Bobbi Jene Smith

Interview with Bobbi Jene Smith

With a modern and figurative stage set, intertwining Sibelius' Violin Concerto with a musical creation by Celeste Oram, Pit takes the audience into a sensual, tribal and dramatic universe.Both trained at the Batsheva Dance Company under Ohad Naharin, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber present Pit, their first creation for the Paris Opera Ballet.Born in Iowa, Bobbi Jene Smith joined Batsheva in 2005. In 2014, she embarked on a career as a choreographer, creating works for the Martha Graham Dance Company, the L.A. Dance Project and the Royal Danish Ballet. Born in Israel, Or Schraiber joined Naharin’s Company in 2010. He has directed, choreographed and acted in several short films.Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber share a strong attraction to the world of cinema, and they starred and danced in Aviva in 2020. The Paris Opera Corps de Ballet and the Paris Opera OrchestraDirector: Tommy Pascal © Opéra national de Paris

PIT2223_YKellerman_0316_GEN.1759_PIT_Bobbi Jene Smith Or Schraiber (c) Yonathan Kellerman OnP

With a modern and figurative stage set, intertwining Sibelius' Violin Concerto with a musical creation by Celeste Oram, Pit takes the audience into a sensual, tribal and dramatic universe. Both trained at the Batsheva Dance Company under Ohad Naharin

Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber

Bobbi Jene Smith studied at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School (Canada), the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the Juilliard School (New York). from 2005 to 2014, she danced at the Batsheva Dance Company directed by Ohad Naharin and based in Tel Aviv (Israel). In 2011 and 2012, she worked with Sharon Eyal and her company L-E-V. In 2014, Bobbi Jene Smith left the Batsheva to launch her career as a choreographer, while working as a certified Gaga teacher in various dance schools and universities in the States. She has choreographed, alone or in collaboration -mainly with her partner Or Schraiber - pieces for the Martha Graham Dance Company, Los Angeles Dance Project, VAIL Dance Festival, CORPUS at the Royal Danish Ballet, Batsheva Dance Company: Arrowed (2010), Harrowing (2015), A Study On Effort (2015, with Keir GoGwilt), Keepsake (2016), Old Horizon (2016), In For (2018), With Care (2018, with Keir GoGwilt), Deo (2018, with Maxime Doyle), Caldera (2019), Lost Mountain (2019), Broken Theater (2020), Solo at Dusk (2020, with Or Schraiber), Ways of Listening (2021), The No One’s Rose (2021), Pierre (2021), Fugue in Crimson (2022, with Or Schraiber), Quartet for Five (2022, with Or Schraiber), MASS (2022), Harawi (2022, with Or Schraiber), Piano Etude No.8 (2022, with Or Schraiber). Bobbi Jene Smith is also an actress. She is featured in many movies, including: MA (2015) a film by Celia Rowlson-Hall, Yossi (2012) by Eytan Fox, Mari (2018), by Georgia Parris, Annihilation (2018), by Alex Garland, Aviva (2020), by Boaz Yakin. Her work was awarded a “Harkness Promise Award” in 2019.Since 2017, she has been teaching at the Juilliard School. She is also one of the co-founders of the A.M.O.C. (American Modern Dance Company). In 2017, Elvira Lind made a documentary on Bobbi Jene, relating her departure from the Batsheva Dance Company and the beginning of her career as a choreographer.

Dancer, comedian, choreographer and filmmaker, Or Schraiber, born in 1992 in Jerusalem, was trained at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. In 2010, he joined the Batsheva Dance Company with which he performed until 2017 before settling in New York, where he studied comedy at the Stella Adler Studio.As a choreographer, he created YYY (2016, with Omri Drumlevich), Solo at Dusk (2020, with Bobbi Jene Smith), Eugene’s Tear (2021, with Bobbi Jene Smith), Pierre (2021, with Bobbi Jene Smith), Fugue In Crimson (2022, with Bobbi Jene Smith), The Cello Player (2022), Harawi (2022, with Bobbi Jene Smith), Piano Etude no. 8 (2022, with Bobbi Jene Smith), Quartet for Five (2022, with Bobbi Jene Smith).He also made several dance short films: Shivta (2016), Bloodroot (2018) and Gallop Apace (2021). In 2017, he was one of the co-founders of the A.M.O.C. (American Modern Dance Company). As an actor and choreographer, he has collaborated with Terrence Malick for the movie The Way of the Wind, which will be released in 2025. As a performer, Or Schraiber danced in Story, story, die, by Alan Lucien Øyen in 2022.A certified Gaga teacher and guest professor at the Juilliard School (New York), Or Schraiber was awarded the "Dancer of Excellence" prize by the Israeli Ministry of Culture in 2012.

2005: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.
2013: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.
2019: Promoted to "Coryphée".2021: Promoted to "Sujet".

GROSS_Clemence-84

2004: Joins the Paris Opera Ballet School.
2011: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de ballet.2018: Promoted to "Coryphée".2020: Promoted to "Sujet".

OSMONT_Caroline-62

2002: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School. 2008: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.2011: Promoted to "Coryphée".

HILAIRE_Juliette-44

1994: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2003: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.2006: Promoted to "Coryphée".

LEVY_Laurene-46

2009: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.
2014: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

GAUTIER_DE_CHARNACE_Marion-124

2007: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.

2014: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

JOANNAIS_Awa-49

2006 : Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2014 : Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

JOCQUEVIEL_Heloise-72

1998: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2007: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.2008: Promoted to « Coryphée ».

DEMOL_Yvon-88

1996 : Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.
2003 : Joins the Paris Opera Ballet.
2007 : Promoted to "Coryphée".
2014 : Promoted to "Sujet".

IBOT_Axel-54

1997: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2007: Joins the Paris Opera Corp de Ballet.2010: Promoted to « Coryphée ».2024: Promoted to « Sujet » following the annual promotion competition 2023.

LAFON_Mickael-90

1997: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2003-2007: Joins La Scala's Corps de Ballet.
2007-2010: Joins the Company

Wayne McGregor.2010: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.2012: Promoted to "Coryphée".

THOMAS_Maxime-77

2003: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2008: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.2011: Promoted to "Coryphée".

VIGLIOTTI_Hugo-83

2002 : Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2008 : Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

COSTE_Takeru_6 (c) Julien Benhamou OnP

1998: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.
2007: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de ballet.
2011: Promoted to "Coryphée".
2021: Promoted to "Sujet".

GASSE_Alexandre-28

2011:&nbsp;Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.
2017:&nbsp;Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.2021: Promoted to "Coryphée".



2022: Promoted to "Sujet".2024 : Promoted to "Premier danseur".

GASZTOWTT_Jack-35

2014&nbsp;: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.

2021 :&nbsp;Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.2024: Promoted to « Coryphée » following the annual promotion competition 2023.

GHILBERT_Theo-36

2008 : Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2014 : Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

GUILLEMARD_Julien-8603

2013 Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2018 Joins the Corps de Ballet.

MARCAULT-DEROUARD_Loup-39

2003: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2009: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

MONIE_Antonin-59

A native of Lisbon, Joana Carneiro began her musical studies as a violist before receiving her conducting degree from the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra in Lisbon, where she studied with Jean-Marc Burfin. She then travelled to the United States, where she obtained her Masters degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University as a student of Victor Yampolsky and Mallory Thompson. She pursued doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Kenneth Kiesler. She was a finalist of the prestigious 2002 Maazel-Vilar Conductor’s Competition at Carnegie Hall. In 2003 and 2004, she worked with maestros Kurt Masur and Christoph von Dohnanyi and conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2002 to 2005, she served as Assistant Conductor of the L.A. Chamber Orchestra and as Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra of Los Angeles.

From 2005 to 2008, she was an American Symphony Orchestra League Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where she worked closely with Esa-Pekka Salonen and led several performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. Joana Carneiro is the 2010 recipient of the Helen M. Thompson Award, conferred by the League of American Orchestras. In 2004, she was decorated by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Mr. Jorge Sampaio, with the Commendation of the Order of the Infante Dom Henrique. From 2006 to 2018, Joana Carneiro was the official guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra.

From 2009 to 2018 she was Music Director of Berkeley Symphony, succeeding Kent Nagano. Joana Carneiro was Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguesa at Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon from 2014 until January 2022. Last season she conducted the world stage premiere of John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, directed by Peter Sellars. 

With Scottish Opera she conducted Nixon in China and, in Lisbon, The&nbsp;Rake´s Progress. Other recent opera performances include A Wonderful Town (Royal Danish Opera), Simone’s La Passion (Ojai Festival), Oedipus Rex (Sydney, Helpmann Award for Best Concert by the Symphony Orchestra) and A Flowering Tree (Vienna, Paris, Chicago, Cincinnati, Gothenburg, Lisbon). Joana Carneiro has conducted prominent orchestras around the world: BBC Symphony and Philharmonia in London, BBC Scottish and Scottish Chamber, National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), Royal Stockholm, Gothenburg, Finnish Radio, Helsinki Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, Castilla y Leon, and La Venice in Europe.Joana Carneiro is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Real Filharmonia de Galicia and Artistic Director of the Estágio Gulbenkian para Orquestra, a post she has held since 2013.

Silver Medalist and Special Prize winner at the 10th International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, Petteri Iivonen has been First Solo Violin at the Paris Opera since 2019.Highlights of Petteri Iivonen’s career include his appearances with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Sudwestdutsche Philharmonie, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Helena Symphony Orchestra, Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia in Belgium, New York Classical Symphony Orchestra, New European Ensemble, as well as the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed as a soloist with all the leading orchestras in Finland.He has also been heard in concerts at the Museé du Louvre in Paris, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Tokyo Opera, Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, the Jerusalem Theatre, and the Kodaly Center in Hungary. In 2010, he performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto under the baton of Zubin Mehta.As a devoted chamber musician, Petteri Iivonen performs regularly with artists such as Matti Salminen, Nobuko Imai, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Michel Lethiec, Lilli Paasikivi, Clive Greensmith, Atar Arad, Monica Groop, Frans Helmerson, Michaela Martin, Arto Noras, Regis Pasquier, Paul Neubauer, Martin Beaver, and the strings quartets Emerson, Michelangelo and Tokyo.Yarlung Records released his debut recordings in 2009, featuring works by Bach, Brahms, Debussy, Franck, Ysaÿe and David Lefkowitz’s “Eli Eli” (2008) dedicated to Petteri Iivonen.Petteri Iivonen plays a 1755 G. B. Guadagnini through the generosity of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Born in 1967, Christian Friedländer, a Danish set designer and actor, graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He made his acting debut in 1993 in a production by Katrine Wiedemann. He has collaborated with internationally renowned directors such as Anders Paulin, Katrine Wiedemann, Tue Biering, Bille August, Kasper Holten, Jeremy Weller, Alexander Mørk-Eidem, Frank Castorf and David Marton. Since 1993, he has created over eighty sets for theatre and opera houses in Scandinavia, Germany and France.From 2004 to 2007, he was the artistic director of the Turbinehallerne, a stage set inside a disused factory in the centre of Copenhagen. Between 1998 and 2013, he worked closely with the Royal Danish Theater and took part in some thirty productions, including Shakespeare’s Hamlet, staged by Alexander Mørk-Eidem for the inauguration of the Great Stage of the Royal Theatre in 2008. Since 2012, Christian Friedländer has been mainly working with theatre and opera companies throughout Europe: the Norwegian Opera, the Stockholm City Theatre, the Opera national de Lyon, the Zurich Opernhaus, Bayerische Staatsoper and Munich Kammerspiele. He has designed sets for David Marton's productions at the Opéra national de Lyon (Capriccio, Orphée et Eurydice, La Damnation de Faust, Don Giovanni), the Zurich Opernhaus (L'Olimpiade) and the Kammerspiele in Munich (La Sonnambula, Le Nozze di Figaro).

John Torres is one of the first lighting designers to be working both for the dance, theatre, the music and the fashion worlds. Her collaboration with Robert Wilson includes Edda at the Oslo Norwegian Theater, Cheek to cheek with Tonny Benett and Lady Gaga.In the world of opera, he worked on various productions like Handel’s Messiah in Salzburg, Intelligence at the Houston Grand Opera, Tristan et Isolde at the Santa Fe Opera, or the recital Eden, by American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato.For the theatre, he designed the lighting of Twelfth Night and A Bright Room Called Day for the Public Theater in New York, The Black Clown at the American Repertory Theater, Only an Octave Apart and Hamlet at St Ann’s Warehouse and Help: A New Play by Claudia Rankine at Shed.His music portfolio includes collaborations with Solange Knowles and Florence and the Machine and his dance work includes collaborations with Lucinda Childs for Available Light at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and with Bobbi Jene Smith for Lost Mountain and Broken Theatre at the MaMa.For the fashion industry, he works with Vogue World in New York, Bottega Veneta in Detroit and la Gucci Love Parade in Los Angeles. He also took part in the exhibitions Adam Pendleton: Who is Queen? at the New York MoMA and Carl Craig: Party/After Party at the Dia Foundation in Beacon.At the Paris Opera: Turandot, 2021

Pieter Mulier’s passion for design and couture dates back to his childhood, spent in the workshops of his grandfather's luxury shirt factory in Belgium. After completing his design and architecture studies in 2001, he was quickly spotted by Raf Simons, who recruited him to design the men's line for his eponymous brand, where Pieter Mulier developed his sense of tailoring and cutting.In 2005, he was appointed Director of accessories at Jil Sander, where he confirmed his taste for excellence and discovered a passion for designing accessories, which combines technology, ergonomics and aesthetics. The year 2012 marked Pieter Mulier’s debut in the Couture world as he became Design Director at Dior in charge of Couture, Ready-to-Wear and Women's Accessories. A dream becoming true for Pieter Mulier, who had always wanted to recapture the magic and dynamic of the workshops. During these years, Pieter Mulier refined his technical expertise, his vision of femininity and his leadership with creative teams. In 2016, he settled in New York as Creative Director to Raf Simons at Calvin Klein and managed the design teams of the emblematic brand until 2019. In February 2021, Pieter Mulier was appointed creative director of ALAÏA to perpetuate Azzedine Alaïa's quest for perfection and unique vision of fashion. His first collection for ALAÏA was shown in July 2021 and placed femininity at the heart of the design and brought the house's values into the modern era.

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Interview with Bobbi Jene Smith

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Creatives

Interview with Bobbi Jene Smith