Nashville Ballet Features Nashville Songwriters, American Premiere in Winter Series

Nashville Ballet will present the American premier of Twyla Tharp's The Story Teller, and two of Nashville's favorite contemporary dance pieces as part of its Director's Choice Winter Repertoire Program Feb. 11-13.

"Our entire 25th anniversary season celebrates audience favorites, including two of the ballets in this series," Nashville Ballet CEO and Artistic Director Paul Vasterling said. "We are also introducing the audience to a new work that is sure to be added to our future audience favorites list."

The Story Teller debuted at The Australian Ballet in 1997, but has not been performed since then. This performance will mark the North American premiere of the ballet. Created by world-famous choreographer Tharp, the piece illustrates the personal story of one character through the movements of four dancers. His exact story is open to interpretation based on each couple's athletic, modern style. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded a prestigious American Masterpieces grant to Nashville Ballet to produce this work.

Tharp's talent and reputation in the dance world earned her a Kennedy Center Honor in 2008, one Tony Award, 19 honorary doctorates, two Emmy Awards, the National Medal of the Arts in 2004 and many other honors. She has crafted the choreography for four Broadway shows, five Hollywood movies and 135 individual dances. In March, she will also accept the Vasterling Award from Nashville Ballet for artistic achievement.

Nashville Ballet will also perform Postcards from the Boys, which became an audience favorite after its Nashville debut in 2005. Award-winning choreographer Sarah Slipper created the jazzy, progressive piece specifically for the music written by Nashville singer-songwriters Guy Clark and Darrell Scott. Accomplished Nashville composer Conni Ellisor, arranged the score, which includes Do It or Die Trying, Shattered Cross and I Wanna Be Free by Scott, as well as Homeless and She Ain't Goin' Nowhere by Clark, among others.

In his 35 years of songwriting and composing, Clark has released almost 20 albums of his own and penned songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Brad Paisley, Jerry Jeff Walker and Bobby Bare. His bluesy-folk music earned him a 2007 Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album, a 2005 Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award and a position in the Nashville Songwriters Foundation's Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Scott's songwriting talent is well-documented in the many country artists who have recorded his material, including the Dixie Chicks, Darryl Worley, Faith Hill, Travis Tritt and many others. His song Willow Creek from the album A Crooked Road, is nominated for a Grammy this year for Best Country Instrumental Performance.

Nashville songwriter Shawn Camp will perform the music of Postcards from the Boys with a seven-member orchestra alongside Nashville Ballet dancers on stage. With his distinctive voice and multi-instrumental abilities, Camp has released six of his own albums and written material for artists such as Del McCoury, Brooks & Dunn, Garth Brooks and Ricky Skaggs. His skills and reputation earned him a place performing with such folk, country and Americana greats as John Prine, Yonder Mountain String Band and Alan Jackson.

Satto, the third ballet in this triple-bill, features two Nashville Ballet company members in Salvatore Aiello's sensual adaptation of an Asian legend about an encounter between a wind god and a leaf. The dancers' minimalist costumes, athletic choreography and meditative music by Katutoshi Nagasawa and Chip Davis illustrate the hypnotic and erotic interaction between the wind god and leaf.

Nashville Ballet performed Satto for an international audience during a South American tour in 2005.

Satto may not be suitable for young viewers.

Ticket Information
Nashville Ballet tickets for all performances can be purchased in person at the TPAC box office in downtown Nashville, by phone at (615) 782-4040 or online at www.nashvilleballet.com. Groups of ten or more receive a discount. For information on group sales or to purchase group tickets, please call TPAC at (615) 782-4060.

Season Subscription Information
Season subscriptions are also available, and offer access to the best seats before tickets go on sale to the public. Subscription packages range in price from $37 per person up to $234 per person. Create your own Family Series subscriptions to receive a 50% discount on subscription tickets for children ages 4-17. To order a season subscription, please contact Nashville Ballet at (615) 297-2966 or order online at www.nashvilleballet.com.

Nashville Ballet is funded in part from grants made available through the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission, the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Ingram Charitable Trust. Additional funding is also provided by HCA Tri-Star, The Martin Foundation, Regions Bank, Bridgestone Americas Trust Fund, and the Andrew Woodfin Miller Foundation.

About Nashville Ballet
Nashville Ballet is the largest professional ballet company in Tennessee. As the second largest producing arts organization in the Middle Tennessee area, Nashville Ballet presents a varied repertoire of classical ballet and contemporary works by noted choreographers, including original works by Artistic Director Paul Vasterling. Nashville Ballet and the Second Company NB2 (a pre-professional training company) serve nearly 70,000 adults and children annually through performances and our outreach and community engagement programming. Our curriculum-based outreach program brings dance education to community centers, colleges, public libraries, eight resident schools, and public elementary and middle schools over a 15-county region throughout Middle Tennessee. The School of Nashville Ballet provides world-class instruction in ballet for the dancers of tomorrow.

Need more Nashville Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Winter season, discounts & more...