Julie Arenal
- Choreography
- Actress
- Music Department
Julie Arenal is an artist whose work as a dancer, choreographer and director has encompassed internationally acclaimed productions in stage, television and film.
Her innovative choreography in the original Broadway production of the iconic Hair, for the first time using natural dance on a Broadway stage, lead to its success as one of the most important musicals of our time.
Born in New York City, she is the daughter of Mexican painter and sculptor Luis Arenal and writer Rose Beagle Arenal. Growing up, her home was frequented by some of the most important names in Mexican art history including her uncle David Alfaro Siqueiros and, on her mother's side, acclaimed painters Raphael, Moses and Isaac Soyer. Although her childhood was surrounded by monumental painters, Julie Arenal discovered her passion for movement and dancing at a young age. Driven and determined, she studied and worked with world famous choreographers such as Anna Sokolow, whom she assisted at Julliard School, Sophie Maslow, Jack Cole, José Limon and John Butler.
Her breakout success on the originally titled Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, with its dramatic effect on the counter-culture of the '60s, lead to numerous accomplishments in staged theater. On Broadway, she choreographed Arthur Kopit's Indians, where she worked with actor Raul Julia, and the musical Boccaccio. For London's West End, she directed Isabel's a Jezebel. In Tokyo, Japan, she directed and choreographed Funny Girl, and in Sweden, Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair, which won her awards for Best Director and Choreographer by the Swedish Government. Her theater work includes the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Festival/LA, Mark Taper Forum, Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the Arena Theater in Washington, DC. She has received acclaim for her work with major ballet companies including the San Francisco Ballet, the National Ballet of Cuba, New York Dance Ensemble, Ballet Hispanico and Taller Coregrafico from Mexico. Under the direction of Tazewell Thompson in 2000, she choreographed the opera Porgy and Bess for the San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City Operas.
In 2005, she won the Connecticut Critics Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical and Best Ensemble for her regional staging of Hair which she directed and choreographed. Arenal's work has also been featured in major Hollywood films and independent cinema. She choreographed scenes for Dino de Laurentiis' King of the Gypsies, Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America, Arthur Penn's Four Friends, Barry Primus' Mistress, Alfonso Cuaron's Great Expectations, Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd, among many others. For television, she has worked on the Emmy nominated series American Family created by Gregory Nava for PBS. She choreographed many commercials and music videos including Laura Branigan's Self Control.
Dividing her time between New York City and Los Angeles, with her husband noted actor, writer and director Barry Primus and daughter Raphaela Rose Primus, Julie Arenal is dedicated to service in both local communities. She taught for twenty-five years at the Herbert Berghof Studio and seventeen years for the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.
She was one of the founders of the East L.A. Classic Theater in 1992 along with Tony Plana, directing and choreographing several of their productions. In the world of hip-hop, her cutting edge work with New York street kids, mixing ballet training techniques with break dancing, lead to her creation of the New York Express Dance Company. In 1984, under the auspices of the SpoletoArts Festival, she created two fifty-minute hip-hop ballets, The City and On the Move. Like with her groundbreaking work with naturalistic dance in Hair, Julie Arenal was the first choreographer to bring hip-hop from the street to the concert theater stage. The company has toured all over the world, giving unparalleled educational opportunities to young street artists. Its performances have been archived by the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. "I have spent my life with all kinds of dancers and all shades of talent in the dance field - some trained and some not. My goal is to create form that expresses who people are, what they are about, their pleasure and pain, bringing a sense of communion between actors on the stage and the audience. I'm not interested in just showing tricks. I'm interested in revealing who the dancers are as people."
Her innovative choreography in the original Broadway production of the iconic Hair, for the first time using natural dance on a Broadway stage, lead to its success as one of the most important musicals of our time.
Born in New York City, she is the daughter of Mexican painter and sculptor Luis Arenal and writer Rose Beagle Arenal. Growing up, her home was frequented by some of the most important names in Mexican art history including her uncle David Alfaro Siqueiros and, on her mother's side, acclaimed painters Raphael, Moses and Isaac Soyer. Although her childhood was surrounded by monumental painters, Julie Arenal discovered her passion for movement and dancing at a young age. Driven and determined, she studied and worked with world famous choreographers such as Anna Sokolow, whom she assisted at Julliard School, Sophie Maslow, Jack Cole, José Limon and John Butler.
Her breakout success on the originally titled Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, with its dramatic effect on the counter-culture of the '60s, lead to numerous accomplishments in staged theater. On Broadway, she choreographed Arthur Kopit's Indians, where she worked with actor Raul Julia, and the musical Boccaccio. For London's West End, she directed Isabel's a Jezebel. In Tokyo, Japan, she directed and choreographed Funny Girl, and in Sweden, Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair, which won her awards for Best Director and Choreographer by the Swedish Government. Her theater work includes the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Festival/LA, Mark Taper Forum, Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the Arena Theater in Washington, DC. She has received acclaim for her work with major ballet companies including the San Francisco Ballet, the National Ballet of Cuba, New York Dance Ensemble, Ballet Hispanico and Taller Coregrafico from Mexico. Under the direction of Tazewell Thompson in 2000, she choreographed the opera Porgy and Bess for the San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City Operas.
In 2005, she won the Connecticut Critics Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical and Best Ensemble for her regional staging of Hair which she directed and choreographed. Arenal's work has also been featured in major Hollywood films and independent cinema. She choreographed scenes for Dino de Laurentiis' King of the Gypsies, Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America, Arthur Penn's Four Friends, Barry Primus' Mistress, Alfonso Cuaron's Great Expectations, Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd, among many others. For television, she has worked on the Emmy nominated series American Family created by Gregory Nava for PBS. She choreographed many commercials and music videos including Laura Branigan's Self Control.
Dividing her time between New York City and Los Angeles, with her husband noted actor, writer and director Barry Primus and daughter Raphaela Rose Primus, Julie Arenal is dedicated to service in both local communities. She taught for twenty-five years at the Herbert Berghof Studio and seventeen years for the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.
She was one of the founders of the East L.A. Classic Theater in 1992 along with Tony Plana, directing and choreographing several of their productions. In the world of hip-hop, her cutting edge work with New York street kids, mixing ballet training techniques with break dancing, lead to her creation of the New York Express Dance Company. In 1984, under the auspices of the SpoletoArts Festival, she created two fifty-minute hip-hop ballets, The City and On the Move. Like with her groundbreaking work with naturalistic dance in Hair, Julie Arenal was the first choreographer to bring hip-hop from the street to the concert theater stage. The company has toured all over the world, giving unparalleled educational opportunities to young street artists. Its performances have been archived by the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. "I have spent my life with all kinds of dancers and all shades of talent in the dance field - some trained and some not. My goal is to create form that expresses who people are, what they are about, their pleasure and pain, bringing a sense of communion between actors on the stage and the audience. I'm not interested in just showing tricks. I'm interested in revealing who the dancers are as people."
