New Choreographic Voices — May 18-20, 2012

The Alliance Stage at the Woodruff Arts Center

The Alliance Stage at the Woodruff Arts Center is a 770-seat theatre perfect for intimate productions with up-and-coming choreographers.

Touch - Choreographed by Helen Pickett

Christopher Wheeldon (Choreographer, Rush)

Christopher Wheeldon was born in Yeovil, Somerset, and began his ballet training when he was eight years old. He began studying at The Royal Ballet School at the age of 11. He joined The Royal Ballet in 1991 and won the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne competition. In 1993, he was invited to become a member of New York City Ballet, where he was promoted to Soloist in 1998. He began choreographing for NYCB with Slavonic Dances for the 1997 Diamond Project; his Scènes de Ballet, a collaboration with artist Ian Falconer, was created for the School of American Ballet’s 1999 Workshop Performances and NYCB’s 50th-anniversary season.

After creating Mercurial Manoeuvers for NYCB’s Spring 2000 Diamond Project, Wheeldon retired from dancing to concentrate on his choreographic work. In the 2000/01 season, he served as NYCB’s first-ever Artist in Residence, creating two ballets: Polyphonia, set to piano music by György Ligeti, and Variations Sérieuses, set to music by Felix Mendelssohn. In July 2001 he was named NYCB’s first Resident Choreographer. Since then he has choreographed at least one ballet a year for NYCB, including Morphoses and Carousel (A Dance) (2002), Carnival of the Animals and Liturgy (2003), After the Rain and An American in Paris (2005), Klavier (2006) and The Nightingale and the Rose (2007).

Wheeldon has also been in demand with other leading companies and has created such notable works as Continuum Whitin the Golden Hair, Gosts and Number Nine for San Francisco Ballet, Tryst and DGV: Danse à grande vitesse and Electric Counterpoint for The Royal Ballet, a full-length Swan Lake for Pennsylvania Ballet (2004) and Misericors for the Bol’shoy Ballet (2007). Outside the ballet world, he choreographed 'Dance of the Hours' for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda (2006), as well as ballet sequences for the feature film Center Stage (2000) and a Broadway version of Sweet Smell of Success (2002).

Throughout his career, Wheeldon has been interested in working with other artists to provoke new dance directions. Among the composers who have written scores for him are James MacMillan, Bright Sheng and Michael Nyman. He has also worked with such artists as Ian Falconer, James Buckhouse and Jean-Marc Puissant; designers Adrianne Lobel and Narciso Rodriguez; the author and actor John Lithgow and director Nicholas Hytner.

In 2007, Wheeldon founded Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company with the goal of introducing a spirit of innovation to classical ballet by fostering collaboration among choreographers, dancers, visual artists, designers, composers, and others who can bring new life and perspective to the art form. Morphoses was launched at the Vail International Dance Festival in August of that year and performed at Sadler’s Wells in London in September and New York City Center in October. For the inaugural season, Wheeldon choreographed two new works: Fools’ Paradise and Prokofiev pas de deux.

In 2009 Wheeldon worked with Richard Eyre on a production of the opera Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and in 2010 his new version of The Sleeping Beauty had its premiere with The Royal Danish Ballet. His new full-length ballet Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was created for The Royal Ballet and given its premiere at the Royal Opera House on 28 February 2011. Thirteen Diversions for American Ballet Theatre May 2011 and most recently Les Carillons a world premier as part of an all Wheeldon evening at the New York City Ballet in January 2012.

As Wheeldon’s choreography has pushed ballet into new territories, he has been widely praised by critics and audiences alike. He received the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center and the American Choreography Award, and in 2005 received the Dance Magazine Award. He won the London Critics’ Circle Award for best new ballet for Polyphonia, and a performance of the piece by NYCB dancers received a Laurence Olivier Award. DGV: Danse à grande vitesse was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in 2006, and the inaugural season of Morphoses at Sadler’s Wells won a ‘South Bank Show’ Award.

Helen Pickett (Choreographer, Prayer of Touch)
                                                                                
Helen Pickett, born in San Diego, California, studied dance at The San Francisco Ballet School under the direction of Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin, and later, Helgi Tomasson.
For over a decade Helen performed with William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt. During her last season with Ballet Frankfurt, Helen simultaneously performed with The Wooster Group, director, Elizabeth Le Compte. She acted with the Group for five non-consecutive years in the OBIE award winning House/Lights, and North Atlantic. In 2005, Helen returned to the role, Agnes, as a guest artist with The Royal Ballet of Flanders, in William Forsythe’s Impressing the Czar. In 2009, Impressing the Czar received the Laurence Olivier Award.

In 2005, Mikko Nissinen, director of the Boston Ballet, offered Helen her first choreographic commission, Etesian. The New York Choreographic Institute awarded her a Fellowship Initiative Grant in 2006. In the same year and through 2008, Helen choreographed for Boston Ballet, Washington Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Louisville Ballet and Ballet X. In 2007, Dance Magazine named Helen one of '25 to Watch.' She received a Choreographic Residency from Jacob’s Pillow in 2008. From 2009 through 2011, Helen created new ballets for Royal Ballet of Flanders, Ballet West, Boston Ballet (two premieres), Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem. In 2012 and 2013, her commissions include Atlanta Ballet, Dresden Ballet, Vienna State Opera, and Smuin Ballet. In 2009, Helen was one of the first choreographers to receive the Jerome Robbins Foundation’s New Essential Works Grant.
Helen collaborates, as an actress and choreographer, with installation video artists and filmmakers including Eve Sussman, Toni Dove and Laurie Simmons. Helen, a founding member of Eve Sussman’s The Rufus Corporation, created the role of the Queen in 89 Seconds at Alcazar, which was shown at the 2004 Whitney Biennial, and now is in the permanent collection at Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2007, Helen acted in Sussman’s feature length film, The Rape of the Sabine Women. She played Sally Rand in Toni Dove's video installation and feature film, Spectropia.

Helen teaches Forsythe-based improvisation and her motivational creative workshop entitled The Expansive Artist throughout Europe and the United States.
Dance Europe published Helen’s article, "Considering Cezanne," in 2006.

In 2011, Helen earned a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Hollins University.
www.helenpickett.com

Tara Lee (Choreographer, Pavo)

Tara Lee made her choreographic debut with Sixteen String in 2003.  Originally created for an Atlanta Ballet choreographers’ workshop, Sixteen String, with music by Lou Harrison, was handpicked by John McFall to be performed by the company the following year in their season line-up.  In 2004, McFall offered her another opportunity, which led to the creation of Poem, a dramatic duet that she danced with Brian Wallenberg to the music of Jeff Buckley.   After making its world premiere with Atlanta Ballet, Poem was also performed by New Orleans Ballet Theatre.  Subsequent works include two commissions for Emory Dance Company; a Margaret Mitchell-inspired duet for Georgia Public Broadcasting; and an ensemble piece, Akara, which she created with Jesse Tyler for Wabi Sabi, Atlanta Ballet’s experimental troupe.  Tara would like to express special thanks to her director, John McFall, for giving her unlimited amounts of encouragement, trust, and freedom during this amazing creative process.

Jesse Tyler (Assistant Choreographer, Pavo)

Jesse Tyler began choreographing at the age of 17. His first work, Burn, was created for the North Carolina Dance Theatre's second company during their summer residency in Chautauqua, NY. In 2005, his work Conglomerate 8 was again featured at NCDT2. In 2006, he moved to Atlanta, GA where he founded and co-directed a collaborative arts organization called The Hent Project with fellow artist Merica May Jensen. He choreographed several works for The Hent Project over the next few years before joining Atlanta Ballet. In 2010, he began collaborating with Tara Lee on Akara, a work commissioned by Emory University for their dance company and later re-staged for Atlanta Ballet's offshoot company, Wabi Sabi.

Composer

Nickitas Demos (Composer, Pavo)

Composer Nickitas Demos (b. 1962, Boulder, Colorado) holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University, a Master of Music degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His principal teachers were Donald Erb (1927-2008) and Roger Hannay (1930-2006). His music is influenced by a rich blend of Greek folk rhythms, Byzantine chant as well as jazz and pop music and has been described as “…emotionally direct and powerful…” (MusicWeb International) and as “…substantive…accessible and personal, not derived from any ‘-ism.’ ” (ArtsCriticATL.com).

His commissions include works for the Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Ballet, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Chamber Players, the Georgia Music Teachers Association and the National Association of College Wind & Percussion Instructors. Demos is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including a MacDowell Fellowship (2011), Grand Prize in the 2004 Millennium Arts International Competition for Composers, Grand Prize in the 2005 Holyoke Civic Symphony Composition Competition, Birmingham and Atlanta Prizes in the Hultgren 2005 Solo Cello Works Biennial Composition Competition and 14 ASCAP Awards among others. His works have been programmed at festivals, symposia and conferences including the 43rd Dimitria Festival (Thessaloniki, Greece); the 18th International Review of Composers (Belgrade Serbia); the International Festival – Institute at Round Top (TX); the Ernest Bloch Music Festival (Newport, OR); the New Music Forum Festival of Contemporary Music (San Francisco, CA); and at National and Regional Conferences of the Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI) and the College Music Society (CMS). His music is self-published through Sylvan Lake Press (ASCAP) and has been recorded on MSR Classics and Capstone Records.

Currently, Demos holds the positions of Professor of Composition and Coordinator of Composition Studies at the Georgia State University School of Music. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of the neoPhonia New Music Ensemble, the Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences and holder of the Andrew C. and Eula C. Family Founding Chair in Contemporary Greek Studies. Outside of Georgia State University, he serves on the Executive Committee of SCI and as the Musical Director for the Greek Islanders, an ethnic ensemble he founded in 1982 specializing in Greek folk music.

Group Discounts

Community and Corporate Group Tickets

It only takes 10 people to benefit from Atlanta Ballet's Group Sales program.  With our fast, friendly and convenient service, you can secure the best seats in the house in no time at all.  For more information or to reserve your group's seats today, contact Jarrett Milton, Group Sales Manager, by one of the easy methods below.

Group Benefits include:

• Priority seating at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre and the Fabulous Fox Theatre
• Discounts of up to 30% for select performances and special acess to tickets not available to the general public
• One-time $6 service fee, no matter how large your order
• Flexible payment options
• VIP opportunities such as backstage tours and dancer meet-and-greets (nominal fees apply)
• Personal VIP service from our outstanding staff including presentation and marketing materials on the program of your choice.  Assistance with restaurant and hotel reservations, transportation options, pre/post-show receptions and tours of the Cobb Energy Centre/Fox Theatre are also available at your request.
   

Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education's Kids In Step

The Centre for Dance Education's Kids In Step program is designed to bring dance to the school-age child.  For more information on weekday performances for accredited school groups and registered home schools, please visit our Kids In Step page.

Casting

Click here to access casting for Friday, May 18 at 8 pm, Saturday, May 19 at 8 pm and Sunday, May 20 at 7 pm.

Click here to access casting for the Saturday, May 19 at 2 pm and Sunday, May 20 at 2 pm.