New Dance Partners 'The Ultimate Collaboration'

The collaborative partners are:

• Kansas City Ballet, working with Caili Quan
• Owen/Cox Dance Group, working with Christopher Page-Sanders
• Störling Dance Theater, working with Jennifer Owen
• Regina Klenjoski Dance Company, working with Katarzyna Skarpetowska

Caili Quan is a New York-based choreographer who danced with BalletX from 2013 to 2020. She has created works for BalletX, Vail Dance Festival, New York City Ballet, Ballet West, The Juilliard School, New York Choreographic Institute, American Repertory Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Flight Path Dance Project, and Ballet Academy East. She choreographed her first musical, “Guys & Dolls,” for Opera Saratoga’s 2024 season under the direction of Mary Birnbaum. With BalletX, she performed new works by Matthew Neenan, Nicolo Fonte, Gabrielle Lamb, Penny Saunders, Trey McIntyre, and danced at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Belgrade Dance Festival, and DEMO by Damian Woetzel at the Kennedy Center. “Mahålang,” a short documentary that wove familial conversations of her Chamorro Filipino upbringing on Guam with scenes from BalletX's “Love Letter,” was shown at the Hawai’i International Film Festival, CAAMFest, and the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center. Quan was a 2022 artist-in-residence at the Vail Dance Festival, a 2023 artist-in-residence at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, and an Arnhold Creative Associate at The Juilliard School.

Christopher Page-Sanders, originally from St. Louis, is the Founding Co-Artistic Director of NU-World Contemporary Danse Theatre. He received his formal dance training from the Center of Creative Arts and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. With a background that spans both theater and concert dance, his journey as a performing artist has taken him across the globe, gracing stages with renowned dance companies such as the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Dianne McIntyre Group, and the Owen\Cox Dance Group, as well as notable theatre companies such as the Fulton Theatre, Mastervoices, Maine State Music Theatre, and the St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre Company. As a choreographer in concert dance, his work has been performed by Chapman University, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Davis Contemporary Dance Company, Dance Lab New York, Grand Valley State University, and the Presenting Denver Dance Festival, as well as for theatre companies, having had the privilege of directing\choreographing theatrical works such as “Lady Day At Emerson's Bar And Grill” (Arvada Center), “1776” (Maine State Music Theatre), “Life Doesn't Frighten Me” (Metro Theater Company), “The Wiz” (Short North Stage), and “Raisin” (Town Hall Arts Center). He has served as the Associate Choreographer for the Off-Broadway premiere of “Triple Threat.” His choreography has been presented nationally at festivals such as the Battery Dance Festival, Dumbo Dance Festival, the International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference, and the Presenting Denver Dance Festival. Notably, Page-Sanders' choreography for “The Scottsboro Boys” (Vintage Theatre) earned him the esteemed Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Award. "On the shoulders of my ancestors, I dance!"

Jennifer Owen is the Executive/Artistic Director of Owen/Cox Dance Group, an ensemble she co-founded with composer Brad Cox in 2007. She has choreographed over 50 new works for Owen/Cox Dance Group, including two commissions by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and works commissioned by Island Moving Co. of Newport, Rhode Island, Kansas City Dance Festival, Kansas City Baroque Consortium, and Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. She has also created nine new works for Kansas City Ballet's “In the Wings” choreographic workshop, and a winning entry for the 2006 Columbus Choreography Project. Owen is the recipient of a 2000 Princess Grace Honorarium. Prior to founding Owen/Cox Dance Group, Owen enjoyed a 13-year international ballet career. After training with Pacific Northwest Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School, School of American Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, she went on to dance with the Russian State Ballet, Moscow Renaissance Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, BalletMet and was a guest artist with the National Ballet of Turkmenistan. She has performed principal roles in “Giselle,” “Don Quixote,” George Balanchine's “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux" and “Donizetti Variations,” and the central pas de deux in Todd Bolender's “Arena.”

Katarzyna Skarpetowska is a native of Warsaw, Poland. She is an alumna of the NYC High School of Performing Arts and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Juilliard School (1999; Benjamin Harkarvy, artistic director). Her Broadway credits include “Metro” (Minskoff Theatre, 1992). Skarpetowska was a member of Parsons Dance from 1999 until 2006, where she performed lead roles in the company’s repertory, including David Parsons’ iconic “Caught.” From 2007 until 2014, she danced for the Lubovitch Dance Company, performing at many reputable venues such as New York City’s City Center and the Joyce Theater, The Kennedy Center and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater. She currently serves as the Lubovitch Foundation’s répétiteur, staging works on some of the most prestigious companies in the world, including New York City Ballet, Vienna State Ballet, Houston Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and Martha Graham Dance Company, among others. For her choreographic achievements, Skarpetowska was named Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2016 and was nominated for a NY Dance and Performance Award, The Bessie, in 2017. Her choreography has been commissioned by Richmond Ballet, BalletX, Smuin Ballet, Rochester City Ballet, Grand Rapids Ballet, Parsons Dance, Buglisi Dance Theatre, The Rosin Box Project, Bruce Wood Dance Dallas, Salt Lake City’s Repertory Dance Theatre, Saint Louis Dance Theatre, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater II, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, National Choreographers Initiative, and the Juilliard School. In 2018, Skarpetowska choreographed an Opera Theatre of Saint Louis production of “Orfeo and Eurydice,” in collaboration with director Ron Daniels and maestro Pierre Vallet, and in 2019, she participated in the eighth edition of Women/Create! - A Festival of Dance at New York Live Arts, which presents work by visionary female choreographers. Skarpetowska has served as guest faculty at the American Dance Festival, American Ballet Theater summer program, School of American Ballet, Boston Conservatory summer program, Peridance, Washington Ballet @THEARC, and since 2017, she has been a part-time lecturer at the University of California at Irvine, where she teaches ballet and contemporary techniques, Improvisation, choreography, as well as Lubovitch repertory. For more information, visit www.skarpetowska.com.