Ballet Arkansas kicks off the season tonight with their first annual Visions Choreographic Competition.  It will take place in the CALS Ron Robinson Theater in the River Market at 7:00 pm.

Thirty-six emerging choreographers from around the country competed for five spots in this competition. The winner will receive a commission to create a complete new work on Ballet Arkansas’s company dancers for their 2015 spring show.

The five choreographers  selected for the competition are:

• Sayoko Knode,  former principal dancer with Idaho Dance Theatre;
• Jerry Opdenaker, former principal dancer for ballet companies such as Milwaukee Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Kansas City Ballet and Ballet Florida;
• Brandon Ragland, dancer with the Louisville Ballet;
• Christopher Stuart dancer with Nashville Ballet;
• Hilary Fullmer Wolfley who graduated in 2013 from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in Ballet.

The five pieces will be judged by Adam Sklute, Artistic Director of Ballet West, Rhythm McCarthy with UALR’s Theatre and Dance Program, former Ballet Arkansas Principal Dancer Michael Tidwell with the Tidwell Project and the audience will be the fourth judge.

“I am very pleased with the talent level of our five guest choreographers” said Artistic Director, Michael Bearden “Their abilities in collaboration with our beautiful dancers will make for an evening you won’t want to miss.”