Morphoses is a dynamic ballet company co-founded in 2007 by Christopher Wheeldon and Lourdes Lopez. The company has its mission to broaden the scope of classical ballet by emphasizing innovation and fostering creativity through collaboration.
For it's first three years, New York City Center, New York City's premiere theater for dance, and Sadler's Wells Theatre, one of United Kingdom's most prestigious arts organizations, named Morphoses a Guest Resident Company, giving the company a home in both New York and London. Since 2007, the Company has performed at some of the world's preeminent venues including: The Vail International Dance Festival, Works and Process at the Guggenheim, the Spoleto Festival, Italy, Central Park SummerStage, The Sydney Festival, Australia, The AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, TX and Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam.
As part of the commitment to fostering collaboration, the Company has commissioned a number of leading designers, composers and artists. In it's first year, award-winning designer Narciso Rodriguez created the costumes for Christopher Wheeldon's two new ballets, Fools' Paradise and Prokofiev Pas de Deux; the score for Fools' Paradise was commissioned by Morphoses from English composer, Joby Talbot. In its second year, the Company invited husband and wife designers Isabel and Ruben Toledo to create the costumes and sets respectively for Christopher Wheeldon's new work, Commedia. That same year, Narciso Rodriguez designed the costumes for Six Fold Illuminate, a ballet commissioned by Morphoses from Canadian choreographer, Emily Molnar. Most recently, the Company worked with Fancisco Costa, the head designer for Calvin Klein, visual artists Hugo Dalton from London and Los Carpinteros from Cuba, and singer/songwriter Martha Wainwright.
In it's inaugural year, Morphoses received two distinctions for its performances. It was named winner of the South Bank Show Awards in the dance category for both Program I and Program II at Sadler's Wells Theatre. The award honors the best of British talent across the entire spectrum of the arts in 13 categories. In the same year, The Laurence Olivier Awards nominated dancer Wendy Whelan for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for her performances in Christopher Wheeldon's Fools' Paradise at Sadler's Wells Theatre. The Olivier Awards are widely considered the most prestigious awards in London theatre. In 2009, the Company was nominated by the UK Critics' Circle Dance section for an award in the Outstanding Dance Company category in the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards.
Morphoses recently completed its third season that began with a month long residency and 10 performances in Australia at The Sydney Festival. The summer included performances at the Spoleto Festival, Italy and two weeks at the Vail International Dance Festival for performances alongside rehearsals of a new work, Tears of St. Lawrence, with singer/songwriter Martha Wainwright that premiered the following week at Central Park SummerStage. The Vineyard Arts Project hosted the Company for a five-week residency where the repertory for the fall season was rehearsed and created. Australian choreographer, Tim Harbour created Leaving Songs commissioned by Morphoses to music by Australian composer Ross Edwards while Christopher Wheeldon worked on Rhapsody Fantasie to music from Suites for Two Pianos by Sergei Rachmaninoff with costumes by Francisco Costa and sets designed by Hugo Dalton for the performances at Sadler's Wells and Los Carpinteros for the New York City Center season. Meanwhile, the company was staging Alexei Ratmansky's Boléro and rehearsing the re-working of Softly As I Leave You with Lightfoot Leon. Just before heading to London and then New York to premiere this repertory, the Company spent two weeks in Dallas, TX creating, Tales of Offenbach, that was commissioned for the inaugural gala of The Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, TX. The 2009 season included five world premieres and more than 28 performances around the world.
In early February 2010, the Company returned from a tour to California and Canada. These five performances marked the Company's debut in these regions. The Company performed repertory from the 2009 season including Christopher Wheeldon's Continuum, and Rhapsody Fantaisie along with Softly As I Leave You by Lightfoot Leon and Ratmansky's Boléro at Stanford Lively Arts, SF Performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Mondavi Center at UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara Arts and Lectures, and the National Arts Center in Ottawa, Canada. The tour was a smashing success with sold-out houses and accolades from the press and audiences alike.
In February 2010, Morphoses announced a new artistic model for the company following the departure of founding artistic director Christopher Wheeldon. Under a curatorial model the Company will invite artists from various disciplines to take on the role of resident artist for one season, leading the company's artistic vision for that year.
Lourdes Lopez, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Morphoses, is a former New York City Ballet principal dancer, as well as the former Executive Director of The George Balanchine Foundation. At the Foundation, Lourdes oversaw the Balanchine Centennial Celebration in 2004, which featured events held worldwide, including an historic symposium in St. Petersburg, Russia, called "Balanchine: Past, Present and Future." Born in Havana, Lourdes is also a founder of the Cuban Artists Fund, which supports emerging Cuban and Cuban-American artists in a variety of fields.