Five new ballet pieces will be premiered tonight in Little Rock as part of Ballet Arkansas’ second VISIONS choreographic competition.
VISIONS began as the vision of Ballet Arkansas’ Artistic Director, Michael Bearden, who wanted to create a event that would give choreographers an opportunity to have their works seen and appreciated by audiences and the dance community, as well as have the opportunity to receive a contract to have their choreography fully produced.
This season, Ballet Arkansas will present Visions Choreographic Competition at the UALR Center for Performing Arts on August 22, 2015 at 7:00 pm.
Thirty-one emerging choreographers from around the country competed for five spots in this year’s competition of which the winner will receive a commission to expand their new work for Ballet Arkansas’ company dancers for our spring mixed repertory show.
This year’s selected choreographers include Boston Ballet’s Boyko Dossev, former Houston Ballet’s Ilya Kozadayev, former Ballet West and Visceral Dance Chicago’s Tom Mattingly, former Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Barry Kerollis and Post: Ballet’s Aidan DeYoung.
A week before the VISIONS Competition, the choreographers drafted their cast of dancers and have a total of 11 rehearsal hours over 5 days to set their choreography on their cast. The night of the competition, the resulting works of choreography are performed for 4 judges, 3 of those judges are professionals in the local and national dance community, with the audience counting as the 4th judge.
The big finale of the competition is the announcement of the VISIONS Winner, who receives a contract with Ballet Arkansas to expand their choreography to have it fully produced for performance in Ballet Arkansas’ spring mixed repertory show, “Under the Lights”, to be held May 20-22 at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.
While it is only the start of July, cultural institutions are already focused on their 2015-2016 seasons. This is especially true for Ballet Arkansas, which has its first event on August 22nd.
In December, Ballet Arkansas joins forces with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra to present the annual holiday ballet, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center. With music provided by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, a cast of 200+ youth and adult dancers from the central Arkansas area, professional guest artists and featuring Ballet Arkansas professional company members, The Nutcracker will continue its tradition as a holiday must-see. The Nutcracker performance week includes student matinees for statewide school groups on December 10 & 11, along with the four public performances on December 11, 12 and 13th. Tickets for The Nutcracker will go on sale in early September on the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s website.
On May 20-22, 2016 Ballet Arkansas will present its annual spring mixed-repertory show, Under the Lights at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. This year’s show contains an eclectic group of works of various dance styles including Nashville Ballet dancer Chris Stuarts’ Under the Lights set to Johnny Cash songs including “Walk the Line” and “Jackson”. This show also features a world premier of a Kiyon Gaines work and Group Therapy, a comedy ballet created for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago by Harrison McEldowney and the expanded Visions winning choreography. Ballet Arkansas is also delighted to announce that itwill again be performing a George Balanchine work, Glinka Pas de Trois. Tickets will go on sale in early fall on the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s website.
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