YoungArts

Dance

Pat Graney has received choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts for 11 consecutive years, as well as from Artist Trust, the Washington State Arts Commission, the NEA International Program, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.  In 2000, she was selected to receive a Golden Umbrella Award for recognition of lifetime achievement in her art form. She has been commissioned by Pacific Northwest Ballet and has created over 40 different choreographic works while living in the Pacific
                               Northwest. The Pat Graney Company has toured nationally and internationally. 

Chair / Yanis Pikieris was the first dancer from the western hemisphere to win the gold medal at Moscow’s International Ballet Competition.  He founded the Mencia-Pikieris School of Dance, Maximum Dance Company and the Miami Youth Ballet. He has served as Artistic Director for Ballet du Nord, Juegos Dance Ensemble and the Ballet Metropolitano de Medellin, Program Director for Miami City Ballet’s Contemporary Dance Series and Young People’s Programming. He is a member of the jury for the World Ballet Competition and is the Executive
                               Director of Nebrada Arts Initiative.

Troy Powell, 1987 YoungArts Winner in Dance, has served as Associate Artistic Director of Ailey II. He toured with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for 10 years before becoming a master teacher at The Ailey School and resident choreographer for Ailey.  Mr. Powell has choreographed 15 ballets for The Ailey School as a resident choreographer; seven ballets for Ailey II, and for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.  He also has choreographed for Dallas Black Dance Theater, Alaska Dance Theater and Sesame Street.  He was featured in the PBS
                               Great Performances and, most recently, America’s Next Top Model. 

Chet Walker, a multi-award-winning director and choreographer, has garnered acclaim onstage in theaters across the globe, in television, film, music video and all commercial media. He has received the Tony Award, Outer Critics’ Circle Award, the Toronto Theater Alliance Award, L.A. Critics’ Award, L.A. Drama-logue Award for Best Choreography, Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award for choreography and the Olivier Award for Conceiver of Best Musical. He has produced five dance operas, as well as three ballets.