Choreographers
Choreographers
Our goal is to help choreographers gain visibility and secure performance opportunities for their creations. GCDANCEVENTS assists company directors, theaters, and organizations in selecting the best choreographer for their next performance.
Garrett Smith
Choreographer
Nationality: American
Career
Garrett Smith was born in Salt Lake City (Utah, USA) where he began training with the Utah Regional Ballet.
Garrett was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and was honored to meet George W. Bush at the White House where he was presented with and award by Mikhail Baryshnikov. He later studied at the Houston Ballet Academy and created five works for Houston Ballet II’s repertoire.
Garrett joined Houston Ballet and danced works by Stanton Welch, Jorma Elo, Nicolo Fonte, Christopher Bruce, Christopher Wheeldon, and Ben Stevenson.
Garrett choreographed his first work on Houston Ballet as an apprentice, through an award presented by Peter Martins from the New York Choreographic Institute Fellowship.
Mr. Smith later joined Norwegian National Ballet where he worked personally with choreographers Jiři Kylían, Nacho Duato, Alexander Ekman, and danced other works by William Forsythe and John Cranko. Garrett was commissioned by Houston Ballet to create new works in the 2013, and 2015 seasons.
Other recent commissions include The Mariinsky Ballet, Les Grands Ballets De Montréal, Bolshoi Ballet (Faces Project), Norwegian National Ballet, Ballet West, Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet National de Bordeaux, Tulsa Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Texas Ballet Theater, and Salt Contemporary Dance. Mr. Smith was a selected choreographer to make a new work for the National Choreographers Initiative 2014.
His choreography “Mortal Form” took 1st place at the 2015 Genesis International Choreographic Competition. Smith’s choreography “Solace” was recently seen in a new premiere in Deauville (France) as part of the Festival de L’Art Russe, as well as a U.S. premiere of his work “Imitations” with Norwegian National Ballet, for the 2018 Dance Salad Festival.
Garrett co-choreographed a new Swan Lake production on ice at the Dynamo Stadium in Moscow, combining figure skaters, acrobats, and ballet dancers, with Olympic Gold Medalist, Evgeni Plushenko and prima ballerina Olga Smirnova.
You can see Garrett’s choreography next season on Netflix for the original new series “Tiny Pretty Things”
GCDANCEVENTS represents Garrett Smith worldwide in the diffusion of his creations to all those interested in his works and his artistic line.
Ken Ossola
Choreographer
Nationality: Swiss
Career
Ken Ossola started dancing at the early age of 16 and he was accepted at l’École de Danse de Genève and eventually joined the Ballet Junior de Genève.
In 1989, under the leadership of Gerald Tibbs and the Artistic direction of Jiri Kylian, Ken was invited to join Nederlands Dans Theater 2. For the next two years he developed himself as an artist working and creating with leading choreographers such as Hans Van Manen, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Martino Muller, Paul Lightfoot, Nacho Duato, Johan Inger and Jiri Kylian.
This led him to join NDT 1. Collaborating with Jiri Kylian on a great number of creations including One of a Kind, Blackbird, Tiger Lily, Wings of Wax and Bella Figura, he became one of NDT’s most recognized dancers.
Mr.Ossola worked very closely with Jiri Kylian and started developing his interest for choreography and in 1999 decided to stop dancing to pursue his career as a choreographer.
Ken Ossola has choreographed for more than twenty years for international renowned dance companies and organizations such as Grand Théâtre de Genève, Grand Ballet Canadiens, Shanghai Ballet, Boston Ballet, Bavarian State Theater , Tanz Luzerner Theater among others.
Mr.Ossola passion and key to choreography has been observing dancers and allowing himself to be swept away by their movements, suggesting, re-formulating a step, as if painting on a canvas.
As well as choreographing, Ken enjoys working in the studio as ballet master. He has worked in that capacity for NDT during their 2004/05 season and has assisted Kylian during the creation of Zugvögel at the Bavarian State Theater in Munich, as well as staging his work and Hans van Manen pieces worldwide.
GCDANCEVENTS is honored to represent Ken Ossola worldwide, sharing his talent to those interested in his creations and work.
Andrea Crescenzi
Choreographer
Nationality: Italian
Career
Born in Potenza in 1996, Andrea Crescenzi began nurturing his passion for dance from a young age. In 2006, at the tender age of 10, he was admitted to the renowned ballet school of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he obtained his diploma in 2015.
That same year, he joined the corps de ballet of Teatro alla Scala, delving into his calling for choreography. In 2019, he brought to life “Spectra,” a creation designed for six dancers, successfully presented during the dance season at Teatro Comunale di Cesenatico.
Subsequently, Andrea had the opportunity to collaborate with renowned international artists in creating performances and artistic interventions, and he was commissioned to create a show for the opening ceremony of Milan Design Week.
Currently, he is working with Teatro alla Scala in Milan on “Luce,” an engaging pas de trois set to debut in the Dance Gala dedicated to Carla Fracci, scheduled for April 19, 2024, in Milan.
GCDANCEVENTS represents Andrea Crescenzi in Italy and worldwide, promoting his creations and his fresh and innovative choreographic style.
Mauro de Candia
Choreographer
Nationality: Italian
Career
Born in 1981, Mauro de Candia began his dance studies at the age of nine in his hometown in South of Italy, Barletta. After completing his professional training at the Académie de danse classique Princesse Grace in Monte Carlo with Marika Besobrasova, in 2001 he moved to Germany, where he joined the Staatsballett Hanover under the direction of Stephan Thoss.
During his career as a dancer, de Candia had the opportunity to dance in works by Balanchine, Béjart,Thoss, Forsythe, Kylián, Ek, Naharin, Goecke. De Candia was attracted to choreography from a very young age. After his first trials in Monte Carlo and several creations in Hanover, he did concentrate full-time on that since 2008, choreographing for Introdans, Royal Ballet of Flanders,Washington Ballet, Maggio Danza di Firenze, Staatsballett Berlin, among others.
He has also been commissioned and produced by international festivals such as Venice Dance Biennale, Dance Open in St. Petersburg, Biarritz’s Le Temps d’Aimer, Belgrade Dance Festival, Maracaibo Dance Festival or Beijing Dance Festival.
From 2012 until 2021, he was the artistic director and house choreographer of the Dance Company Theater Osnabrück in Germany.
After nine successful seasons, he decided to leave the direction, to be able to devote himself to new artistic challenges. Although he has lived abroad for years, de Candia has always kept a strong connection to his homeland. In Barletta, in 1997, he founded Arte&BallettO, a non-profit organization that initiated the projects such as ApuliArteFestival, International Award ApuliArte, the educational dance program FormAzioneTersicore and his own company Pneuma Dance Theater.
GCDANCEVENTS represents Mauro de Candia in the diffusion of his creations to all those interested in his works and his artistic line.
Tamir Ginz
Choreographer
Nationality: Israeli
Career
Ginz was the resident choreographer for the Bat-Dor Dance Company in Tel Aviv and the main contemporary dance teacher in the Bat-Dor studios of Dance (1991-2001). His first creation for Bat-Dor, Platform 1, won him the 1997 Albert Gaubier award for choreography in Denmark.
In 2002, he left Bat-Dor Tel Aviv to establish KAMEA Dance Company with Daniella Schapira in Beer Sheva, the southern metropolis of Israel. Since 2014, Ginz has been the sole artistic director and house choreographer of Kamea. His works, artistic vision, and leadership have brought the company to widespread international success and recognition as one of Israel’s most prominent dance companies.
Ginz’s work combines an intriguing dance movement style and a personal statement that produce strong dramatic pieces. His works have moved audiences worldwide: Germany, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, Ecuador, Panama, India, Cyprus, Lithuania, Turkey, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Portugal, China, and more.
Ginz holds a B.A. degree in English Linguistics and Literature and Sociology from Haifa University and a teaching diploma for dance from the Kibbutz State Seminar College. Ginz has taught Graham-based contemporary dance in many of Israel’s leading schools. He was the founder and director of the dance department at “Blich High School” in Ramat-Gan (1997-2013).
Ginz won the award for outstanding “Zionist” creativity in arts from the Israeli Ministry of Culture in the field of dance in 2014 and 2015.
GCDANCEVENTS represents Tamir globally, sharing his artistic vision and creations with those interested in his work.
GCDANCEVENTS - Napoli - Italy - VAT: 09946921211
Photo credits goes to: Federica Capo, Sasha Onyshchenko, Erik Berg, Amitava Sarkar, Alexander Iziliaev and James Williams