Digital Replay: Smuin’s The Christmas Ballet

Nicole Haskins, originally from Venice Beach, California, danced professionally for over two decades with Sacramento Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Kansas City Ballet, and Smuin Contemporary Ballet, where she retired in 2019. She is now the Artistic Director of San Jose Dance Theatre.

Alongside her performing career, Haskins cultivated a vibrant choreographic career with commissions at Smuin Contemporary Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Dayton Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre and Sacramento Ballet where she co-choreographed their new production of The Nutcracker alongside Colby Damon and Julia Feldman.

Since retiring from the stage, Haskins has dedicated herself to nurturing the next generation of dancers, serving as the Resident Choreographer for Mid-Columbia Ballet and the inaugural Trainee Program Director at Ballet Idaho. In her current role as Artistic Director of San Jose Dance Theatre, she choreographed the world premiere of The Wizard of Oz and proudly leads the company into its 60th Anniversary production of The Nutcracker.

“Art is Risk made Visible.”

Former Smuin artist Ben Needham-Wood is an Emmy Award-winning choreographer and filmmaker who currently serves as the Artistic Director of Boulder Ballet. His works have been performed at festivals, concerts, and galas across the U.S. and Canada by companies such as Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, and the Boulder, Kansas City, Louisville, and Smuin Contemporary Ballets. Ben is the first appointed Artistic Fellow of Amy Seiwert’s Imagery. He and his wife, Sadie, recently launched the Professional Dance Residency of Marin in Marin, CA.

Photo Credit: Amanda Tipton, Courtesy of Boulder Ballet

Amy Seiwert enjoyed a nineteen-year performing career dancing with Smuin, Los Angeles Chamber, and Sacramento Ballets. As a dancer with Smuin, she became involved with the “Protégé Program,” where Michael Smuin was her mentor. She retired as a dancer from Smuin in 2008. That same year, Celia Fushille named her Choreographer in Residence, a position she held for a decade. She is the recipient of numerous choreographic awards, including a “Goldie” award from the San Francisco Bay Guardian in 2010, which described Seiwert as the Bay Area’s most original dance thinker, “taking what some consider a dead language and using it with a 21st-century lingo to tell us something about who we are.” 

In 2017 Seiwert’s first full-evening work, “Wandering,” set to Schubert’s Winterreise, was commissioned by the Joyce Theater in New York. The NEA and Kennedy Center have also supported Seiwert’s works. A former Artist in Residence at ODC Theater, she has also served on the Artist Faculty for Jacob’s Pillow’s Contemporary Ballet program. Her creations are in the repertory of Smuin, ODC/Dance, BalletX, Ballet Austin, and AXIS Dance, as well as Washington, Atlanta, Oakland, Kansas City, Colorado, Louisville, Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, American Repertory, and Milwaukee Ballets.

“In 1994, Michael Smuin set out to “infuse ballet with the rhythm, speed, and syncopation of American popular culture.”

In 1994, Michael Smuin set out to “infuse ballet with the rhythm, speed, and syncopation of American popular culture,” and Smuin Contemporary Ballet (née Smuin Ballets/SF, or more recently, Smuin Ballet) was born. Michael Smuin’s vision lives on following his sudden passing in 2007, and the Company continues to push the boundaries of contemporary ballet within a distinctly modern style, combining classical ballet training, technique, and artistry with uncommon physicality and expression.

Company Founder Michael Smuin was born on October 13, 1938, in Missoula, Montana. Smuin studied tap dancing as a child and became instantly enamoured with ballet when his mother took him to see the Ballet Russe on tour at the University of Montana. At the age of 15, Smuin moved to Salt Lake City to study dance on scholarship at the University of Utah. A few years later, San Francisco Ballet director Lew Christensen recruited Smuin for San Francisco Ballet, where he danced for six years. Smuin took a leave of absence from the company in 1962 to relocate to New York, where he performed in Bob Fosse’s Little Me on Broadway. During this time, Smuin created a nightclub act with his then-wife and fellow dancer Paula Tracy. Their “well-disguised ballet,” as Smuin would call it, toured widely and was billed alongside such entertainers as Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee, and Frank Sinatra. The act later appeared on television on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, and Bell Telephone Hour, among others. Smuin joined American Ballet Theatre in 1965, where he choreographed Pulcinella Variations, The Catherine Wheel, Eternal Idol and several other pieces for the company before returning to San Francisco in 1973. During his years in New York he also worked with Leonard Bernstein, choreographing Candide.

Smuin spent 12 years as a choreographer and co-director of San Francisco Ballet, a period that coincided with his direction of Sophisticated Ladies on Broadway. Smuin served as Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet until 1985, and was instrumental in raising the company’s profile in the international arts community. His ventures included serving as co-chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts dance panel (1979-1981), staging a performance at the White House, and presenting his Romeo and Juliet and his Emmy Award-winning feature A Song for Dead Warriors for PBS’s Dance in America program. In 1988, Smuin received both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his choreography for Anything Goes.

Outside of ballet and Broadway, Smuin choreographed several Francis Ford Coppola films, some of which include Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. His choreography can also be seen in such films as A Walk in the Clouds, The Joy Luck Club, The Fantastiks, and Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (Special Edition).

Michael Smuin’s ballets are currently in the repertories of major dance companies around the country. Since founding Smuin Contemporary American Ballet in 1994, he created 40 new works for his company alone. His creations range from classical, as seen in his acclaimed September 11th tribute, Stabat Mater (2002), and Carmina Burana (1997), to the innovative Bluegrass/Slyde with its revolving-pole set, to one-act story ballets like Pinocchio (1999) and  Zorro (2003). Many of Smuin’s ballet’s boast a touch of Broadway flair, such as the wildly popular Dancin’ With Gershwin (2001) and Fly Me to the Moon (2004).

Smuin passed away suddenly on April 23, 2007, surrounded by his dancers while teaching company class. His vision, style, and energy remain with the Company to this day.

Originally from London, Rex Wheeler is a multi-faceted drag performer, actor, producer and choreographer. Having trained in the UK at the Royal Ballet School and Elmhurst, Rex danced with the Slovak National Ballet, Sacramento Ballet and Smuin Contemporary Ballet before becoming a working choreographer here in the US. Rex simultaneously embarked on a career in drag, creating his alter-ego Lady Camden and became the runner up of Season 14 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. He has since performed all over the world, starring in solo shows, performing in world tours, producing music as well as continuing to choreograph and produce shows here in San Francisco. Rex recently starred in a new documentary, “Lady Like,” directed by Luke Willis which has been featured in many film festivals around the world, and continues to perform, choreograph, and produce performances and events throughout the year as both Rex and Lady Camden.

Photo by Maximillian Tortoriello