New Moves

DUNCAN COOPER, Born in Denver, Colo., Cooper is currently living in San Francisco. However, having spent a considerable amount of time growing up in New York City and the Bay Area, he considers himself a native of both coasts. Over his career, Cooper danced with two major companies, San Francisco Ballet and Dance Theatre of Harlem. His travels touring with these companies have taken him all over the world. At the age of 13, Cooper received a full scholarship to train at the San Francisco Ballet School. He soon became a recipient of the Robert Kirby Scholarship, as well as the first to receive the Lew Christensen Scholarship for best male dancer. In 1989, bypassing the obligatory apprentice year, he was made a full company member. During his time with San Francisco Ballet, Cooper danced a wide range of the repertoire. During Cooper’s nine years dancing with Dance Theatre of Harlem as a Principal dancer, he danced leading roles in such ballets as Balanchine’s Apollo, Prodigal Son, Agon, Allegro Brillante and Stars and Stripes; Albrecht in Giselle; Robbins’ Fancy Free; Ashton’s Thaïs Pas de Deux; Glenn Tetley’s Sphinx & Dialogues; Smuin’s A Song For Dead Warriors and St. Louis Blues and many others. Notable guest appearances have included being invited to dance leads in Stars and Stripes for New York City Ballet’s Balanchine Centennial Celebration, playing the part of Apollo in Central Park’s Summer Stage Balanchine Centennial Tribute; Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Ashton & Balanchine Gala; in the Miami International Dance Festival, Washington Ballet’s Giselle, Dance Brazil’s Festival in Bahia, Brazil, Rebecca Kelly Ballet’s 25th Anniversary, and with Dances Patrelle he has danced the lead in Patrelle’s Macbeth, as well as dancing in his “POP” and Meredith’s “Pair of Jacks pas de deux”; Lexington Ballets Fabric of Dance Galas 2 and 3, Ballet Virginia International, Virginia Ballet Theatre, Ballet NY, Configuration Dance, Lexington Ballet and many others. In March of 2007, Cooper created his first one act, full-length contemporary ballet for Virginia Ballet Theatre, an homage to the 1960s spy film genre called, Mr. Evil and The Forever Diamond. In 2010, Cooper was invited to choreograph a 37-minute, full-length contemporary ballet work called, Universal Residue for Lexington Ballet. In 2011, Cooper was also invited by new Dance Theatre of Harlem director Virginia Johnson, to be a part of their Harlem Works 2.0 Series, where he danced a new pas de deux choreographed by Darrell Grand Moultre called Believe, created on him and Ashley Tuttle. Until 2007, Cooper was also involved in and part creator of a national outreach program for kids at risk, called Athletes For Kids (AFK), involving professional dancers and star professional athletes. Although most of his time and attention is now focused on teaching, mentoring and choregraphing, Cooper continues to dance on various dance projects and galas nationally and internationally. He is a part of the teaching staff at both Lines Ballet School and New York City Dance Alliance. He is co-creator and director of a new national summer program called Modas Dance Summer Program.

MARIA A. KONRAD holds a BFA in Performing Arts from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her work Maestro was commissioned for the Mariinsky under the direction of Yuri Fateev. She was commissioned to set works for the 2022 Nervi Festival in Italy. She has worked with Philadelphia Ballet 2, Nashville Ballet 2 and Oklahoma City Ballet 2. Ms. Konrad’s choreography has been presented at the Spoleto Festival, The Fringe Festival, Florida Dance Festival, Miami Dade Cultural, The Kravis Center and STEPS on Broadway. She has choreographed Les Perles Fishuers and Aida for Opera Tampa. She received “Outstanding Choreographer” recognition for her body of work at the YAGP 2022 International Finals presented by POINTE magazine. She served on the 2018 faculty at The International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. She has been a guest instructor for the fitness line “Eleven”with Venus Williams. She also hosts series “Barre Talk” for So’Danca on YOUTUBE where she chats, laughs and loves with some of the biggest names in dance including Devon Carney.

DURANTE VERZOLA is a Filipino-American dance maker. He has choreographed works for Miami City Ballet, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Ballet Memphis, Philadelphia Ballet II, Ballet Arizona’s Studio Company, Nashville Ballet II, Collage Dance Collective, Ballet22, and more. He is a winner of Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works and has been selected for the New York Choreographic Institute. Verzola also had his work featured at Guggenheim’s Works & Process and Jacob’s Pillow, as well as the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU. His work has been described as “sharp and witty…he continues to present classical ballet vocabulary in unfussy, thrilling ways,” by Philadelphia Dance. The New York Times praised him saying, “Verzola, through structure, produced a ballet of clarity, verve and effervescence.” Verzola is from Lansing, Kansas and trained with Kansas City Ballet School and Kansas School of Classical Ballet. At 16, he left home to train with Miami City Ballet School. In 2014, he was invited to join Philadelphia Ballet II and later joined The Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Currently, Verzola is a permanent faculty member and resident choreographer for Miami City Ballet School.

JOSEPH BOSWELL was born in Spokane, Washington. He started his ballet training at the age of 7 and after five years of training he moved to Houston, Texas to study at the Houston Ballet Academy. He continued his dance training at Boston Ballet School for another three years before being offered a contract for Boston Ballet’s second company. Throughout his career, performed numerous principal roles such as Franz from Coppelia, Conrad from Le Corsaire, La Vivandiere, the Harlequinade pas de deux, and Jorma Elo’s Slice to Sharp. Mr. Boswell also danced alongside Boston Ballet’s main company in works such as Mikko Nissinen’s Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Nutcracker as well as Rudolph Nureyev’s Don Quixote.

AMIRA HOGAN
Texan Amira Hogan began ballet at age 6 at the YMCA and continued training at Robert Underwood’s School for Dance, TKB Center for Ballet & Dance, and Vitacca Vocational School for Dance. She has received awards from Youth America Grand Prix, including the Hope Award, the World Ballet Competition Promise Award, ADC/IBC awards, and the Vitacca Emerging Artist Award. Hogan has performed works by George Balanchine, Devon Carney, Val Caniparoli, Anna-Marie Holmes, Lila York, Caroline Dahm, Haley Kostas, Natasha Adorlee, and Gina Patterson. Her choreographic credits include you can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails and Tied In Nots. She is honored and thrilled to return for her third season with Kansas City Ballet.

CAMERON THOMAS began his dance training in his hometown of Rochester, NY. In 2013, he began performing with the Rochester City Ballet. In 2015, Thomas received a full scholarship to attend the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre. He then joined KCB II for the 2016-2017 season and was promoted to the company the following season. Thomas has performed major roles in his ten years at Kansas City Ballet including Mr. Hyde in the North American premiere of Val Caniparoli’s Jekyll and Hyde. Thomas has also choreographed for Kansas City Ballet and Creative Intersections. He also performs as a pianist. He has also helped Dr. Greg Sabin teach finance at Harvard since 2022.