Founded in 1972 by Ballet Russe dancers Yvonne Chouteau and Miguel Terekhov, Oklahoma City Ballet has been the city’s professional ballet company for more than 40 years. It is the resident dance company of the Civic Center Music Hall and currently boasts 31 dancers from around the world. Led by Artistic Director Robert Mills, the company produces four main stage productions per season in Oklahoma City and tours across Oklahoma and surrounding states.  It is the only ballet company of its size to regularly debut world premiere story ballets with original commissioned scores and commissions new works from the industry’s leading choreographers.  

SET DESIGNER,
OKLAHOMA CITY BALLET
Gregory Crane

Gregory R. Crane is an Emmy Award-winning set designer on the Oklahoma Centennial Spectacular featuring a cast of hundreds and numerous headline performances including Toby Keith, The All American Rejects, The Flaming Lips, Blake Shelton, and Reba McEntire. 

Having completed designs for over 180 productions, he had the privilege of designing for such companies as Six Flags Theme Parks, the Dallas Cowboys, Herschend Family Entertainment, Royal Productions, Fee Hedrick Family Entertainment Group, and Corporate Magic.

In conjunction with Corporate Magic, Crane has designed many high-energy corporate events for Mazda, Rite Aid Pharmacies, the Dallas Cowboys, Miller Lite, Salvation Army, Whataburger, and Prudential Real Estate.

Recently Crane’s designs have been featured in the internationally famous Dallas Cowboys - Salvation Army Thanksgiving Day Halftime Show on FOX starring Enrique Iglesias (2011). He has also designed for past performers Keith Urban (2010), Daughtry (2009), The Jonas Brothers (2008), Kelly Clarkson (2007), Carrie Underwood (2006), Sheryl Crow (2005), and the 2004 Halftime Show starring Destiny’s Child. In 2010 Crane designed the opening to the Tournament of Roses Parade on ABC, the Super Bowl XVL Press Conference 2010, and the BSA 2010 National Scout Jamboree – Celebrating 100 years and featuring Mike Rowe and Switchfoot (Winner 2011 Excellence in Live Design Award for Corporate Events). In addition, his work has been seen on CBS, NBC, ESPN, HGTV, Univision, and PBS/OETA.
In 2011, Crane unveiled his new set design for The Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur Resort and Casino in Las Vegas and a Christmas themed amusement park in Tennessee. Other memorable projects include: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at The Miracle Theater, The Drowsy Chaperone, Encore, The Smoky Mountain Opry, and Evil Dead: The Musical.

COSTUME DESIGNER,
OKLAHOMA CITY BALLET
Susanne Hubbs

Susanne Hubbs has been designing and sewing costumes for dancers, figure skaters, and synchronized swimmers for 35 years. Her costumes have been worn by hundreds of Youth America Grand Prix competitors, as well as many elite international figure skaters. Tutus designed and created by Hubbs have been featured in Pointe Magazine in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013. Other ballet designs were created for and worn by the Brandywine Ballet, St. Lucie Ballet, Imagine Ballet Theatre, Ballet Nouveau Colorado, and Oklahoma City Ballet.  

Hubbs collaborated for many years with the choreographers and dancers of Ormao in Colorado Springs, creating hundreds of innovative contemporary dance costumes.  

She started ballet training at the age of five, continuing to perform with the Olympia Festival Ballet, the American Jazz Dance Company, Dayton Ballet and Dayton Ballet II, Alaska Dance Theatre, and Ballet Alaska. She received the “Young Choreographer’s” award from Regional Dance America in 1983. Additionally, Hubbs has been teaching ballet for 37 years, with students going on to prestigious college dance programs and professional careers in dance.
Today, her design studio is a bustling creative space, located in Colorado Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak, where the mountains provide her with daily inspiration. 

LIGHTING DESIGNER,
OKLAHOMA CITY BALLET
Aaron Mooney

Aaron is delighted to be joining OKC Ballet for another season as Resident Lighting Designer.  Aaron is also the Resident Lighting Designer and Associate Professor of Lighting Design at Oklahoma City University, where he joined the faculty in 2012.  Aaron holds an MFA in Theatre Design from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a BA in Theatre Education from The University of Tulsa. Aaron has lit events in spaces as large as Radio City Music Hall (NYC), the Western Heritage Museum (OKC), and The Joint at the Hard Rock Casino (Tulsa) as well as spaces so small that they barely deserve to be called theatres.

Recent design credits include The Nutcracker, Our Private Rooms, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo  and Juliet, Exurgency (OKC Ballet), Pageant (Lyric OK), and King Lear (OK Shakespeare in the Park). Previous Lighting Designs for OCU include Hairspray, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, As You Like It, RENT, Brigadoon,
The Grapes of Wrath, South Pacific, Street Scene, 9 to 5: The Musical, Bernstein’s MASS, and The Dialogues of the Carmelites.  

In addition to all of his theatrical design work, Aaron has worked on exhibition lighting at the S.R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Academy of Design, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, the National Museum of the Native American (NYC), and the Morgan Museum & Library. Fashion lighting in New York City includes Barneys New York, Prada, Armani, and Dolce + Gabbana.  Aaron lives in OKC with his wife, Lisa, and his son, Eli.