Atlanta Ballet has announced a 2012-13 season highlighted by a revival of "Dracula," the North American premiere of Englishman David Bintley's modern reinterpretation of "Carmina Burana" and the company's first collaboration with the accomplished Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin.
Including the holiday staple "Nutcracker" and the family-friendly fairy tale dance "Cinderella," the lineup reflects the continuing evolution of the 83-year-old company into a troupe that moves easily between classical story ballets and more challenging contemporary movement.
If Twyla Tharp was Atlanta Ballet's headline-making "get" from the latter category in the current season, Naharin fills that role in 2012-13, headlining a "New Choreographic Voices" program next March that presents two company premieres (including one by Gina Patterson).
The artistic director of Tel Aviv-based Batsheva Dance Company is known for his "Gaga" movement language that has nothing to do with Lady Gaga but nonetheless has made waves of its own on the international dance scene. Naharin’s technique establishes a flow throughout the dancer's body that allows overall fluidity no matter from where a movement stems. Or as the choreographer himself once explained: "We learn to connect to [a] groove even when there is no music."
"Bringing in Ohad Naharin is huge," said ballet executive director Arthur Jacobus, who, after his early 2010 arrival, worked with longtime artistic director John McFall and other Atlanta Ballet leaders on a three-year strategic plan (now being expanded to five) that positioned the country's longest continuously operating dance company for change. Its charge is toward artistically adventuresome programming, frequently in the form of commissions, that pushes the energy and athleticism of the dancers.
"We've not chosen the easy path," Jacobus said, "but we're doing it for reasons of artistic integrity and to distinguish this company." He feels the positively received and reviewed programs this season, such as last weekend's eclectic three-work program "The Man in Black," with the title piece inspired by Johnny Cash songs and featuring cowboy-booted dancers, "has taken us a long way toward that."
Jacobus said anecdotal evidence of younger audiences for certain performances and positive feedback from board members and longtime subscribers, as well as a small year-over-year ticket sales increase, suggest that metro Atlantans are showing a willingness to come along for the ride.
"It's a slow build and we realize that," he said, adding, "We realize we're going to have to market the hell out of next season."
The lineup:
- Dec. 7-26: "Nutcracker" at the Fox Theatre. Featuring more than 250 young Atlanta dancers and with the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra.
- Jan. 4-6 and Feb. 16-17: "Cinderella" at Gwinnett Performing Arts Center and Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, respectively. Jacobus called presenting the one-hour family performance in Gwinnett an "experiment," an attempt to reach an untried market.
- Feb. 8-16: "Dracula" at Cobb Energy. This will be the fourth encore of a dance debuted by the company in 1998. The 2000 remounting still holds the record for the company's highest-grossing ballet outside of "Nutcracker." With the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra.
- March 22-24: "New Choreographic Voices" at Cobb Energy.
- April 12-14: "Carmina Burana" at Cobb Energy. Bintley is the director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. His take on the tale of three seminarians who abandon their sacred studies to pursue a more sensual approach to life is set to Carl Orff's score. With the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra and Georgia State's University Singers.
- May 10-12: "Love Stories" at Cobb Energy. Works exploring the theme of amour are to be announced for this mixed-rep program.
Season tickets, $92-$435, are on sale; single tickets available in late summer. 404-892-3303, www.atlantaballet.com.
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