AB Centre for Dance Education children are hauled off stage by company dancer Jacob Bush during rehearsals last week. Photo by Kim Kenney

A Twyla Tharp fairy-tale-in-the-making is unfolding in the Atlanta Ballet studios. For the next two weeks, Twyla will work with company and student dancers to craft her world premiere ballet, loosely based on the fairy tales of George MacDonald with music by Franz Schubert.

Who is George MacDonald? A Scottish poet, author and minister, George MacDonald's most famous works are Phantases, The Princess and the Goblin, At the Back of the North Wind, and Lilith. He was also a friend to some of the most famous writers of the 19th century - including Lewis Carroll, Alfred Tennyson, and Walt Whitman. "I write, not for children," he wrote, "but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, or seventy-five."

Who is Franz Schubert? One of the most famous Austrian composers, Franz Schubert wrote over 1000 works during his short career (he died at 30). Some of his most famous works include "Death and the Maiden" String Quartet, Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished," String Quintet, and "Winterreise." Listen: The Arpeggione Sonata, D. 821

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