New York, NY, May 13, 2013 – New York City director and choreographer Staś Kmieć will be flown to Poland to present the award for “Best Choreographer” at the Jan Kiepura Musical Theater Awards (Teatralna Nagroda Muzyczna im. Jana Kiepury), which will take place in Warsaw on May 16.
American-born, Kmieć has directed and choreographed musicals, ballet, opera, concert dance and film in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Ireland, and for national tours in the United States. As a dancer he performed on Broadway, with star Rudolf Nureyev, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, The Boston Ballet, and The American Dancemachine. Recently, he was the Artistic Director of Ballet Western Reserve. Kmieć is on the voting committee for Broadway’s Tony Awards and is on the National Council of Actors’ Equity. He is a graduate of Tufts University and also the school of Polish dance at the University of Marie Curie-Sklodowska in Lublin. Kmieć is the Culture Editor of The Polish American Journal; this will be his 16th visit to Poland.
For the seventh time, award statuettes will be handed out to musical theater artists in 12 categories including: best musical, singers, dancers, director and conductor, and stage designers, among others. The winner in the category of “best choreographer” will be Arthur Żymełka of the Music Theatre in Łódz for the production of Leonard Bernstein’s American musical “Wonderful Town.” The best musical will be presented to “Korczak,” written by Nick Stimson and Chris Williams, which was presented by the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic.
It is the plan of the Włodzimierz Izban, General and Artistic Director of the Mazowiecki Music Theatre to have Kmieć return in 2014 to choreograph and to establish the first training program of Broadway Musical Theater in Poland. The month-long symposium would encompass the classic American dance styles of Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Jack Cole, and Agnes DeMille, along with others, vocal technique, acting and history. The goal is to enable Polish talent to become the triple threat of actor-singer-dancer, which is a trait found in Broadway performers.
“Along with new and original work, there has been a recent trend of presenting American musicals in Poland,” said Kmieć. “Having witnessed the talents of Polish artists through the performances of the musical “Metro” on Broadway, national companies such as Mazowsze, Śląsk, theater, opera, and ballet companies, as well The Roma Musical Theater in Warsaw, I am excited to bring our Broadway style to Poland.”
Kmieć will travel to Minneapolis in July as a guest instructor of “performing technique and presence” at The Polish Folk Dance Association of the Americas’ 17th festival – marking the 30th anniversary of the organization.
