Wendy Whelan Receives 'Women Directors, Choreographers, and Composers Award'

Kathryn Roszak, artistic director of the Bay Area's Danse Lumiere, and founder of "Women Directors, Choreographer, and Composers Award" honored Wendy Whelan with an award to recognize and highlight women leaders in dance and their contributions. Past recipients of the Award include choreographers Annabel Lopez Ochoa and Cathy Marston, as well as Helgi Tomasson for presenting ballets by women dancemakers.

In selecting Wendy Whelan for this year's award, Roszak noted that "Wendy Whelan's leadership is powerful and inspiring. She has led New York City Ballet into the future with the inclusion of women choreographers and artists of color." Presented for an invited audience, the festive award ceremony took place Monday October 4th at a private residence on East 90th Street in New York City, hosted by Margo and Mitchell Blutt.

Wendy Whelan is the Associate Artistic Director of New York City Ballet, appointed in February 2019. One of the most acclaimed dancers of her generation, she followed a storied 30-year career at NYCB with a variety of multi-disciplinary projects with cultural organizations around the world.

As a principal dancer with NYCB, Whelan counted roles in more than 125 ballets, danced virtually all of the major Balanchine roles, worked closely with Jerome Robbins on many of his ballets, and was also the dancer most choreographed on in NYCB history, creating leading roles in more than 50 new works by choreographers William Forsythe, Twyla Tharp, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Jorma Elo, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Wayne McGregor, Peter Martins, and others. Following her retirement in 2014, she cultivated multi-disciplinary performance projects with a range of collaborators including choreographers Kyle Abraham, Joshua Beamish, Brian Brooks, Alejandro Cerrudo, Lucinda Childs, Daniele Desnoyers, Javier De Frutos, David Neumann, Annie-B Parson, and Arthur Pita.

Whelan began dance training in her native Louisville, Kentucky with Virginia Wooton, and then at the Louisville Ballet Academy. In 1981 she received a scholarship to the Summer Course at the School of American Ballet, and a year later, enrolled as a full-time student at SAB. She was named an apprentice with the Company in 1984 and joined the corps de ballet in 1986. She was promoted to Soloist in 1989 and to Principal Dancer in 1991.

Ms. Whelan's awards include a 2007 Dance Magazine Award, a 2009 Doctorate of Arts, honoris causa, from Bellamine University in Louisville, the Jerome Robbins Award in 2011, and a Bessie Award for Sustained Achievement in Performance.

KATHRYN ROSZAK, artistic director of the Bay Area's Danse Lumiere, trained on Ford Foundation scholarships at San Francisco Ballet and SAB in New York. She performed for many years with the San Francisco Opera Ballet, and has appeared with the San Francisco Ballet and San Antonio Ballet.

Ms. Roszak trained as an actor at the American Conservatory Theater in S.F. and at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. She has performed, choreographed, and/or taught at the American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, S.F. Opera Center, Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Symphony with Kent Nagano, Opera San Jose, Sacramento Opera, Oakland and Marin Operas. She has created and produced original works for the Goethe Institute and the S.F. Mozart Festival, Theatre Artaud, the Cowell Theatre, and Grace Cathedral in S.F.

In 1995 Kathryn founded Danse Lumiere and has since specialized in the creation of original productions. Her unique approach brings new audiences to classical art forms by blending and innovating within the disciplines of dance, literature, music, visual art, and theater. Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaborations have included working with Kabuki master Shozo Sato, choreographer Alonzo King, playwright Velina Hasu Houston, musicians Mazatl Galindo of Mexico and Ailu Gaup of Arctic Norway, composer Gordon Getty, writers Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, and Maxine Hong Kingston. She was invited to be an Artist in Residence at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Ca., where she has also served on the Choreography panel.

Ms. Roszak's work has been presented in the S.F. Bay Area by the U. of S.F. and by The Asian Art Museum. In NYC her work has been seen at LaMaMa ETC, Scandinavia House, and the 92nd St. Y. International appearances include the Copenhagen Festival in Denmark, Les Amis du 7 in Dijon France, and Norway, presented by the Royal Norwegian Consulate

DJERASSI RESIDENT ARTISTS PROGRAM supports and enhances the creativity of artists by providing uninterrupted time for work, reflection, and collegial interaction in a setting of great natural beauty, and to preserve the land on which the Program is situated. Djerassi Resident Artists Program is recognized internationally for its pre-eminence as an artist residency. As stewards of a unique and beautiful property, Djerassi also seeks to preserve the land and use the facilities wisely and efficiently to create maximum benefit to the artists and with the least impact on the environment. .