Christopher d’Amboise

                                                           Bio

Born into a family of dancers, Christopher has had many careers:  

dancer, director, choreographer, playwright, teacher and educator.  His work explores the integration of text, dance, music and drama and seeks to reinforce a positive perspective of humanity.

As a Principal dancer with New York City Ballet, Christopher worked closely with both George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, originating works as well as performing major repertoire.  On Broadway he co-stared with Bernadette Peters in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Song and Dance, for which he earned a Tony nomination.

As a Choreographer, Christopher works both in theater and ballet.  He has created over 80 works seen worldwide in cities including London, Prague, Paris, Copenhagen, New York, Lisbon, and Istanbul.  His ballets have been presented in over 30 companies including the New York City Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Pennsylvania Ballet, National Ballet of Amsterdam, and the San Francisco Ballet.   His latest work, Tribute, premiered with NYCB at Lincoln Center in 2007.

As a Director and Choreographer for theater, Christopher’s vision is cinematic in style integrating music and dance with text, and visual storytelling.  Mr. d’Amboise has also adapted and written original works for the stage.  His new adaptation of Can-Can, the classic Cole Porter musical, is currently under option.  The Studio is an original “play-with-dance” written, directed and choreographed by Mr. d’Amboise premiering in 2006 at South Coast Repertory, and having for its east coast premiere at the Signature Theatre in Washington D.C., in November of 2007.  The Studio was also selected as a featured play at the Pacific Playwrights Festival in 2006.  Voice of the City, an original musical about Vaudeville written, directed and choreographed by Mr. d’Amboise had its New York workshop at Musical Theatre Works.  His other theatrical credits as a choreographer include You Never Know, a world premiere new musical by Charles Strouse at Trinity Rep.; the pre-Broadway production of High Society at ACT in San Francisco; and Romeo & Juliet: The Musical at the Ordway Theatre and the Goodspeed Opera House.  Christopher directed and choreographed Up The Avenue, an original comic act starring Bill Irwin and Charlotte d’Amboise at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.  Mr. d’Amboise has also collaborated with singer/songwriter Cat Stevens on The Road To Find Out, a new musical about the life and music of the artist.  Christopher is Hang Onto Me - an original musical about Fred and Adele Astaire.

As artistic director and president/CEO of The Pennsylvania Ballet Christopher pulled the company out of bankruptcy with the unprecedented “Save the Ballet Campaign” raising 2.5 million from 10,000 Philadelphia residents in two weeks.  He lead the company through 4 successful seasons, supervising production of 72 performances annually at the Academy of Music and the Shubert theater.

As an educator Christopher has initiated outreach programs, community development initiatives and taught master classes and workshops at schools and universities world wide.  He also developed MOVING STORY, a unique visual storytelling curriculum specially designed to integrate image based drama into contemporary theatre.  Taught in universities as well as professional productions of theater and dance. 

                  RESUME

DIRECTOR/CHOREOGRAPHER

Theater

·         Choreographed and /or Directed and developed 8 original shows.

The Studio – South Coast Repertory as well as The Signature Theatre.  Garland award winner and featured play at the Pacific Playwrights festival.

You Never Know - music and lyrics by Charles Strouse, Trinity Rep., Providence, RI.

High Society – Geary Theatre, San Francisco, CA..

Romeo & Juliet: The Musical - Goodspeed Opera House; Ordway Music Theatre.

Saving Aimee - Signature Theatre, Washington D.C.

Up the Avenue - Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, Mass.

Voice of the City - Musical Theatre Works, New York, NY.

Dance

·         Choreographed over 80 works seen worldwide in cities including London, Prague, Paris, Copenhagen, New York, Lisbon and Istanbul.  Ballets have been presented in over 20 companies including the New York City Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Pennsylvania Ballet, National Ballet of Amsterdam, San Francisco Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet.

·         His most recent work Tribute, premiered at Lincoln Center with NYCB in 2007.

PLAYWRIGHT

·         Created theater works designed to integrate music, dance with text and visual storytelling.  Original scripts include:

Hang onto Me – Original musical about Fred and Adele Astaire.

Voice of the City - Original Musical about the Vaudeville era. 

Can-Can – Contemporary Adaptation of the Cole Porter classic.

The Road to Find Out - an original musical developed with Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam)

The Studio, a play-with-dance – Premiered South Coast Rep 2006.  Winner of a Garland Award

PERFORMER  Broadway and Television

·         Performed lead roles on Broadway and Television including:

Song and Dance: Tony nomination; Co-starred with Bernadette Peters.

On Your Toes.

He Makes Me Feel Like Dancing: Oscar and Emmy- winning documentary

Kennedy Center Honors:  Two featured performances honoring Jacques d’Amboise and also Jerome Robbins.

MOVING STORY/MASTER CLASSES/OUTREACH

·         Created MOVING STORY:  unique visual storytelling curriculum specially designed to integrate image based and “cinematic” storytelling into contemporary theatre.  Taught in universities as well as professional productions of theater and dance. 

·         Created out-reach programs, lecture demo programs, and a multi-disciplinary theater-drama-dance curriculum for college level students. 

·         Taught master classes and workshops at schools and universities worldwide including:  Manhattan Marymount Collage, Goucher University, Ithaca College, Western Carolina University, Collegiate School, Trevor Day School, Belmont Hill, National Dance Institute, New York Academy of art, New York Theater Works, Aspen Summer Dance, Sun-Valley Summer dance, Sundance, Jacobs Pillow, School of American Ballet, Ballet Academy East, Royal Ballet of Flanders, National Ballet of Istanbul, Architanz-Tokyo.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR     Pennsylvania Ballet     Philadelphia

·         Lead the company through 4 successful seasons.  Directed all aspects of the company including teaching, training curriculum, repertoire, employee management, short and long term goals and community development.

·         Managed artistic staff of over 120 people, including 38 dancers, 50 musicians, production crews, designers, ballet masters and support staff.  Dealt with unions and collective bargaining.

·         Supervised production of over 72 performances annually at the Academy of Music and the Shubert theater.  Including annual presentation of Balanchine’s THE NUTCRACKER.

·         Created and implemented outreach programs and community interaction.

·         Appointed President/ CEO after leading the “Save the Ballet” campaign which raised 2.5 million from 10,000 Philadelphia residents in two weeks.

·         Pulled the company out of bankruptcy and eliminated the long-standing deficits.

·         Successfully restructured the company to balance the operating budget and dramatically increased the number of annual donors.

Principal Dancer     New York City Ballet     New York City 1978-1987

·         Invited by Balanchine to join the company in 1978; promoted to Principal in 1984.  Performed over 50 principal roles in the Balanchine/Robbins repertoire, and originated new roles in two Balanchine works as well as new works by Jerome Robbins and Peter Martins.  Roles performed include:

Balanchine’s Coppelia, Stars and Stripes, Agon, The Four Temperaments, and Who Cares.

Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering, Fancy Free, and Gershwin Concerto.