VISION
Charlotte Ballet is a Charlotte-based, world-class repertory dance ensemble. It performs classic, contemporary and cutting-edge dance with virtuosity, energy, and artistic excellence for local, statewide and national audiences. Charlotte Ballet’s collective talents provide the opportunity and give us the responsibility to challenge, stimulate, educate, entertain, and thereby enrich our audiences.
ARTISTIC STAFF
ALEJANDRO CERRUDO
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Alejandro Cerrudo was born in Madrid, Spain. His professional career includes work with Victor Ullate Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC). Cerrudo became HSDC’s first-ever resident choreographer in 2008 and held that position until 2018.
Cerrudo’s body of work has been performed by over 20 professional dance companies around the world. Honors include an award from the Boomerang Fund for Artists (2011) and the Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work from the Prince Charitable Trusts (2012) for his acclaimed, first evening-length work, One Thousand Pieces. In 2014 he was awarded the USA Donnelley Fellowship by United States Artists. Also, Cerrudo was one of four choreographers invited by New York City Ballet’s Wendy Whelan to create and perform original duets for Restless Creatures. In 2017 Cerrudo was invited by Daniil Simkin to choreograph a site-specific performance for the Guggenheim Rotunda, a Works & Process Rotunda Project commission, featuring Daniil Simkin and original costumes by Dior. Cerrudo’s Sleeping Beauty, created with Ballet Theater Basel in 2016, was nominated as “Production of the Year” in Switzerland in the “Tanz, Jahrbuch 2016” by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
In 2020 Cerrudo was appointed Pacific Northwest Ballet’s resident choreographer, with that, he became the first artist in the company’s history to have the honor of holding that title. Independently, he directed and choreographed his show, “It Starts Now,” which premiered in 2020 at The Joyce Theater in New York. In 2022, Cerrudo was appointed artistic director of Charlotte Ballet.
Yarina Conners
DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC OPERATIONS
Yarina Conners began her non-profit arts management career at The Cleveland Orchestra in 2008, managing all operations of three youth choruses, in addition to working with the renowned Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. From 2010-2016, Yarina worked as Senior Operations Manager at Classical Movements, a premiere concert touring company located in historic Old Town Alexandria in Virginia. While at Classical Movements, Yarina arranged orchestral tours for The Minnesota Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She also arranged international and national tours for choral ensembles and produced an international choral festival in Washington, DC. Joining the artistic planning team at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland in 2016, Yarina served as Artistic Administrator for the programming department. Focusing specifically on the operational and administrative aspects of the presenting program, Yarina played a key role as the liaison for the artistic planning team with the various departments of The Clarice. In January 2022, Yarina joined the Charlotte Ballet as Director of Artistic Operations.
Yarina emigrated from Moscow, Russia in 1994 to Cleveland, Ohio and earned her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2008. After spending ten years in the Washington, DC area from 2010-2020, her family relocated to Charlotte in December 2020. Yarina currently resides in South Charlotte with her family.
Alicia Delgadillo
REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
Alicia Delgadillo began her career with Hubbard Street 2 and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, was a founding member of PARA.MAR Dance Theatre in 2020, and later joined Gibney Company as an Artistic Associate from 2021-2023. Delgadillo has collaborated with a wide array of choreographers and institutions, including Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Alejandro Cerrudo, The Art Institute of Chicago, and The Second City.
She graduated with Honors from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program where she was able to foster her passion for arts outreach through JUNTOS Collective, a non-profit dance outreach organization. She has taught through residencies with NYU Tisch School of Dance and Bard College, and also served as Artistic Coordinator for Hubbard Street Summer Intensive, Company Manager for PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, and has produced various artistic projects.
Ana Lopez
REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
Ana Lopez began her formal training at Conservatorio de Danza Diputacion de A Coruña. Upon graduating Isaac Diaz Pardo High School, she continued her training at Centro Internacional de Danza Carmen Roche. Lopez danced with Joven Ballet Carmen Roche, with Compañia Nacional de Danza 2 in works by Nacho Duato and Tony Fabre, and Ballet Theater Munich under the directorship of Philip Taylor.
From 2008 to 2019 she danced with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago where she performed works by choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, Jorma Elo, Alejandro Cerrudo, and many others. She was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2012, and in 2017, she was invited to perform in Daniil Simkin’s “Falls the Shadow”, a site-sepcific work choreographed for the Guggenheim Rotunda and commisioned by Work & Process. She has been acting as Assistant to the Choreographer and Stager for Alejandro Cerrudo for over a decade, setting his works in companies all over the world. In 2022, she helped stage several works at Charlotte Ballet and is excited to work with the dancers and the rest of the organization further.
PRODUCTION STAFF
For costume, equipment and production rental inquiries contact Aaron Muhl.
