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| KHARATIAN RECOGNIZED FOR CHOREOGRAPHY |
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tania Chichmanian February 22, 1999 Tel: 301/587-6225 Takoma Park, MD — Choreographer Roudolf Kharatian is the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award for 1999. The awards are conferred to Maryland artists through an anonymous, competitive process to encourage and sustain their pursuit of artistic excellence. Kharatian was similarly recognized in 1997, the last time individual prizes for choreography were awarded. A native of Armenia, Kharatian has worked in the Greater Washington, DC area as a choreographer and master teacher since 1991, when he joined the faculty of the Kirov Academy of Ballet. Currently on the faculty of the Washington School of Ballet and Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Preparatory in Baltimore, Kharatian is also founder and artistic director of ARKA Ballet, a new professional dance organization. Kharatian’s choreographic credits include countless concert pieces, one-act and full-length ballets, and four ballets for film. At ease in both the classical and contemporary ballet idioms, Kharatian’s works encompass a broad range of music — from early music to avant-garde — and content — including abstract and experimental works, purely classical offerings, philosophical musings as well as story ballets based on historical events, legends and fairy tales. Throughout his career as choreographer, Kharatian has found inspiration in the great wealth of Armenian art, music, culture, literature and history. His ballet Artavazd and Cleopatra, to the music of Terterian, tells the story of the great first century BC Armenian king and playwright Artavazd. In creating this contemporary ballet, Kharatian drew largely on Armenian dance movement, ancient rituals and manuscripts, which he adapted to the ballet language. For his ballet Anoush, which is based on the Toumanian poem of the same name, Kharatian broke new ground by using traditional Armenian duduk music for the first time in a ballet. One of his earliest works, the film-ballet Hey! Who Goes There?, is based on William Saroyan’s short story and set to the music of Chick Corea. It has received broad critical acclaim and won many international film festival awards. Kharatian has also created many short ballets using diverse Armenian musical sources ranging from Mashtots to 20th century composers. Kharatian’s future plans include a full-length ballet based on Krikor Naregatsi’s Book of Lamentations. This large-scale international project is planned to coincide with the celebration of the 1700th anniversary of Christianity in Armenia. Washington area audiences will have the opportunity to view some of Kharatian’s work when ARKA Ballet premieres later this spring. ARKA Ballet was to have debuted at the Performing Arts Center on January 15th, however the massive ice storm which hit the area caused power outages at the theater and forced cancellation of the performance. A fund drive is currently underway in order to help offset some of the costs of rescheduling this premiere event. For more information, you can contact Tania Chichmanian at phone: (301) 587-6225 or e-mail:taniac@erols.com |