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Artistic Leadership
Our artistic staff works passionately to put exceptional dance on stage each and every performance. Meet the visionaries on our team.
Artistic Director
Michael Pink is the longest serving artistic director in Milwaukee Ballet history. Since joining the Company in December of 2002, he has established himself as a prominent member of the Milwaukee arts community, demonstrating his commitment to the future of dance through new work, education and collaboration.
His artistic vision for Milwaukee Ballet continues to be exciting and challenging. His long-awaited production of Peter Pan signified a major landmark in the Company’s history and was broadcast nationally by PBS in Spring of 2014. His production of Romeo & Juliet has also been broadcast by MPBS. In 2008, the Wisconsin Dance Council presented Pink with the Choreography/Performance Award. In 2014, the Milwaukee Press Club honored him with the Headliner Award for service to the arts. He received the Civic Music Association’s award for Distinguished Citizen – Professional in the Arts in 2015. He recently accepted the Educational Excellence Award from the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts which recognizes organizational achievement of a nonprofit that exemplifies collaboration in the arts.
Pink is an international choreographer whose theatrical productions of Dracula, Esmeralda, Swan Lake, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Romeo & Juliet, La Bohème, Don Quixote, Mirror Mirror, Dorian Gray and Beauty and the Beast have been hailed as ‘Classical Ballet for the 21st Century’. His first professional work, 1914, was nominated for a West End Theatre Award, London.
Luz San Miguel
Company Rehearsal Director
Luz San Miguel
Company Rehearsal Director
Born in Madrid, Spain, Luz San Miguel trained at Carmina Ocana Ballet School and on scholarship at the Municipal Institute of Ballet. She enjoyed a successful career dancing as a guest artist and in Companies internationally, performing leading roles in ballets by John Cranko, George Balanchine, John Neumeier, Nacho Duato, Antony Tudor, Stanton Welch, Paul Taylor, Lila York, and Jerome Robbins, among others. At Milwaukee Ballet, San Miguel danced leading roles in all of Michael Pink’s repertoire, including Dracula, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Peter Pan, Coppélia, La Bohème, Mirror Mirror, Cinderella, Esmeralda, Giselle, and Romeo & Juliet. Upon her retirement from the stage in 2018, San Miguel assumed her new role of Rehearsal Director.
Denis Malinkine
Company Rehearsal Director
Denis Malinkine
Company Rehearsal Director
A native Russian, Denis Malinkine graduated from the esteemed Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Following dancing in the Companies of Moscow Classical Ballet and the National Ballet of Portugal, Malinkine enjoyed a celebrated career as a Principal at England’s Northern Ballet Theatre, where he created the title role in the landmark production of Dracula by Michael Pink and Christopher Gable, as well as the roles of Captain Phoebus in Pink’s Hunchback of Notre Dame and Albrecht in Giselle. Malinkine later joined Atlanta Ballet, where he created the role of Romeo in Michael Pink’s Romeo & Juliet. He also danced in works by George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, Lila York, and many others. Malinkine now performs as guest artist and remounts Pink’s ballets internationally.
Mirielle Favarel
MBII Artistic Director
Mirielle Favarel
MBII Artistic Director
Mireille Favarel was born in Toulon, France, and trained with Rosella Hightower at the Centre de Danse International in Cannes. She danced throughout Europe in the Companies of Ballet du Rhin, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Ballet der Deutsch Oper am Rhein, and Ballet du Nord. Favarel represented France in the first New York International Ballet Competition. She was invited to perform in the gala performance and later returned as a coach and teacher. Favarel joined Milwaukee Ballet in 1989, where she performed major roles in the Company repertoire, the most memorable being Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, Coppélia, and Giselle. In 1990, dance critic Tom Strini named her “Dancer of the Year.” Favarel is a frequent guest teacher and répétiteur internationally.
Davit Hovhannisyan
MBII Rehearsal Director
Davit Hovhannisyan
MBII Rehearsal Director
Born in Yerevan, Davit Hovhannisyan trained at National Ballet School of Armenia on full scholarship. In 2004, he joined Milwaukee Ballet, where he performed as a critically acclaimed Leading Artist for 20 years. He danced principal roles in several Michael Pink ballets and worked with many other esteemed choreographers before retiring in 2023.