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Devon Carney

Associate Artistic Director, Cincinnati Ballet

Devon Carney was born in New Orleans, Louisiana where he began his dance training with Harvey Hysell. He later joined the New Orleans Ballet, where he danced his first leading roles. In 1978, Mr. Carney was invited to join Boston Ballet. While a corps de ballet member, Mr. Carney was chosen by Choo San Goh to dance the title role of Romeo in Goh's first and only full-length ballet, Romeo and Juliet. Mr. Carney was promoted to principal in 1986.

During his 21 year professional dance career, Mr. Carney was able to perform many leading roles in well known classical ballets such as Giselle, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty and Raymonda Act III. Mr. Carney had the opportunity to also perform leading roles in 20th century classical works such as John Cranko's Onegin and Taming of the Shrew, Ben Stevenson's Cinderella, Bruce Wells' A Midsummer Night's Dream, Harald Lander's Etudes, and Anthony Tudor's Lilac Garden.

He was also able to dance roles choreographed by cutting edge choreographers. These roles include Maurice Bejart'sLe Sacre du Printemps, Paul Taylor's Company B, Merce Cunningham's Breakers, Sir Frederick Ashton's Monotones 1, Elisa Monte's VII for VIII, Mark Morris' Mort Subite, Susan Marshall's Overture, and Daniel Pelzig’s Nine Lives: Songs of Lyle Lovett. His George Balanchine repertoire includes principal roles in Square Dance, Serenade, Agon, Who Cares?, Allegro Brillante, Mozartiana, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Rubies, La Sonnambula, The Four Temperaments, and Theme and Variations.

Mr. Carney has toured extensively throughout Europe, United States and Mexico and Asia with such greats as Rudolph Nureyev, Fernando Bujones and Cynthia Gregory. In 1994, Mr. Carney was the partner of the Senior Division Bronze Medalist at the Jackson International Ballet Competition.

Mr. Carney served as Ballet Master for Boston Ballet from 1998 to 2003. During this time he worked closely with choreographers Ben Stevenson, Christopher Wheeldon, Michael Corder, Michael Pink and Bruce Wells. Furthermore, he has worked very closely with Anna-Marie Holmes in the staging of several of her world renowned productions of the great classics of ballet including Le Corsaire, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, La Bayadere and Giselle.

Mr. Carney was appointed Artistic Director of Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program in 1994 and served in this capacity for 9 years. Teaching credits include Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, Arizona Ballet Summer Program, Austin Ballet, Boston Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Guangzhou Ballet of Guangzhou, China, Hartford Ballet, Houston Ballet Summer Program, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and various regional ballet companies across the United States and Europe. He has also served as a judge on the juries of the 2002 Youth America Grand Prix Ballet Competition finals in New York City and the 2005 & 2006 American Ballet Competition.

In addition, his choreographic endeavors include the ballets Opus II and Interlude for Boston Ballet, Cascades and Daystar for Boston Ballet II. Through the years, he choreographed Symphony #1, Awakenings and Wonderful Land for the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program, as well as staged several classical ballet excerpts. He choreographed a work for BalletMet in August of 2007 titled Speaking In Tongues. He has also worked very closely with the Cincinnati Opera for the past six seasons choreographing works in Aida, Un Ballo in Maschera, Lucie de Lammermoor, Die Meistersinger and many others. In addition, Mr. Carney has choreographed several ballets for Cincinnati Ballet including U Too?, Just You and Me, Another Time Another Space, Blue Rondo and Convergent Sight. Also, in February of 2006, Mr. Carney choreographed Acts 2 and 4 of the full length Swan Lake for Cincinnati Ballet. Then, in November of 2006, he choreographed his full length version of Giselle for Cincinnati Ballet to rave reviews. Also, he presented his full length world premiere of Dracula in October of 2008 and then subsequently choreographed his world premiere of World Citizen in March of 2009 with a review stating, “Carney’s work is not only well crafted but moody and intense with a palpable sense of loneliness. His work grows more confident and more skillful with every piece he creates.” (David Lyman, Cincinnati Enquirer)

Mr. Carney currently serves as Associate Artistic Director of Cincinnati Ballet and has been with the Cincinnati Ballet since 2003. He has had the opportunity to work closely with choreographers such as Donald Byrd, Lynn Taylor Corbett, Jorma Elo, Victor Kabanieav, Trey McIntyre, Donald McKayle, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Kirk Peterson, Viktor Plotnikov and others during this time. He most recently created a new version of the full length version of the world renowned Sleeping Beauty to great critical acclaim. In addition he choreographed in the spring of 2011 a world premiere, Thrive On Here, set to the live music of the nationally known hit group Over the Rhine. In the summer of 2011 Mr. Carney again had the opportunity to choreograph for the Cincinnati Opera for the recently written opera A Flowering Tree by John Adams. In April of 2012 he choreographed a world premiere version of the Hans Christian Anderson story of The Steadfast Tin Soldier.