Stephen Mills (born August 18, 1960) is an American dancer and choreographer who is currently the Artistic Director/Choreographer at Ballet Austin. Under his tenure, Ballet Austin has been invited on four occasions to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in

Washington D.C Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. Mills has performed at The Hong Kong Ballet, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, The Atlanta Ballet, The Milwaukee Ballet, Washington Ballet, Cuballet in Havana, Cuba, BalletMet Columbus, The Dayton Ballet, The

Sarasota Ballet The Sarasota Ballet is an American ballet company based in Sarasota, Florida. It was founded in 1987 by former ballet dancer Jean Weidner Goldstein and is now acclaimed for its performances of Sir Frederick Ashton's ballets under its director Iai ...

of Florida, Ballet Pacifica, Dallas Black Dance Theater, The Louisville Ballet, The Nashville Ballet, Fort Worth/Dallas Ballet, The Sacramento Ballet and Dance Kaleidoscope.

Career

Early years

Following ten years of study in the

Cincinnati Conservatory of Music The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, w ...

, Mills started dancing at the age of 18. As a dancer, he performed with a wide variety of companies such as the

Harkness Ballet The Harkness Ballet (1964–1975) was a New ballet company named after its founder Rebekah Harkness. Harkness inherited her husband's fortune in Standard Oil holdings, and was a dance lover. Harkness funded Joffrey Ballet, but when they refused ...

and The American Dance Machine under the direction of Lee Theadore. He also performed with the Cincinnati Ballet and The Indianapolis Ballet Theater before becoming a part of Ballet Austin 1986. Mills has danced principal roles in the

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...

repertoire as well as works by Choo-San Goh, John Butler, Ohad Naharin, Vicente Nebrada, Domy Reiter-Soffer and Mark Dendy.

Dance and ballets

Mills choreographed his first work, ''Red Roses,'' to the music of

Edith Piaf Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English word , meaning ''wealth'' or ''prosperity'', in combination with the Old English , meaning '' strife'', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian lang ...

in 1989 for Ballet Austin. In 1998, Mills was chosen to represent the United States through his work, ''Ashes'', at Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris. Mills choreographed several works for Ballet Austin as Resident Choreographer before being named Artistic Director in 2000. As Resident Choreographer he created works such as: ''A Midsummer Night’s Dream'' and ''Cinderella'' with the music of

Alexander Glazunov Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov ( – 21 March 1936) was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He was director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was instrumental i ...

. In his inaugural season as artistic director in 2000, Mills released a world-premiere production of Hamlet. He has worked in collaboration with such artists as DJ Spooky on ''Echo Boom'', visual artist Trenton Doyle Hancock on ''Cult of Color: Call to Color'', eight-time Grammy Award-winning band,

Asleep at the Wheel Asleep at the Wheel is an American country music, Western swing music group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, in 1970, and is based in Austin, Texas. The band has won nine Grammy Awards, released over 20 albums, and has charted more t ...

on ''Big Sky'', Shawn Colvin, flamenco artist José Greco on ''Bolero'' and award-winning Austin composer Graham Reynolds on ''Bounce'', ''Though the Earth Gives Way'', ''Cult of Color: Call to Color'', and ''Belle REDUX/A Tale of Beauty & the Beast''.

''Light / The Holocaust and Humanity Project''

One of Mills’ most significant works is his original ballet Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project. This full-length contemporary ballet is one piece of a community wide educational initiative around

The Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. The work was imagined as a way for art, specifically dance, to convene a broad conversation about The Holocaust and contemporary issues of genocide and human rights. According to an archived article by the

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

, “Mills created the confrontational, distinctly contemporary ballet in 2005 after spending 18 months researching the Holocaust, when Germany's Nazi party exterminated more than 6 million Jews during World War II. The ballet is set to contemporary music by

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

Evelyn Glennie Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015. Early life Glennie was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire, in Scotland. The i ...

, Michael Gordon, Arvo Part and

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

." In 2005, Light / The Holocaust and Humanity Project was featured in KLRU's Arts In Context ''Ballet Austin’s Light / The Holocaust and Humanity Project'' which won a Lone Star Emmy Award in the Magazine Format Program category. KLRU won a second Lone Star Emmy Award for their segment ''Producing Light'', also depicting Mills’ ballet.

References

External links