Ballet Austin 2024-2025 Season, Shows, Reviews

byCherilyn J. Lee

January 16, 2020 - Updated on August 29, 2024

Ballet Austin

♦ Location: Austin, Texas – United States

♦ Artistic Director: Stephen Mills

♦ Affiliated School: Ballet Austin Academy

♦ Founded in 1956 by Barbara Carson as Austin Ballet Society.

♦ Official Website of Ballet Austin

Table of Contents

Ballet Austin 2024-2025 Season

The Ballet Austin 2024-2025 Season features three full-length classical ballets and two world premieres by Artistic Director Stephen Mills as well as Christopher Wheeldon’s Polyphonia and Jessica Lang’s ZigZag.

“As I considered which productions to share with you in the coming year, I curated a collection of exciting dance works that explore a range of themes, moods, and music as varied as the changing seasons, filled with passion, excitement, drama, heartbreak, love, and hope… ”

Stephen Mills, Artistic Director of Ballet Austin

Opening the season is Mills’ BELLE / A Tale of Beauty & the Beast, heavily Inspired by French filmmaker Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film La Belle et la Bête and set to Graham Reynolds’ score, followed by the Artistic Director’s production of The Nutcracker accompanied by the Austin Symphony Orchestra.

The triple-bill Hearts Desire is comprised of:

Polyphonia, considered Wheeldon’s breakthrough contemporary ballet, which pairs four couples to the spiky and complex music of Hungarian composer György Ligeti.
Desire, Mills’ pas de deux set to the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and inspired by the challenging emotions of letting go
ZigZag, Lang’s fun-filled dance work to music of legendary crooner Tony Bennett and costumes created by Wes Gordon, creative director of the Carolina Herrera fashion house

Mills’ world premiere creations will be on the Love’s Gentle Spring double-bill. The first is set to Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96 which evoke the exuberant feelings of springtime, while the second piece features Concerto for Two Pianos by contemporary composer and Grammy award-winning artist Bryce Dessner: guitarist, keyboardist, and songwriter for his band, The National.

The season closes with another Mills’ full-length to Prokofiev’s score, Romeo and Juliet, featuring Tommy Bourgeois designed period-appropriate costumes and a set illuminated by an Italianate tapestry of stained-glass colors. The dancers will be accompanied by the Austin Symphony Orchestra.

Source: Ballet Austin