Photo by Tony Spielberg
On behalf of Ballet Austin in January 2002, Stephen Mills accepted the invitation of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts to perform his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of the Kennedy Center’s Youth and Family Public Performance season.
The invitation came several years after the work’s Austin premiere and less than six months following a visit to Ballet Austin by the Kennedy Center’s Vice President of Education, Derek Gordon, to see Mills’ world premiere production of Hamlet. While in Austin, Gordon also attended an educational forum hosted by Ballet Austin for area educators and arts organizations on the importance of arts education in schools.
The forum culminated in Ballet Austin’s performance of Hamlet, specifically for high school seniors currently studying the work as part of their curriculum. “We were very proud to be invited to represent Austin in our nation’s capital,” Mills said. “Ballet Austin’s unique style of dance reflects the beauty, technical expertise and sense of humor found in Austin. We were excited to share these qualities with the audiences of our national performing arts center.”
Undergoing the task of bringing a historic stage play to life through movement was one that interested Mills immediately. “I loved the challenge of removing the medium in which A Midsummer Night’s Dream was originally created to tell a story with so many twists and turns through movement alone.” It was about to become a familiar process, as the following year Mills premiered a contemporary version of Hamlet (October 2000). A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the first of Shakespeare’s works Mills would bring to the stage for dance audiences. In the recently “post 9/11 world” of January 2002, Ballet Austin made its way across the country for this important Washington DC premiere.
Executive Director Cookie Ruiz recalls, “I remember well the feeling of pride entering The Kennedy Center for the first time as part of Ballet Austin’s tour. Our nation was grieving the impact of the events of the prior September, and our plane flew over the gaping hole in the Pentagon. But when the curtain went up, Stephen’s work and our dancers’ artistry filled the hall with much needed laughter and beauty.” The Kennedy Center, whose mission is to act as “…a leader for the arts across America and around the world, reaching and connecting with artists, inspiring and educating communities…” is considered amongst the finest and most historic performance venues in our country. Former Company member Allisyn (Paino) Martin, part of the cast for this tour reflects, “What an honor it was to be invited to perform there…We danced in the Terrace Theater…steeped in history. It was surreal!”
Another former Company member, Tony Casati, who performed at The Kennedy Center during that tour shared his reflection of that time, “For the trip to The Kennedy Center, I very much recall the oddities that came with air travel at that time. It was my first time flying since 9/11 and initially I was not prepared for armed National Guardsmen in the Muller terminal…The performances were exciting, and it was introspective to walk the National Mall and consider the monuments to our nation’s history in an entirely different context. I have been to DC many times since, but it has never felt similarly.”
As to performing after 9/11, Martin shares, “I think we all needed some excitement and happiness. It was such a difficult time for so many and dancing such a fun ballet accomplished the goal of letting us lose ourselves in the experience, which is really one of the purposes of art anyway. To temporarily get away from your everyday life and go on a new journey at the theater.”
The success of Ballet Austin’s first Kennedy Center performances to seven soldout houses resulted in three subsequent invitations, to date. Mills showcases his comedic sensibilities and choreographic prowess through feats of physical comedy, coupled with elegant classical ballet phrases that work together to tell a story with as many twists and turns as one could imagine. Bringing this work to The Kennedy Center stage in 2002, when the world needed the healing power of laughter and art, resonates still today.
Of choosing to bring A Midsummer Night’s Dream back to Austin audiences this season, Mills shares, “My goal with the programming this season is to bring hope and happiness to our devoted audience members at a time when they need it most.”
This article was first published in A Midsummer Night’s Dream playbill. It is published here courtesy of Ballet Austin. Click here to learn more or read the entire playbill.
