‘Spectrum’ shows dancers’ range

Ten works by established and emerging Atlanta-area choreographers will be featured this Saturday when The Georgia Ballet presents its annual performance and fundraiser, “Spectrum: An Evening of New Works” at Mount Paran Christian School’s Murray Arts Center in Kennesaw.

The eclectic, family-friendly program helps the Marietta-based professional company further its aims — to build and educate audiences, to raise its profile among Cobb County businesses and to give early-career dancers and choreographers the artistic boost they need to achieve their professional goals.

The showcase started six years ago when company members Micki Weiner and Angela Harris organized a performance and fundraiser to help pay for pointe shoes, dance classes and lockers. They raised about $4,000, executive director Michele Ziemann-DeVos recalled. This year, moving the event from its studio setting to the state-of-the art theater, they expect to receive about $15,000, or about 7.5 percent of the $200,000 contributed income needed to sustain their $768,000 annual budget.

Despite its relatively small budget, the company is known for high standards in the classical tradition, even in suburban Atlanta, where it’s a challenge to build audiences and attract patrons. But the company plays an important role — bridging the gap between schools and larger professional companies.

Artistic director Gina Hyatt-Mazon explained that the show allows the strictly trained dancers to express themselves freely, to experience a choreographer’s viewpoint and perhaps to discover talent and passion for choreography. Area dancemakers will have a chance to build their repertory, setting new works on company’s professional dancers.

The variety of styles will stretch dancers’ skills — they’ll partner ballet with hip-hop, jump to the beat of George Gershwin’s syncopated rhythms and take ballet’s vertical lines off-kilter with swirling modern dance movements. Music ranges from works by classical composers Jean-Philippe Rameau and Frédéric Chopin to a song by pop band OneRepublic.

Kristy Nilsson is choreographing her fifth work for the show. She teaches about 38 hours a week in three Atlanta-area studios, but, at 32, aspires to choreograph for larger companies. “Spectrum” offers her a rare opportunity to work with dancers whose artistry can help realize her vision. In her quartet, “Winter Widow,” set to Philip Glass’ first violin concerto, Nilsson builds patterns and configurations her students aren’t ready for — daring lifts, fast footwork and intricate partnering. Nilsson hopes that professional company directors will see this piece and envision their dancers performing her work, bringing a new voice to the professional ballet world.