|
Touch
Last performed here in Austin in 2002
Music by Glover Gill (Austin) – composed the music for the Richard Linklater movie Waking Life
- The music was commissioned for this ballet – Mr. Mills was able to tell Gill what he needed for the ballet
- The main instrument is a bandaleon, an accordion-like instrument
The work is tango in nature
The costumes (by Christopher McCollum) are derived from the idea of a wandering, nomadic desert people looking forward into the future – hence the costumes are sandy, desert-like colors
silence within silence
World premiere
The music is composed by Johannes Brahms for the piano
Based on a group of poems by e.e. cummings (see below)
Mr. Mills read these poems in high school, and hasn’t re-read them until now – to him they are beautiful, evocative, sensual poems
There are 4 poems and 4 duets
Mr. Mills has never used poetry as a stepping off point before
The world-renowned pianist Anton Nel will play the music live – Mr. Mills and Nel have known each other for about 10 years, and have been looking for an opportunity to work together
Kai
World premiere
Music by John Cage
- Cage known in the 50’s for working with Merce Cunningham
- Worked in NY with Robert Rauschenberg (white paintings that changed with the lighting in the room – inspired Cage’s work with silence as a blank canvas)
- Using a piece called Three Dances, which is very rhythmic
- Mr. Mills finds Cage’s music very beautiful and percussive, similar to a type of Indonesian music
- In reality, the music is actually for prepared piano – a piano with apparatuses attached to the strings to make percussive sounds instead of notes when the hammers strike
Kai meaning ocean/water – inspiration originates with South Pacific/Bali Hai, and is of water, the color blue, water rippling outward
The pas de deux is the story of a king and his potential wife – a mating dance.
Click here for our Special Evening with Stephen Mills eCard
Stephen Mills, Artistic Director
Under the artistic leadership of Mr. Mills, Ballet Austin has emerged as one of the nation's premiere developing ballet organizations. In his inaugural season as artistic director he attracted attention from around the United States with his world-premiere production of Hamlet, hailed in Dance Magazine as "...sleek and sophisticated."
The Washington Post recognized Ballet Austin as "one of the nations' best-kept secrets" in 2004 after Ballet Austin performed The Taming of the Shrew, which was commissioned by and performed at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He led the Company to perform his A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2002 at The Kennedy Center, and his work has been showcased in New York at the choreographic showcase, Ballet Builders and at the Joyce Theater. In 1998 he was the only American choreographer chosen to present his work, Ashes, at the Rencontres Choregraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris. Most recently, Mr. Mills was awarded the Steinberg Award, the top honor at the Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur International Choreographic Competition for One/The Body's Grace.
Mr. Mills has created more than 40 works for companies in the United States and abroad. His ballets are in the repertories of such companies as The Atlanta Ballet, Washington Ballet, Cuballet in Havana, Cuba, BalletMet Columbus, The Dayton Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet of Florida, Ballet Pacifica, Dallas Black Dance Theater, The Louisville Ballet, The Nashville Ballet, Fort Worth/Dallas Ballet and Kaleidoscope. He has worked in collaboration with such luminaries as the eight-time Grammy Award-winning band, Asleep at the Wheel, Shawn Colvin and internationally renowned flamenco artist Jose Greco II.
Mr. Mills has performed with a wide variety of companies, dancing a very diverse repertoire. He was a performing member of the world-renowned Harkness Ballet and The American Dance Machine under the direction of Lee Theadore. He also performed with the Cincinnati Ballet and The Indianapolis Ballet Theater. Mr. Mills has danced principal roles in the Balanchine repertoire as well as works by Choo-San Goh, John Butler, Ohad Naharin, Vicente Nebrada, Domy Reiter-Soffer and Mark Dendy.
In addition to his work as a choreographer, Mr. Mills is committed as a master teacher to developing dancers. He has been a teacher at many pre-professional academies including Goucher College; Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts in Dallas; The Virginia School of the Arts; The New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts; Stephens College and Point Park College in Pittsburgh.
Mr. Mills also serves on the Board of Trustees of the national dance service organization, Dance USA.
|
Choreography by Stephen Mills
