Summer Lee Rhatigan, Director / Teacher
Throughout a professional dance career which spanned more than twenty years, Summer took advantage of every opportunity to develop and refine her teaching skills. She has taught virtually every level of student in settings as diverse as dance schools, universities, and professional dance companies (see curriculum vitae below).
Before launching the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Summer founded and spent three years developing the LINES Ballet School & Pre-Professional Program.
During her dance career, Summer was a soloist and principal dancer with London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), Oakland Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and LINES Ballet, as well as a guest artist with other dance and opera companies internationally.
She received her early training at the Elmhurst Ballet School in Surrey, and then the Royal Ballet School in London, and was the youngest winner of the Adeline Genée Gold Medal.
While she was dancing, Summer had the privilege of working with many choreographers of distinction on the creation of new and existing works. Among these were Rudolf Nureyev, Agnes de Mille, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Léonide Massine, Sir Frederick Ashton, Robert North, Nicholas (Papa) Beriosov, Ruthanna Boris, John Butler, Mary Skeaping, Anna Sokolow, Ben Stevenson, Glen Tetley, Anthony Tudor, Tandy Beal, Ronald Hynd, Bronislava Nijinska, Michael Clark, John Hart, Matthew Hawkins, Barry Moreland, Dame Marie Rambert, Beryl Grey, John Field, Eugene Loring, Michael Corder and David Allan, as well as Bay Area choreographers Alonzo King, Michael Smuin, Ronn Guidi, Val Caniparoli, Carlos Carvajal, Betsy Erickson, Julia Adam, Lawrence Pech, Robert Moses, John Pasqualetti, Ron Thiele, Kirk Peterson, Tomi Paasonen, Alex Ketley, Christian Burns, Arturo Fernandez and Stephen Pelton.
Her classical repertoire included principal roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, La Sylphide, Les Sylphides, The Sleeping Beauty, The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Curriculum Vitae
Teaching Experience:
San Francisco Conservatory of Dance
San Francisco, California
Founding Director and Teacher, 2004-Present
LINES Ballet School & Pre-Professional Program
San Francisco, California
Founding Director & Teacher, 2002-2004
San Francisco Dance Center
San Francisco, California
Faculty Member, 1988-2004
Smuin Ballets/S.F.
San Francisco, California
Guest Teacher, 1997-2006
City Ballet School
San Francisco, California
Faculty Member, 1990-1999
The Performers Ballet & Jazz Company
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Guest Faculty Member, 1998-Present
Marin Ballet School
San Rafael, California
Guest Faculty Member, 1992-2002
Marin Dance Theater
San Rafael, California
Guest Teacher, 1996-2004
Joffrey Ballet Company
New York, N.Y.
Staged choreography of Alonzo King, 1990
Guest Teacher, 2005
Pineapple Covent Garden
London, England
Guest Teacher, Summer 1981
University Master Classes Taught At:
Florida State University
Townsend University
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Irvine
University of Arizona
University of Hawaii
Mt. Holyoke
University of Michigan
University of Utah
Dance Experience:
LINES Ballet
Alonzo King, Artistic Director
San Francisco, California
Dancer, 1988-2001
San Francisco Opera
David Gockley, General Director
San Francisco, California
Soloist & Tenured Dancer, 1989-Present
National Ballet of Canada
Glen Tetley, Lynn Wallis & Valerie Wilder, Artistic Directors
Toronto, Canada
Soloist, 1987-1988
Oakland Ballet
Ronn Guidi, Artistic Director
Oakland, California
Principal Dancer, 1983-87
London Festival Ballet
Beryl Grey / John Field, Artistic Directors
London, England
Soloist, 1976-1981
British Dance Umbrella
London, England
Dancer, 1979-1981
Choreographic Experience:
Staging of Alonzo King’s Ballets:
“Lila” for Joffrey Ballet
“Handel” for Western Ballet
“Tango” for North Carolina Dance Theater
“Map” for Milwaukee Ballet Company
“Shostakovich” for University of Michigan Dance Dept.
-All company repertory for LINES Ballet Company
Coaching Experience:
Has coached many accomplished professionals, soloists and principals, in leading dance companies.
Training:
Royal Ballet School, 1974-76
London, England
Elmhurst Ballet School, 1971-74
Surrey, England
-Adeline Genée Gold Medal Winner (1974)
Teachers:
Svetlana Afanasieva
Elizabeth Anderton
Piers Beaumont
Svetlana Beriosova
Dame Ninette de Valois
Anna Du Boisson
Bridget Espinosa
Julia Farron
Franchetti
Alonzo King
Alicia Markova
Monica Mason
Léonide Massine
Pamela May
Madame Messerrer
Nadia Nerina
Violette Verdy
Terry Westmorland
Stanley Williams
Choreographers Worked With on the Creation of New and Existing Work (partial listing):
David Allan: “Death of a Lady’s Man”;
Papa Beriosov (after Fokine): “Scheherezade” (Zobeide); “Don Quixote” (Mercedes); “Petrushka”; “Prince Igor”
Ruthanna Boris: “Cakewalk” (The Pony)
John Butler: “Carmina Burana” (Principal, Girl in White)
Val Caniparoli: “Aubade”; “Street Songs“; and “Tar Marmalade”
Carlos Carvajal: “Crystal Slipper”; “Synergies”
Agnes de Mille: “Inconsequentials”; “Fall River Legend” (Lizzie Borden)
Betsy Erickson: “At a Time When...”; “Sfumato”; “Sonata”
Ronn Guidi: “The Seasons”; “Carnival”; “Sibelius”; “In Autumn”; “Hansel & Gretel”; “El Salon Mexico”; “Nutcracker”
Ronald Hynd: “Merry Widow”, “Rosalinda”, “The Sanguine Fan”; “The Nutcracker”
Kurt Joos: “The Green Table” (Partisan)
Alonzo King: “Bach Toccata in D Minor”; “Lila”; “Awake in the Dream”; “Ocean”; “Canté”; “Rock”; “Without Wax”; “String Trio”; “Ground”; “Tarab”; “Compelling Geological Evidence”; “Signs and Wonders”; “Klang”; “String Quartet”; “Who Dressed You Like a Foreigner?”; “Sacred Text”; “Handel, a Trio”; “Three Stops on the Way Home”; “Garland”; “Long Straight Line”; “Bach Cello Suites”; “A Heart’s Natural Inclination”; “Tango”
Kenneth MacMillan: “Concerto” (Principal Third Movement); “Elite Syncopations”
Léonide Massine: “Parade”; “Tricorne”; “La Boutique Fantasque”
Robert North: “Death and the Maiden”
Rudolf Nureyev: “Romeo & Juliet” (Rosaline); “The Sleeping Beauty” (Lead Fairy Lilac, Diamond Fairy)
Mary Skeaping: “Giselle” (Bathilde, Myrta Queen of the Wilis)
Anna Sokolov: “Rooms”
Glen Tetley: “Greening”; “Sphinx”; “Alice”; “La Ronde”
Anthony Tudor: “Echoing of Trumpets”
Other Collaborations Include New Works by:
Tandy Beal
Michael Clark
John Hart
Matthew Hawkins
Barry Moreland
Tomi Paasonen
Michael Smuin
Robert Moses
Lawrence Pech
Ronn Guidi
Julia Adam
Alex Ketley
Christian Burns
Stephen Pelton
Other Works:
Balanchine: “Serenade”; “Bourée Fantasque”; “Concerto Barocco”; “Symphony in C”; “Four Temperaments”
Jiri Kylian: “Forgotten Land”
Loring, Eugene: “Billy the Kid”
Nijinska, Bronislava : “Les Noces”; “Les Biches”
Weidman, Charles: “Lynchtown”
Other Roles:
“Les Sylphides” (Prelude)
“La Sylphide” (Leading Sylph)
“Swan Lake” (Prince’s Friend, Fiancée, Big Swans, Pas de Trois)
“Coppélia” (Lead Czardas, Dawn, Prayer)
“Graduation Ball”
“Conservatoire”
“Raymonda”
“La Bayadère”
Musicians Collaborated With in the Creation of New & Existing Work (partial listing):
Doug Adams
Don Fontowitz
Les Stuck
Eli Nelson
Hamza el Din
Miguel Frasconi
Zakir Hussain
The Kronos Quartet
Pharoah Sanders
Bernice Reagan Johnson & “Sweet Honey in the Rock”
Members of the Ba’Aka People of the Central African Republic