Atlanta Ballet’s Season Finale Delivered Artistry, Athleticism and the Avant-Garde

Atlanta Ballet closed its 85^th season with MAYhem, an explosive program that brought together three revolutionary contemporary works showcasing the dexterity and grace of Atlanta Ballet’s company artists.   

Audiences witnessed first-hand the high-caliber, athletic performance that has become the hallmark of Atlanta Ballet’s dancers, which has thrust the Company into the international spotlight as a preeminent dance company.  

This season’s MAYhem featured three premieres: San Francisco Ballet’s resident choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s Classical Symphony,  John Heginbotham’s whimsical Angels’ Share and Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman’s buoyant and inventive Cacti.  

John Heginbotham created Angels' Share for Atlanta Ballet's 2014 Wabi Sabi summer season. “Atlanta Ballet is a good place to work,” said Heginbotham of the company. “The energy is really positive here and the dancers here are lovely, every single one of them.”  

Former Bolshoi Ballet company dancer and San Francisco Ballet’s current resident choreographer Yuri Possokhov made  his Atlanta debut with Classical Symphony.  The piece, which Possokhov himself describes as “very challenging,” is a celebration of ballet, dedicated to Possokhov’s former teacher, Peter Pestov and as the San Francisco Chronicle stated "Featured Russian-flavored high classical steps rarely seen in American contemporary ballet.”  

Alexander Ekman's Cacti is a powerful piece of choreography that challenges contemporary dance with its unconventional use of space, movement and humor. The work featured dancers who intermittently act as percussionists throughout the ballet.  Ekman is not only one of the brightest rising stars in contemporary dance today, but his comedic sensibility is fantastically brilliant.

 

I LOVED this performance!

Cacti - Photo by Kim Kenney.

Angels' Share - Photo by Kim Kenney.

Classical Symphony - Photo by Kim Kenney.

 

MAYhem ran Friday, May 15 through Sunday, May 17 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.  

For more information about Atlanta Ballet, visit www.atlantaballet.com or call 404-892-3303.