BALLET AUSTIN TAPS DANCER TO LEAD COMPANY.STEPHEN MILLS Biography 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 , a longtime principal dancer A principal dancer is similar to a soloist in dance. However, principals are hired by a ballet or dance company to perform not only solos, but also pas de deux. A principal may be male or female. with Ballet Austin Ballet Austin is the fourth largest ballet company and academy in the world. Each year the Ballet Austin company performs ballets from a wide variety of composers, including their artistic director, Stephen Mills. , has been named the company's new artistic director. The announcement was made February 17 at Ballet Austin. After an extensive ten-month search, the Ballet Austin board of directors selected Mills from an international array of applicants. "We had exceptional finalists. But the decision to go with Stephen Mills was a unanimous one, based on his outstanding work with Ballet Austin, his world-wide recognition and reputation, and his understanding of where Ballet Austin has been and how it needs to grow," said Cliff Ernst, Ballet Austin president. Mills joined Ballet Austin in 1987 as a principal dancer and began choreographing for the company the following year. In 1992, Ballet Austin appointed him resident choreographer. In April 1999, he was appointed associate artistic director after the departure of Lambros Lambrou Lambros Lambrou (born on September 9, 1977 in Famagusta, Cyprus) is a Cypriot football defender who currently plays for Anorthosis Famagusta and national team of Cyprus. In the past he played only for Ethnikos Achnas. , who had led the company as artistic director since 1989. The board praised Mills's experience in choreographing and directing both classical and contemporary ballets, as well as his experience with strategic planning Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. , artistic management, teaching, development, and outreach activities. Mills says his plans for the future include an expanded repertoire that will give the company a unique identity, along with choreography workshops to foster creation of new works. "It's important to me to raise all aspects of the company, from the dancers' technical level to production values Production values is a media term for "production cost." It refers to the professional look, or "polish," of a production. Factors that affect perceived production value may include video and audio quality, lighting, number of errors, and amount and quality of special effects. and our profile nationally," Mills said. In the past twelve years, Mills has created over twenty ballets for companies in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and abroad. In May of 1998, he was the only American choreographer chosen to present his work, Ashes, at the Rencontres Choregraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris, France. He is the only choreographer to be invited three times to present work at the Ballet Builders showcase. Ballet Austin hopes Mills will raise the organization's profile nationally. The 17-year-old professional company has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, employs twenty-four dancers on nine-month contracts, and has a current operating budget of $2.6 million. |
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