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Francesca Harper
Ballet
Biography:
A statuesque beauty who is a dancer-actor-singer- recording artist-choreographer-director has graced the stage appearing with Dance Theater of Harlem, Frankfurt Ballet, as well as Fosse, The Producers and The Frogs. Ms. Harper approaches ballet technique with keen sensibility to the magic of performance beyond technical steps. This workshop supports improvisation, movement development, diligence and self–motivation. After performing with the Dance Theater of Harlem, she danced as a principal in William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt from 1994-1999. Since returning to the States in 2000, Harper has performed in several Broadway productions including Fosse, The Producers, The Frogs, and The Color Purple. She played the role of Helene opposite Molly Ringwald in a national tour of Sweet Charity, and the role of Judith originated by Judith Jamison in a revival of Sophisticated Ladies. Harper’s choreographic career began while still in Germany, where she choreographed a full evening work for the Holland Dance Festival. She has since choreographed works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Tanz Graz, and her own company The Francesca Harper Project, which has become the platform for her own artistic vision: classical dance forms deconstructed and fused with cutting-edge text, music, film and video. She premiered her critically-acclaimed one-woman show The Fragile Stone Theory at the 2002 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Francesca’s latest commissioned work, Documotion : ONE - Rave, was requested to be performed at the 50th Anniversary of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center at World Famous Apollo Theater by Judith Jamison. The Francesca Harper Project season highlights include performances at Harlem Stage, Bloomberg Culture Series, Central Park Summerstage and Venice Biennale.Most recently, Francesca was appointed as an Adjunct Professor at New York University, a teacher for The Ailey School and the Fordham BFA Program, and a teacher and choreographer Tony Award Director Susan Batson at the Susan Batson Studio. Francesca also enjoyed working as a ballet consultant for the feature film, "Black Swan," by Darren Aronofsky, starring Natalie Portman, who went on to win an Oscar.