Mentorship for professional dancers navigating today’s dance landscape

July 17-July 29, 2023

Renowned Visiting Artist Faculty

About Dominic Walsh

In 2002, Dominic Walsh, Principal Dancer and Choreographer with Houston Ballet, founded his contemporary ballet company, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater. After the company’s debut in February 2003, Dance Magazine declared, “At last Houston has a contemporary dance company on par with its symphony, opera and ballet companies.” The company racked up accolades and honors and built a stellar reputation for taking the techniques and skills of classical ballet into groundbreaking territory. The company’s repertoire featured inventive works by Walsh and such iconic choreographers as Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, Mauro Bigonzetti, and Matthew Bourne. In 2015 Walsh became a proud father and closed DWDT after 12 seasons. In December he launched his 200 page photo book he created with company photographer, Gabriella Nissen, titled simply “Dominic Walsh Dance Theater”.

Walsh was born in Elgin, Illinois in 1971 and started his training at an early age with Lisa Boehm, Frank Boehm, Warren Conover, and Larry Long in Chicago. He joined Houston Ballet in 1989, was promoted to Soloist in 1993, and Principal Dancer by 1996. Walsh danced throughout Asia, Europe, and North America receiving praise from international critics including Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times who called him “impressively virtuosic” and the New York Post’s Clive Barnes who described him as “excellent and exuberant.” Walsh has danced all the major classics including Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, Romeo & Juliet, and Manon with international stars such as Nina Ananiashvili and Alessandra Ferri.

Image by Amanda Tipton Photography | FB- Amanda Tipton-Photographer | IG – @amandatiptonphotography

Walsh continues to receive commissions to set and create works nationally and internationally including Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Italy, Medea (2009) and The Sleeping Beauty (2011); Ballet Florida, Bello (2006); Ballet Quad Cities, The Nutcracker (2008); American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Alchemy (2004); London Studio Centre, Sub-Luminus (2010); Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo, À Bientot (2006); New National Theatre, Tokyo, Orfeo ed Euridice (2007) and Wolfgang for Webb (2010). After the premiere of Orfeo ed Euridice, critic Ryoko Sasaki wrote: “It is a sophisticated excellent work with meditation and emotion moderately blended with each other.” And critic Akiko Tachiki said: “The choreography in which techniques of classic ballet and contemporary dance fuse was full of deformations and twists, and sparkled with unique originality.” Walsh served as the Resident Choreographer for Sarasota Ballet of Florida, creating/staging Wolfgang for Webb (2008), The Trilogy (2009), and Time out of Line (2011), and travels throughout the U.S. and abroad as a guest teacher and coach for both companies and academies. He recently returned to Japan in Oct. 2015 to stage his Afternoon of a Faun. Walsh also stages the works of his longtime mentor, Ben Stevenson when not creating or staging his own works. The Carl Jung center has shown interest in Walsh’s works and creative process and he has given lectures at Houston’s Jung Center, most recently on his Camille Claudel, titled The Suppression of the Powerful Feminine. He has written for various publications on dance, and was a regular columnist for Origin Magazine. Walsh made his film debut as a co-director at the Brussels Short Film Festival in Spring 2015 with Malta Kano, TX. Walsh is also a costume designer and will be designing a new production of Stevenson’s Cinderella in September 2018.

Image by Amanda Tipton Photography

About Julia Wilkinson Manley

Julia Wilkinson Manley began her training with Cristina Munro (London Festival Ballet, Eliot Feld) in Corpus Christi, Texas. Julia continued her training with the Boston Ballet Centre for Dance Education and the Houston Ballet Academy. At the University of Oklahoma, she earned a BFA in ballet pedagogy and danced soloist and principal roles in Balanchine’s Serenade, Miguel Terekhov’s Four Moons, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker, as well as numerous soloist roles choreographed for her by Mary Margaret Holt (Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet). She toured with Ballet Ireland under the direction of Günther Falüsy, and performed with David Taylor Dance Theatre and Ballet Nouveau Colorado. Her choreographic work has been performed by numerous companies, including Corpus Christi Ballet, David Taylor Dance Theatre, Ballet Nouveau Colorado, and she has created over 30 full-length and short works for Colorado Conservatory of Dance.

Julia joined the faculty of the School of Ballet Nouveau Colorado in January 2002, transitioning to School Director in 2003, as a traumatic injury lead to an early end to her performing career. In 2009, Julia served on the committee to rewrite the Colorado Academic Standards for Dance for the Colorado Department of Education and completed the Community Arts Education Leadership Institute (CAELI) under the mentorship of John McCann in 2015. In 2013, she lead the school in becoming a new non-profit organization, Colorado Conservatory of Dance, focused on making lives better through dance education and performance. Many of her students have gone on to enjoy professional careers in dance with companies such as Atlanta Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Eugene Ballet, Houston Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Wonderbound, Verb Ballets, and more. Similarly, many of her students have gone on to illustrious careers as brain surgeons, architects, scientists, teachers, engineers, visual artists, writers, physical therapists, and more – all with the love of dance bolstering their success. Julia is committed to using her experience with injury to positively impact the way dance can and should be taught. She is passionate about providing an environment for learning where dancers can feel vulnerable and authentic, where dance technique is taught kinesthetically and without judgement, and with which the community is emboldened with curiosity, artistic sensibility, and tolerance.