Austin Dance

Like most everyone, dance artists like to get out of town during the summer. This season sees some traveling farther than others, however, thanks to special invitations. The students in Dance Repertory Theatre, UT's performing ensemble for dance majors, are currently in Austria for the Young Tanzsommer Festival 2006. For the second time in three years, DRT has been invited to the annual event, which consists of workshops and dance performances by companies from around the world. In their two performances with the Stars of Tomorrow program, the troupe is premiering four new dances: "There and Not There," by UT professor Andrea Beckham; "General Truths," by UT professor Lyn C. Wiltshire; "Flying Colors," by Fred Mathews; and "Designer Genes."

Meanwhile, Ballet Austin artistic director Stephen Mills spent the week of June 12-17 teaching ballet in the Berkshires. Mills was asked by Anna-Marie Holmes, who directs the ballet program at Jacob's Pillow, to teach at the historic summer festival. To give you a sense of the prestige of this assignment, Mills worked alongside Caroline Llorca of the Bavarian Ballet School in Munich; Wayne Eagling, artistic director of the English National Ballet; and former New York City Ballet principal dancer Jock Soto. But Mills has miles to go before he sleeps. John Meehan, new artistic director of the Hong Kong Ballet, has invited him to China to set "Hush," the work Mills created for the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, on the Hong Kong troupe. He will head east in mid-July, then return to the States for an early August gig as guest teacher and choreographer at the Northwest Professional Dance Project in Portland, Ore.