A Special Evening With Stephen Mills: With him, it's special all the time

Ballet Austin, one of Austin's two professional dance companies, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. That's special enough, but also special – perhaps even more so – is Ballet Austin's artistic director, Stephen Mills. After dancing with the company for a dozen years and developing into an internationally regarded choreographer, Mills became the guiding light at Ballet Austin. Seven years ago, in his inaugural season as artistic director, he grabbed the national spotlight with his staging of Shakespeare's Hamlet and drew still more focus three years ago, when the Kennedy Center commissioned him to choreograph the Bard's Taming of the Shrew. Special? Most certainly, and this weekend, for four performances only, you can discover just how special as Ballet Austin presents two world premieres and an encore presentation of pieces choreographed by Mills.

And if that's not enough to persuade you that this man is special, perhaps a few words from some of the artists who work closely with Mills at Ballet Austin will do the trick.

Company Member Allisyn Paino: "When I graduated from college, one of my professors said to me, 'Okay, now you're going out into the real world. Nobody is going to take your technique seriously. You're going to have to do it yourself.' And while that's true, we're all responsible for our own technique, Stephen takes an active interest every day in strengthening our technique and our bodies. In his work, everything is based upon classical ballet technique. If you're not strong and you can't hold your body up in certain ways, you can't do his movements. Training and technique are integral to what we do every day."

Associate Artistic Director Michelle Martin: "Stephen is really diligent about doing his own class and warming up on his own in the morning. He often gives the dancers central ideas and shapes, and then they build on it together. So it's not so much him having to demonstrate, it's him providing an idea and seeing how the dancers organically connect and then building on that. He doesn't limit himself to the material that he's physically able to do, which I think is a trap some choreographers fall into. Stephen choreographs with his mind and with his eyes."

Company Member Anthony Casati: "Stephen's had to wear a lot of different hats, from being a teacher and performing artist to being a choreographer and artistic director, and he has a remarkable ability both to adapt to these different jobs and maintain a high level of quality while still being willing to push the edge. It's as if he says, 'Okay, here's convention; here's what everyone else has done to this point, and I feel really comfortable in that. Now I'm going to find out what's on the other side of that fence.' I've watched him do that repeatedly, reinvent himself as a choreographer and even as a person. He's phoenixlike in that respect."

Company Member Michelle Thompson: "One of the things that drew me to Ballet Austin was that Stephen was the artistic director. I'd heard great things about him. I love Ballet Austin, and I love the community, I love all the people I work with, and I really do love Austin as a city. But a great deal of why I love Ballet Austin is Stephen Mills. Definitely."

Ballet Austin presents A Special Evening With Stephen Mills May 10-13, Thursday-Saturday, 8pm; Sunday, 2pm, at the Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress. For more information, call 866/4-GETTIX or visit www.balletaustin.org.