Who is Ben Stevenson?

Meet the Choreographer of Three Preludes

The July 26 and 27 performances of Starry Nights at Stanford Live marks an exciting Company premiere of Three Preludes from choreographer Ben Stevenson.

The international award-winning piece was created by Stevenson in 1969, set to selections of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Preludes. It features live piano and two central dancers dancing with a ballet barre. It’s something of a love story of two dancers who fall in love while working in a dance studio. The three movements develop in both speed and intensity as the emotion between the dancers evolves into passion. Three Preludes has been performed by companies across the globe and was awarded the gold medal for choreography at the prestigious International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria in 1972.

Brief History of Stevenson:

Ben Stevenson served as artistic director of Houston Ballet from 1976-2003, raising the company from a regional troupe of twenty-eight dancers to an internationally acclaimed ensemble of over fifty artists.

For his contributions to international dance, Mr. Stevenson was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year’s Honors List in December 1999. In April 2000, he was presented with the Dance Magazine Award.

In July 2003, he was appointed artistic director emeritus of Houston Ballet, and the company’s affiliated school was renamed Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy.

Mr. Stevenson, a native of Portsmouth, England, received his dance training at the Arts Educational School in London. He appeared with the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and English National Ballet where, as a principal dancer, he performed leading roles in all the classics.

In 1967, English National Ballet asked him to stage his first, and highly successful, production of The Sleeping Beauty which starred Margot Fonteyn. In 1968, Rebekah Harkness invited him to New York to direct the newly formed Harkness Youth Dancers. After choreographing Cinderella in 1970 for the National Ballet in Washington, D.C., he joined the company in 1971 as co-director with Frederic Franklin.

Mr. Stevenson has received numerous awards for his choreography, including three gold medals at the International Ballet Competitions of 1972, 1982, and 1986.

In July 2003, Mr. Stevenson assumed the artistic directorship of Texas Ballet Theater in Fort Worth, Texas.

SF Ballet has previously performed Stevenson’s Esmerelda pas de deux and Four Last Songs. You can be among the first to see the company premiere of Three Preludes at Starry Nights July 26 & 27.

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