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The ballet, choreographed by Gwynedd Vetter-Drusch on invitation of Artistic Director Sara Knight, builds on a decade-long partnership with national and international monarch butterfly researchers and conservation specialists. Since 2013, Vetter Drusch has used live performance and dance films as a unique medium to enlighten audiences about the importance of this endangered species. Girl with a Butterfly Heart is the latest iteration of the project, which includes a TEDx Talk and performance in Mexico, two short films, and a performance in the 2016 New York City International Fringe Festival.

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Vetter-Drusch said, “Can you imagine a world without butterflies? A world in which, due to human greed and ignorance, we have to explain to our children that though these magical, winged beings used to fly from flower to flower, but we caused them to disappear? My work seeks to reconnect humanity to the dance of life, the vital rhythms and connections between living beings, from which we have become dangerously estranged.”

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About Chevalier Ballet:
Chevalier Ballet is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation formed for the charitable purpose of offering the fine arts of ballet and other forms of dance performances and education to communities such as children’s hospitals, schools, and small towns with limited access to the arts. Chevalier Ballet offers programming in the greater New York City area, upstate New York, as well as the UK and beyond.

About the Artistic Staff:
Sara Knight is the Founder and Artistic Director of Chevalier Ballet, Chevalier Ballet Conservatory, and the SLK Ballet School. A graduate of England's Royal Ballet School, an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dance ( A.R.A.D.), graduate of the Royal Ballet School Teacher's Training Course ( R.B.S. Dip. TTC.) and first British graduate of Russia's Vaganova
(Kirov) Ballet Academy. Ms. Knight is a recipient of the Royal Ballet School Award for Excellence personally awarded by Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet. Ms. Knight became a soloist with the Leningrad State Ballet Theatre and the Russian Ballet of St. Petersburg. In Western Europe, she danced with England's Northern Ballet Theatre, Swansea’s Ballet Russe, and was a principal dancer with the European Ballet of London. In the USA, Ms. Knight has guested with Boston Ballet and as a principal dancer with Configuration Dance and Rebecca Rice Dance Company.

In 2017 she founded her company, Chevalier Ballet, which tours nationally and internationally, bringing dance to small communities who might not get the chance to see ballet.

For more information about Chevalier Ballet’s Artistic Director, Sara Knight, please click here. 

Gwynedd Vetter-Drusch is a dancer, choreographer, actor (member of AEA), singer, filmmaker and writer based in NYC. This is her first season dancing with Chevalier Ballet and teaching as a member of Sara Knight’s faculty. Some of her favorite dance credits include MaCong’s Folia (Tulsa Ballet II), Marie/Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker (under the direction of Gelsey Kirkland), performing her own work in NYC and internationally (TEDxPMO La Danza de la Vida), and Chevalier Ballet's Beatles Ballet (London, April 2022).