Stephan Laurent
Stephan Laurent,Professor of Dance, and
Chair of the department from 1988 to 2003, joined Butler University
after six years as the artistic director of the Des Moines Ballet
(later known as Ballet Iowa), for which he produced and
choreographed over 20 works. He was the recipient of the Iowa
Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award for his production of
Cinderella,which was broadcast by the Iowa Public Television
Network and received its Indiana premiere by the Butler Ballet in
April 1991. Some of his other contributions to the Butler Ballet
have been Farewell to the Singing Earth for the Mahler
Project;Karelia Suite,Paris Symphony,Journey Into Elsewhere,
Roeslein, Waldszenen, Songs of Ophelia,and The Rite of Spring for
the Midwinter Festivals; most of Act I and Act II of
Coppélia(televised by WTBU-TV); substantial portions of Sleeping
Beauty,Giselle,The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake;and Prologue, Mars,
Uranus and Neptune for the 1990 World Premiere of The Planets: A
Child's Space Fantasy,which he also conceived and directed.
Mr. Laurent immigrated to the United States from his native
Switzerland in 1973 after a professional career with a number of
European companies, including the Ballet Royal de Wallonie in
Belgium, the Scapino Ballet of Amsterdam, the Ballett des
Staatstheaters Braunschweig, the Freiburg Ballett, and the
Bayreuther Festspiele Germany under John Neumeier.
He received his M.F.A.,summa cum laude,from Southern Methodist
University, and while pursuing his degree, served as ballet master
for the Repertory Dance Company of the Southwest in Dallas and as
resident choreographer and ballet master for the Ballet del Monte
Sol in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Following receipt of his M.F.A.,
Laurent was appointed assistant professor of dance and ballet
master for the Dance Department at the University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee.
Mr. Laurent teaches Ballet Technique, Theory and Philosophy of
Dance, Masterworks of Dance, and a First-Year Seminar entitled
Spellbound: the Quest for Magic in Literature and the Arts. He has
been a member of the Board of Directors of NASD, the National
Association of Schools of Dance, serves on the Board of Advisors of
Dance Kaleidoscope, and served as a Butler University Faculty
Senator from 2008 to 2011.