23-24 Carmina Burana - Other - Page 14
GUEST ARTISTS
Gregory Schramel, NOBT Artistic Director
Guest Choreographer
Gregory Schramel founded New Orleans Ballet Theatre in 2002 after returning
to his hometown at the end of his professional ballet career. Frustrated at
having no opportunity to pursue his chosen profession in New Orleans, he and
his wife Marjorie set out to create a world class ballet company and school in the
city that he so adores. He started his ballet training at NOCCA and soon left for
the School of American Ballet, the training ground for the New York City Ballet.
His 20 year professional career took him to Oklahoma City Ballet, Dallas Ballet,
Vienna, Austria, Paris, France, Miami City Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and finally
Atlanta Ballet. He has toured throughout Europe and Asia as well as Moscow
and South America and also served as the tour director for the Atlanta Ballet.
Mr. Schramel, in his tenure with NOBT, has brought to the city many never
before seen Balanchine ballets including; Concerto Barocco, Apollo, Who Cares?,
Agon, Tarantella, Stars and Stripes pas de deux, and Tchaikovsky pas de deux. He
has won many Big Easy awards for his choreography and has had the honor of
being the choreographer for many of New Orleans Opera’s productions. In 2015,
New Orleans Ballet Theatre moved its mainstage performances to the Orpheum
Theater, where it has been performing to sold out audiences ever since, and in
2017, the company built its new 6,000 sq.ft facility at 920 Terpsichore Street.
The recent 2022-2023 season was the company's biggest to date, with 14
dancers on salary and ambitious programming including Romeo + Juliet
in May 2023.
Marjorie Schramel, NOBT Associate Artistic Director
Guest Choreographer
A native of Dallas, Ms. Schramel started her early ballet training with Dallas
Ballet under the great American Indian ballerina, Marjorie Tallchief and George
Skibine. Ms. Schramel left Dallas to train with the School of American Ballet
and accepted her first professional contract soon after. She was in the corps de
ballet in American Ballet Theatre in the 1980’s when Mikhail Baryshnikov was
the artistic director of the company.
Ms. Schramel had the opportunity to appear with Mikhail Baryshnikov in
many PBS specials of Dance in America. She also danced with Dallas Ballet,
and CATS Paris and CATS Vienna, Cincinnati Ballet, Miami City Ballet as well as
Atlanta Ballet during her 25 year career. She performed as a soloist or principal
dancer and recreated many of the female protagonist roles of the Balanchine
repertoire including; the full length Jewels, The Four Temperaments, Serenade,
Agon, Apollo, Concerto Barocco, Bourree Fantasque, La Sonnambula, Western
Symphony as well as the classical ballets from Giselle to Nutcracker. She has
appeared at the famed Kennedy Center, Wolftrap, Spoleto Festival, Jacob’s
Pillow, The Metropolitan Opera House, the Olympic Arts Festival in Korea and
Atlanta, and the Edinburgh Festival. Ms. Schramel was on the teaching staff
of NOCCA and realized very quickly the lack of strong classical ballet training
in New Orleans, which was the impetus in founding Schramel Conservatory of
Dance. The school has grown and trained numerous professional dancers and
serves as the training ground for the future dancers of NOBT. Ms. Schramel is
also a certified teacher of the American Ballet Theatre curriculum.