Atlanta Ballet
| The Atlanta Ballet | |
|---|---|
 |
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| General information | |
| Name | The Atlanta Ballet |
| Year founded | 1929 |
| Founding Artistic Director |
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| Principal venue | Atlanta, GA, United States |
| Website | www |
| Artistic staff | |
| Artistic Director |
(Aug 2016) |
| Ballet Mistress |
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| Resident Choreographers | Helen Pickett |
| The Company | |
|---|---|
| Dancers | |
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(Aug 2016)
Atlanta Ballet is a ballet company, located in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the longest continuously performing ballet company in the United States and the State Ballet of Georgia.
Atlanta Ballet was founded in 1929 by Dorothy Alexander as the Dorothy Alexander Concert Group. During the 1940s, the organization was known as the Atlanta Civic Ballet, with Dorothy Alexander acting as Director. It was the nation's first regional ballet company. In 1946, the Company became the first in the nation to help fund a symphony by donating the season's annual proceeds to the Atlanta Youth Symphony, which later developed into the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
In the 1950s, Robertt Barnett joined the company from New York City Ballet as a principal dancer and associate director. Barnett received exclusive permission from George Balanchine to use his choreography for The Nutcracker as well as other signature works, making Atlanta Civic Ballet the only company in the country to perform works by Balanchine outside of New York City Ballet for several decades. Alexander guided her dance company for more than three decades before hand picking her successor, Robert Barnett, who was named artistic director in 1961. In 1967, the company gained professional status as Atlanta Ballet.
In 1994, Robert Barnett retired from his role as artistic director and John McFall accepted the position. The focus of the company has shifted to include education as a key point in addition to providing innovative and entertaining performances to the Atlanta community.
In September 2015, the Atlanta Ballet Board of Trustees chair Allen W. Nelson announced artistic director John McFall would be leaving the organization. McFall joined Atlanta Ballet in 1994 and in his 21 years with the organization is credited with transforming Atlanta Ballet (the oldest ballet company in the nation) from a respected regional troupe to one of the most innovative and boundary-pushing dance organizations in the industry, attracting talent and spectators from around the world.
In February 2016, Atlanta Ballet announced Gennadi Nedvigin, principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet would be joining the organization in August 2016. Nedvigin was born in Rostov, Russia, trained with The Bolshoi Ballet Academy and danced with Jeune Ballet de France before joining San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 1997.
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Wikipedia