Debuting two full-length world premiere ballets in one season would be ambitious enough, but Avant Chamber Ballet isn’t stopping there. For its 11th season, artistic director Katie Puder says ACB is going big. How big? These world premieres plus a major expansion of its outreach classes, as well as making Fort Worth history—that kind of big.
A different seasonal favorite is celebrated in December, when Paul Mejia’s The Nutcracker returns in grand style to Dallas and, for the first time, Fort Worth as well. Featuring Tchaikovsky’s iconic score conducted by Brad Cawyer, it plays first at Moody Performance Hall Dec. 8-10, then at Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium Dec. 22-23 in collaboration with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Not only is this the first ACB production to play Cowtown and first partnership between the two performing arts companies, it is also the first time The Nutcracker has been performed in Fort Worth with a live orchestra since 2007.
“Paul’s version was first made for the Will Rogers, before we had Bass Performance Hall or the Winspear Opera House,” Puder reveals. “So it’s very exciting to go back there, this time with this incredible live orchestra.” Puder explains that the musicians will be onstage with the dancers, occupying the back half of the stage and framed by the production’s sets and drapes.
“Romeo & Juliet is one of Paul’s masterpieces, and the first work he choreographed professionally,” says Puder. This episodic version begins with Juliet waking up in the tomb and seeing her beloved Romeo already dead, then replays their romance. “It’s like a 20 min pas de deux, and very modern even though Paul created it as a young man,” says Puder. “We did it right before the pandemic, and I still have people come up to me to say how moving it was and that it’s their favorite show of ours.”
This will also be the first time that ACB has tackled Swan Lake, a notoriously challenging ballet that Puder says is otherwise too large for her chamber company. “I grew up loving Act 2, with its white lakeside scenes and violin solo for the main pas de deux, and it’s a really nice pairing with Romeo & Juliet.” And, of course, “we try to do a Balanchine ballet every year,” says Puder, whose mentor Paul Mejia danced for the legendary choreographer. “ACB’s roots are in classical ballet, but American classical, and that’s Balanchine. We keep it all in the family.”
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Mackenzie Bartlett in Snow White. Photo by Jordan Fraker.
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Dancer Kaylee Skelton with pianist Anna Bulkina in Katie Puder’s Rhapsody in Blue. Photo by Sharen Bradford.
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Avant Chamber Ballet in Jock Soto’s My Soul Remainer. Photo by Sharen Bradford.
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Avant Chamber Ballet in Paul Mejia’s Nutcracker. Photo by Sharen Bradford.
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Kaylee Skelton; Photo by Jordan Fraker.
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Diego Miranda-Monsman and Kaila Bryant in Dracula. Photo by Jordan Fraker.
“Our work is not done. When you look at who’s getting commissions from major companies, there’s an imbalance,” Puder says. “As a choreographer myself I know how hard it is to break that glass ceiling. It’s part of the DNA of ACB that we continue to support female choreographers.”
The season is bookended by another world premiere from Puder: Snow White, performing May 3-4. “This is ACB at its best,” she says. “It will be a family-friendly, beautiful ballet with music by Tchaikovsky that’s so dynamic and emotional that it naturally lends itself to storytelling.”
“First Steps is a huge part of our mission,” says Puder. “We’re not just presenting fantastic dance at theaters, but making it possible for everyone in Dallas to experience dance for free. More than half of the student roles in The Nutcracker last year went to First Steps participants, and that’s an incredible opportunity: to not just see professional art, but be a part of it too.”
—LINDSEY WILSON
