Master teacher Donn Edwards joins Dance Center faculty for the 2010-11 season!

The Dance Center of OKC Ballet is proud to announce the addition of master teacher Donn Edwards to the full time faculty for the 2010-11 school year.  Mr. Edwards will bring his years of knowledge to the upper division students of The Dance Center.  He will also be guest teaching for the professional company throughout their upcoming season.

Donn Edwards was a student at OU under Yvonne Chouteau and Miguel Terekhov. Subsequently, as a member of the Joffrey Ballet, Edwards worked with choreographers Arpino, Ashton, Cranko, Joffrey, Jooss, Massine and Robbins; Twyla Tharp created two roles for him. Kent Stowell and Francia Russell invited Edwards to join the Frankfurt Ballet of Germany as a principal dancer, beginning his long association with the classical and Balanchine repertoires.

On his return to the United States, E. Virginia Williams invited Edwards to join Boston Ballet, where he danced leading roles in Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle and Sleeping Beauty. Later, Rudolf Nureyev cast Edwards in the title role of Don Quixote in New York and in tours of North America, Mexico and Europe.
Edwards returned to the University of Oklahoma in 1993, this time as a professor in the school of dance. Since that time he has created for Oklahoma Festival Ballet such works as “On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!,” “Summer Songs” and “Oklahoma Blues” (set to the music of Oklahoma Country/Western artists), which premiered in Clermont-Ferrand, France. For OU’s Opera Company, Edwards has also created original choreography for Dido and Aeneas, Lucia Di Lamamoor and The Bartered Bride. In addition, he has taught master classes in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle.