Internationally acclaimed choreographer Bruce Wells returns to Atlanta for his fourth family ballet production for Atlanta Ballet 2, the world premiere Cinderella. Atlanta Ballet talks to Wells about bringing the magic of ballet alive for our youngest audiences, inspiring the next generation of dancers, and what it’s like to be back in Atlanta.
Cinderella is the fourth in a series of family ballets for Atlanta Ballet 2, and your sixth overall. Why did you start creating short family ballets for children?
I have been a choreographer for over fifty years for many ballet companies throughout the United States, but I have always been a teacher and have taught in most of the schools I have worked for, including Boston Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. All these companies produced a Nutcracker that children would appear in, but then there were no further performance opportunities until the end of school year recitals. It was a desert of creativity for six months. So, I decided to create a special ‘family matinee’ for them. I had previously created a Snow White for Boston Ballet in 1985 that I had toured with the students, but the turning point was at Pacific Northwest Ballet when the artistic director there asked me to create something specifically for the school. My vision immediately was to create a series of three ballets, all based on traditional ballet stories but shortened to just one hour in length and divided into two acts. I also knew that I wanted to have narration. As we produced these ballets each year, we were able to have a floating repertoire of performances, all so my students could have ballets created on them. Because ballets were not created on children. In fact, in Nutcracker
performances, children rehearse separately and don’t join the main company until the very end. These family ballets were different, they were created specifically…
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