Karole Armitage

This week I am excited to have the “Punk Ballerina” Karole Armitage!

The first piece I saw of Karole’s was a piece called “Time is the echo of an axe within wood”. I was immediately a fan. So many beautiful images throughout the piece. She also has such great dancers of all different shapes and sizes. Each one a soloist. Beautiful to watch. That performance stuck with me. I left the theater full of inspiration.

Karole created her first piece in 1978. In the 80s, she led her own New York-based dance company, The Armitage Ballet. Karole has worked with many companies all over the world including the Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theater, the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, the Ballet de Monte Carlo, Lyon Opera Ballet, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, The Washington Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Bern Ballet and Rambert Dance Company.

Karole served as Director of MaggioDanza, the Ballet of Florence, Italy, the Biennale of Contemporary Dance in Venice, and was the resident choreographer for the Ballet de Lorrine in France. Karole has also directed operas throughout Europe, including Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Lyric Opera in Athens, and the Het Muzik Theater in Amsterdam. She has choreographed “Passing Strange” and “Hair” on Broadway, which earned her a tony® nomination. She has choreographed videos for Madonna and Michael Jackson, including the famous “Vogue”!

Karole is the Artistic Director of the New York-based Armitage Gone! Dance Company. An amazing woman, a super choreographer, a truly great artist………………………………

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you always want to do what you’re doing now?

I got hooked on dance at a very young age. My first ballet teacher arrived in my hometown straight from The New York City Ballet. She was 22. We learned Serenade for our first recital. I was hooked on the glamor and the poetry.

Karole’s Favorite Things

Favorite Things to eat?

Pasta.

Favorite Books?

Recent favorite – Empire of the Summer Moon. This is about the rise and fall of the Comancheria. It gives a vivid account of the battle between the Comanche Indians and the white settlers for control of the American West centering on Quanah, the great Comanche chief, who had to surrender. He took care of his tribe while remaining true to himself. And somehow he had a good time even though his world crumbled.

Favorite Movies?

Voyage to Italy by Rossellini AND Tokyo Story by Ozu AND Sweet Smell of Success by MacKendrick.

Favorite Dance Piece or Show/Musical or both?

The Four Temperaments by Balanchine and Cholly Atkins’ work for Motown.

I like dancers who…

…are fearless and creative with their own unique point of view.

I am afraid of…

…not much.

A dance piece should…

…communicate, allowing us to feel more alive.

Something you like to do other than dancing?

Anthropology.

One of the happiest moments in your life?

Standing on the top of a mountain seeing the grandeur of nature.

One of your most unusual or coolest experiences?

Visiting “Il Cimitero Delle Fontanelle” in Naples, Italy This is an enormous, underground cave and cathedral filled with the skulls and bones of the dead who died of the plague in the 15th Century. People adopt them to this day and create sculptures with them, asking them for help with their lives. It is fascinating to glimpse the instinctive, pre-Christian world, which has a place for all – from transvestites to everyday people.

One of the most embarrassing moments in your professional career?

I have amnesia when it comes to this topic.

Who has been the most influential person/people in your life? or Career? and why?

Maybe Shakespeare. I always aspired to have deep insight into our human natures both as a private individual and as part of the body politic. Add to that, the excitement of his embroidery of language as both sound and meaning. I see dance as the same – the embroidery of body language to create meaning. Then there is Jimi Hendrix. I loved the music, the style, the audacity, the originality, the freedom.

One of the hardest things about being a director?

The feeling of responsibility for the happiness of dancers in a culture that makes it hard for us to have a voice.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Plugging away.

Three words to describe yourself….

curious, doubting, rigorous.

A question you want to know the answer to:

What is the ‘theory of everything’ that they talk about in physics.

Dear aspiring artists,

Be true to yourself in spite of the pressures to become a brand and give into the man.

–Karole Armitage

Photo Journal

Armitage Gone Dance women

Karole Armitage and her partner Michael Clark

Karole Armitage with the Paris Opera Ballet

Gothic Colorado where I grew up

Karole in Tierra del Fuego

Thank you Karole! To find out more about Karole, please visit www.armitagegonedance.org. Have you worked with Karole? Have you seen her beautiful Company?