographed in 2009 the story of Le Reve is about a woman who has lost the love of her life but as she walks through this new life without him she feels his presence around her always.
Original music by Joseph Morra, Joe worked with Gen Horiuchi on the music for many of his ballets early as a director having known him from Horiuch's days in New York City when dancing in New York City Ballet.
The Nest
Choreography by CiCi Houston
Music by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Preludes for Piano, Op. 3, No. 2, op. 23, Nos. 4,7, and 5
Program Notes:
This ballet utilizes the common ballet barre as broadly symbolic of the external things we cling to in an effort to find our self-identity. Just as a dancer clings to a barre because so much of their sense of self is connected to the fact that they are a dancer, so it is with most people - they "are" their career, their family, their beliefs, their hometown, etc. As the ballet progresses, they start to explore beyond the linear focus of the barre.
Rachmaninoff's Preludes for Piano have long been a favorite of mine. The piano somehow fills the space as though it were a full orchestra, not a single instrument. The hardest part was narrowing down the options - not only which preludes made a cohesive score, but then, there are so many options of how to move to such layered work! The immense music clearly needed a large, powerful cast, a serene pas de deux, and I knew from the start that I would conclude with Op. 23 No. 5 - my personal favorite, which is, as they say, a total "banger" of a tune.
A Night to Remember:
Prom 1962
Choreography by Christine Settembrino
Settembrino's Inspiration:
Program Notes
This piece is dedicated to my dad, who raised me on his incredible taste in music. From The Rolling Stones to Simon & Garfunkel, from The Doors to Queen, he always had the right album on hand to help survive a road trip or accompany household chores on a Sunday afternoon. One of his albums included songs by Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which provided the inspiration for the music of this piece. If you look carefully, you may even catch a few nods the The Blues Brothers, one of his favorite movies!
