"There are many reasons for that title [Reunions], but they're mostly personal. So I hope no one takes the title too literally. Yet I do think there's a feeling of reuniting in the ballet. For me, New York is a city of reunions, a place where you can run into everyone you know."— David Allan
David Allan was born in Boston. He is a tenured professor and Director of Ballet at University of California, Irvine. He has been credited with increasing the UCI Dance Department’s national rating and has secured over $500,000 in new funding for the UCI ballet program. Allan was trained at The National Ballet School of Canada on full scholarship. He entered The National Ballet of Canada in 1974 where he was a Soloist from 1977-88. He has choreographed over 50 ballets since 1983, eight of which were commissioned by the late Erik Bruhn for the repertory of The National Ballet of Canada. He has many works in the repertories of such companies as Ohkura Ballet of Tokyo, Italy’s Rome Opera Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, Ballet Pacifica, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, and Nashville Ballet. Allan’s work can also be seen in opera, film, musicals and television. Allan is the recipient of the 1989 Jean A. Chalmers Choreographic Award in Canada and the 1997 Choo-San Goh Award. He was the Artistic Director of California’s Riverside Ballet from 1991-96. Allan has been a guest Teacher/Ballet Master for San Francisco Ballet, London’s Rambert Dance Company, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Basel Ballet of Switzerland, National Ballet of Finland, Ballet Preljocaj and National Ballet de Lorraine in France, among others. In the summer of 1995, Allan was engaged by Director/Producer Paul Blake of DFI Productions in Los Angeles, to choreograph a national U.S. tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Phyllis Diller, Georgia Engel and featuring dancers of the Joffrey Ballet. Allan choreographed a solo for American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer Ethan Stiefel which received its world premiere in March 2000 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. In March 2001, Allan premiered a new ballet, PALLADIO, with the Junior Ballet Classique of the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris. The ballet was filmed for television in Paris and was broadcast throughout France in the spring of 2003 In June 2001, Allan’s Stealing Time was given its world premiere by Ballet Pacifica at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in southern California. In the 2002/03 season, Allan was working on a new commission for Hong Kong Ballet.