- Maurice Causey. Picture by: Joris-Jan Bos
Maurice Causey
Choreographer/Dancer/Teacher/Ballet Master
Maurice Causey is an American-born European-based artist. Maurice began studying ballet at the age of 15 in his hometown of Florence, Alabama at the Florence School of Ballet directed by Michael McCadden and Patsy Hill. During his early training years he was awarded Ford Foundation scholarships to the prestigious School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre School in New York City, the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and the Joffery pre-professional program in San Antonio, Texas at the age of 16.
In the summer of 1984 at the age of 18 while studying at the summerschool for the American Ballet Theater School in NY he was offered his first professional contract with the Cleveland Ballet in Ohio directed by Dennis Nahat. In 1985 he moved to Philadelphia to join the Pennsylvania Ballet directed by Ricky Weiss, where he stayed 3 years, his last year being a joint venture with the Milwaukee Ballet from 1987-88. From 1988-1991 Maurice moved on to Toronto, Canada joining the ranks of the National Ballet of Canada.
During his time with Cleveland Ballet and Pennsylvania /Milwaukee Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada Maurice performed leading roles in both the contemporary and classical repertoire, which include soloist in Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Dennis Nahat’s Symphony No. 9, Paul Taylor’s Arden Court, and several Balanchine Ballets including Lead Soldier in Balanchine’s Nutcracker, Tarantella, Puck in Midsummer’s Night Dream, and soloist in Symphony in C 4th and 3rd movements, Allegro Brilliante , Melancholy in Four Temperaments , and the Lead Cadet in Stars and Stripes, to name a few. Also, while dancing with National Ballet of Canada In 1990 Maurice won the Silver Medal Award by the New York Film Festival for best actor in the dance film “Lights Edge” by Donald Dawson
In 1991, while dancing with the National Ballet of Canada, Choreographer and Director of Germanys Ballet Frankfurt, William Forsythe, was choreographing his master work Second Detail on the company.
After being cast as a lead role in Second Detail, Maurice’s career was about to take on an adventure which would lead him to Europe to travel the world and challenge everything he knew about dance. Mr. Forsythe offered him a contract to dance with the worlds leading dance company Ballet Frankfurt. From 1991-1999 Maurice was a Principal Dancer with Ballet Frankfurt dancing almost the entire Forsythe repertoire. During his 8 year stay with the company he developed knowledge working with improvisational skills developed by Forsythe and the dancers of Ballet Frankfurt, co-choreographing such works as Eidos Telos, Sleepers guts, As a Garden in this setting and Alien Action.
After leaving Ballet Frankfurt in 1999 he moved North to Scandinavia. From 1999-2002 he was a Principal Dancer with the Gothenburg Ballet in Sweden dancing new and innovative work by choreographers such as Wayne McGregor, Jacopo Godani and Tero Saarinen. After 3 years in Gothenburg Maurice, at the age of 36, decided to make the decision to retire as a fulltime dancer and was offered the position of Ballet Master for the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm.
From 2002-2003 he was Ballet Master with the Royal Swedish Ballet training the dancers and assisting such choreographers as Natalia Markova for Giselle, Beryl Grey for Sleeping Beauty, and Alexei Ratmansky for his creation of Firebird. Being also responsible for William Forsythes Vertiginous thrill of Exactitude, Sir Federick Ashton’s
Scene de Ballet and Kristof Pastor’s In light and Shadow.
From 2004 to present date he is Ballet Master for one of the worlds leading dance company the Netherlands Dance Theatre 1. He has assisted choreographers for original works by Jorma Elo, Alexander Ekman, Jacopo Godani, Crystal Pite, Tero Saarinen, Wayne McGregor, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon. He had his premiere with NDT as a choreographer in May of 2008, of which he was nominated for the best Dutch Dance Production for 2008 for his work “Mood Swings”
Throughout his dance career Maurice has choreographed for schools and various workshops in the companies he danced and for Galas in Prague, Korea, Sweden and Germany. He was commissioned in 2003 to make an original work for the company Stockholm 59 North which was entitled “My Fleeting Visions” to critical success. He has also choreographed and danced for Sony music in Germany for the pop group Da Boogie and various American and German television projects including Thomas Gottschalk’s Wetten, dass…? He performs occasionally with his own solo work at various venues through out Europe.
Maurice is also a freelance teacher for various companies in Europe such as Ballet Frankfurt, Cullberg Ballet, Netherlands Dance Theatre 1 and 2, Hanover Ballet, Random Dance Company, Carte Blanche, Wiesbaden Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet.
For the Holland Dance Festival 2009 Maurice will be working with three young dancers for the Inspiration Project - initiated by Summerschool Den Haag and Balletschool Mabel Alter - in a choreography to be perfomed at the open stage at the Theater a/h Spui and he will be creating new work for the Wisselwerk Project perfomed at the KORZO Theatre.