Creations & Repertory  |  Awards  |  Guesting

Heather Jurgensen, from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, started her ballet training at the age of 7 at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. At 16 she was invited to attend the School of American Ballet in New York where she completed her studies. She joined the New York City Ballet. She started her career in Europe, joining the Hamburg Ballet, directed by John Neumeier. Shortly thereafter she was made a soloist, in 1991 and then promoted principal in 1994.

In addition to extensive work with the choreographer John Neumeier, Heather has also worked with Jerome Robbins, Natalia Makarova, Mats Ek, Hans Van Manen, Lar Lubovitch, Kevin O' Day and has had original works created for her by Peter Martins, Mats Ek, Kevin Haigen, Yaroslav Ivanenko and Christopher Wheeldon. Also in her repertoire are works by George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Jiri Kilian. She has had personal coaching from Natalia Makarova on the roles of Giselle and Nikiya (La Bayadère).

Other roles include, Ophelia, Cinderella, Guinevere, Gamsatti, Myrtha, Manon Lescault and Marguerite Gaultier of "The Lady of the Camellias," Hippolyta/Titania and also Hermia in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." She dances principal roles in "Swan Lake," "The Nutcracker;" also in "St. Matthews' Passion," "Desir," "Now and Then" and others such as -the sacrifice in "A Rite of Spring," and the title role in "Sylvia." Heather has been involved in most of Neumeier's new works in her time in Hamburg, creating such roles as Nina in Chekhov's "The Seagull," "Heather" in "Preludes CV," Shakespeare's Olivia in "Twelfth Night," and the ballerina Tamara Karsavina in "Nijinsky." Recently Neumeier made a pas de deux for her called "Valse Lente" using music composed by George Balanchine. Another very special honor was to be able to portray Nina in St Petersburg at the Maryinsky Theater.

A winner of the Dr. Wilhelm Oberdorffer Prize, Heather was nominated in 2002 for the prestigious "Benois de la Danse" for her portrayal of Marguerite Gaultier, at which time she performed at the Bolshoi Theater as part of the ceremony.

She has danced as a guest artist with the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, in Moscow, Paris, Vienna, Prague, Kiev, Lvov, Donetsk, Munich, Stuttgart, among othersÉalso at the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo, the Salzburg Festival, St. Bart's Music Festival, the "Musiktage" in Hitzacker and Iwamizawa Art and Musik Festival in Sapporo.
Tours have taken her throughout Europe and the United States, to Japan, China, Singapore, Russia, Canada and South America.

Television work includes live performances of the 1999 New Year's Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Easter Concert in the Prinz Regenten Theater in Munich both conducted by Lorin Maazel. She has also been featured in several portraits and other programs.

Heather is one of the dancers focused on in the documentary film "Working of Utopia" directed by Donya Feuer. She is also in the filmed version of Neumeier's "St. Matthew's Passion." Her "Arise" is a short solo film made in Japan with music by Masato Hatanaka, choreographed by Yaroslav Ivanenko.

The sculptor Andrew De Vries has made a statue in bronze entitled "The Seagull-a portrait of Heather Jurgensen". There was an unveiling at the Ventfort Hall Museum in Massachusetts. The artist gave his own proof of the sculpture as a gift to the Hamburg Ballet where it is now on display.

Creations

in New York

• The Pas de deux Four Gnossiennes (Peter Martins)

in Hamburg

• A Foreign Princess in A Cinderella Story
• Calypso in Odyssey
• Olivia in VIVALDI or What You Will
• Pas de deux Sheherazade I (Easter Concert 1997, Munich)
• The Ballerina Tamara Karsavina in Nijinsky
• Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya in The Seagull
• Heather in Préludes CV
• Emerald Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty (Mats Ek)

and solos in

• Requiem
• Bernstein-Serenade
• In The Between (Mahler's 9th Symphony)
• Bernstein Dances
• Winter Ways from Images from Bartók
• The Blue Danube (pas de deux for the New Year's Concert 99, Vienna)
• Messiah
• Rondo
• Valse Lente
• Nachtwanderung from "Songs of the Night"
• Moments Movements Mendelssohn (Kevin Haigen)
• VIII (Christopher Wheeldon)
  

Repertory

• Hippolyta/Titania und Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Marguerite Gautier and Manon Lescaut in Lady of the Camellias
• Sylvia in Sylvia
• The good Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty
  
• Ophelia in Hamlet
  
• Constanze Weber in Windows on MOZART
• Beatrice in Ondine
• Penelope und Kirke in Odyssee
• Bianca und Emilia in Othello
• Aase in Peer Gynt
• Louise, Mrs Stahlbaum and "La Fille du Pharaon" in The Nutcracker
• Cinderella and Cinderella's Mother in A Cinderella Story
• Princess Natalia and Odette in Illusions - like "Swan Lake
• Romola Nijinsky in Nijinsky
• Giselle and Myrtha in Giselle
• Guinevere in The Saga of King Arthur
• Rosalind in As You Like It
• Aschenbach's assistant, his mother and Tadzio's mother in Death in Venice
• Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
• Nikiya und Gamsatti in La Bayadère (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa)
  

and solos in

• Kinderszenen
• Le Sacre
• Saint Matthew Passion
  
• Now and Then
• In the Blue Garden
• Soldier Songs (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
• The Fifth Symphony (Gustav Mahler)
• Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
• Vaslaw
• Winterreise
• Désir
• Bach-Suite 3
• Magnificat
• Violin Concerto (George Balanchine)
• Theme and Variations (George Balanchine)
• Sarcasms (Hans van Manen)
• The Leaves are fading (Antony Tudor)
• Meinungslose Weiden (Mats Ek)
• Sinfonia Concertante (Lar Lubovitch)
• She was black (Mats Ek)
  
• Forgotten Land (Jirí Kylián)
• Polyphonia (Christopher Wheeldon)
• Wege (Yukichi Hattori)
• Jewels – Emeralds/Diamonds (George Balanchine)
• Ne m'oublie pas (Yaroslav Ivanenko)

A winner of the Dr. Wilhelm Oberdorffer Prize.

Heather was nominated in 2002 for the prestigious "Benois de la Danse" known as the Oscar of the dance world for her portrayal of Marguerite Gaultier, at which time she performed at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow as a part of the ceremony.

In the critics' choice 2007 of Ballet-Tanz magazine, Heather was named one of the outstanding dancers for her last performance in the role of Guinevere.

Vienna, Paris, Moscow, Prague, Australia, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Munich, Stuttgart, Hannover, Dortmund, Kiev, Donetsk, Lvov, Tokyo at the World Ballet Festival, the Iwamizawa Art and Music Festival in Sapporo, the St. Bart's Music Festival, the 60th "Musiktage" in Hitzacker.

She worked on Donya Feuer's documentary: "The Work of Utopia".

She has danced as a guest artist with The Royal Danish Ballet, The Royal Swedish Ballet, in Moscow, Vienna, Prague, Munich, Stuttgart; also the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo, St. Bart's Music Festival and Iwamizawa Art and Music Festival in Sapporo.

Tours have taken her throughout Europe, to Japan, China, Singapore, Russia and South America.

© 2010 Heather Jurgensen