The Harid Conservatory : Guests Artists

Guests Artists

Each year, HARID invites a number of internationally recognized guest teachers, choreographers, and artistic directors to visit the Conservatory. The special knowledge, expertise, and experience these guests bring to HARID greatly enhance the students' dance education. The guest artist program also introduces the students to leaders of the dance community - leaders who may provide future employment opportunities.

Artists who have visited HARID include:

Mark Godden
Principal Guest Choreographer

Award-winning, internationally acclaimed choreographer Mark Godden has been The Harid Conservatory’s principal guest choreographer since 1995. His relationship with HARID, however, began in 1992 when director Gordon Wright first invited him to create a new work for the students. Godden has returned each year since then to set new works on the students and his annual visits have become an integral part of the school’s curriculum.

Godden danced professionally as a soloist with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and spent a brief period of time in Holland with Jiri Kylian’s renowned company, Nederlands Dans Theatre. He was resident choreographer of the RWB from 1991 until 1994, when he moved to Montreal and began working independently.

Godden’s ballets have won awards at the Banff Festival of the Arts, the Varna and Helsinki International Ballet Competitions, and (for HARID) at the Youth America Grand Prix National Final in New York. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Choo San Goh Award. Several of his full-length ballets have been made into award-winning films. In addition to the many works he has created for HARID over the years, Godden has made ballets for Boston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens du Montreal, Ballet Florida, Ballet Gamonet, Compañia Nacional de Danza in Mexico, Ballet Contemporania in Argentina, Ballet Memphis, Alberta Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, BalletMet, American Repertory Ballet, Louisville Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, and Northern Ballet Theater in England.

Ballets created for The Harid Conservatory include Agram, Baffled Kings Composing, Capsize, Diversions, Gracioso, Laudon Loudon, Sarabande, Speaking in Tongues, Taal, Three-Quarter Moon, Tightrope, The Unanswered Question, What Can I Tell My Bones?, and Why Are You Here Today?

"[Mark Godden] is clearly fearless, in a hurry, and very, very talented."
-Lewis Segal, The Los Angeles Times

Marcello Angelini
Artistic Director, Tulsa Ballet

Frank Augustyn
Director of Dance, Adelphi University

Gil Boggs
Artistic Director, Colorado Ballet

Martin Fredmann
President, Japan Grand Prix

André Lewis
Artistic Director, Royal Winnipeg Ballet

John McFall
Artistic Director, Atlanta Ballet

Terrence Orr
Artistic Director, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre

Leslie Peck
Balanchine Repetiteur

Dorothy Gunther Pugh
Artistic Director, Ballet Memphis

Ben Stevenson
Artistic Director, Texas Ballet Theater

Top