Ep 12, Artist Talks: Katarzyna Skarpetowska

Katarzyna (Kate) Skarpetowska began dancing at age 13 in her native city of Warsaw, Poland. By age 15, she made her Broadway debut at the Minskoff Theatre in METRO, a Polish musical directed and choreographed by Janusz Józefowicz, with music by Janusz Stokłosa. She is a graduate of the NYC High School of Performing Arts and The Juilliard School. After a long performing career as a principal dancer with Parsons Dance and The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Kate currently works as a freelance choreographer and serves as the Lubovitch Dance Foundation’s répétiteur, staging works by Lar Lubovitch and choreographing her own ballets on prestigious companies across the globe including our own dancers at Richmond Ballet. For her choreographic achievements, Kate was named Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” and was nominated for a NY Dance and Performance Award, The Bessie. She is also an educator, lecturing in contemporary techniques, improvisation, choreography, and repertory at the University of California at Irvine. 

In this episode we cover:

• Fascinating detail of the work of a répétiteur

• Contrasting the discovery aspects in choreography and in being a répétiteur

• The "brilliant accidents" that happen while choreographing 

• The "strokes of paint" in the work of Lar Lubovitch 

• What Kate loves about collaboration

Kate's website: www.skarpetowska.com

IG: @skarpetowska