FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Ann Dunn 828-258-1028

The Asheville Ballet Guild, Inc. kicks off its 2003-2004 season with the fourth annual Fall Into Dance Festival, Friday and Saturday Sept. 5-6 at 7:30 pm at Diana Wortham Theatre. The season will continue with 7 performances of the traditional holiday favorite, "The Nutcracker," Dec. 11-14. On March 18-19 AnnDunnDANCErs will premiere the full-length contemporary ballet "Wood" based on the sculptures of Atlanta artist Chad Awalt. The season will conclude May 7-9 with an completely staged classical ballet production of Cervantes' great classic "Don Quixote." For more information or to purchase season tickets call Ann Dunn, Director at 258-1028. To purchase single event tickets call the Diana Wortham Theatre box office at 257-4530.

Fall Into Dance is an invitational festival of cutting-edge choreography in the areas of contemporary ballet and modern dance. In the past artists have been invited from Europe, New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C. This year the Guild has decided to showcase the diverse talents of local professional dancers and dance makers. Featured artists include AnnDunnDANCErs, Wings Dance Company, JD Project, and choreographers Brynar Mehl and Sam Humphreys.

ADDANCE, established in 1974, is the fully-professional core performance group of The Asheville Ballet. The company consists of six adult dancers (four women and two men), an artistic director and a ballet master. ADDANCE presents entertaining, educational, enlightening, and profoundly moving programs in classical and contemporary ballet, modern dance and jazz. In addition to producing locally the company has toured to such venues as Yale University, Georgia Tech., Soho New York and throughout New England, the Southeast and Midwest. Members are professionally trained, with decades of experience, to work in the schools with grades K-12, and have been listed on the rosters of two state Arts in the Schools programs. Members of ADDANCE have trained and/or performed with New York City Ballet, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Boitsov Ballet, The Ed Sullivan and Perry Como Shows, Tokyo Disneyland, Royal Carribean Cruise Line, Hartford Ballet, American Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, Virginia School of the Arts, and Florida State University. In addition to their work with ADDANCE, members are currently on the faculties of Western Carolina University, University of North Carolina Asheville, and Fletcher School of Dance. They grace the stages of such popular venues as Tressa's and The Orange Peel. ADDANCE members have executed such prestigious choreographic commissions as Turandot for New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, Amahl and the Night Visitors for Gian Carlo Menotti's officially sponsored touring company, original work for national and international ballet and modern companies, symphonies, opera companies, and such colleges as Purdue University.

Wings Dance Company is a nonprofit company based in Asheville, North Carolina which was established in 1998. In addition to performances in Asheville, the company has performed in Chicago, Washington D.C., Tucson, and Canada. The company principally performs original choreography but has recently expanded its repertoire to include dances by Isadora Duncan. Lori Belilove, of the Isadora Duncan Foundation in New York, has set these dances on the company. Wings believes in the power of dance to question, heal and inspire, and the power of the arts to impact and transform the world around us. The company creates and performs work that examines what it means to be human, and explores our connection to nature, each other, and the world beyond.

J D Project's mission is to create, perform and teach modern dance with a broad aesthetic base. JDP seeks to establish creative links between the arts and the community. The company is dedicated to developing understanding and knowledge about dance and the performing arts. JD Project was founded in 1995 by Julie Becton Gillum and Dana Renea Davis. Gillum and Davis develop artistic ventures reflecting their individual experience and interests, and have established a reputation for experimentation in style, theme and venue. JDP has collaborated with a variety of performing artists and musicians, like Laura Boosinger and Tyler Ramsey. The company has premiered over thirty works, through evening concerts, in a medley of places. To augment their art form and reach new audiences, Gillum and Davis investigate creating work in alternative performance venues. Churches, parks, streets, trees, stairs, elevators, parking garages and climbing walls, as well as theatres and schools have been the stage of JD Project. JDP's process of creation, as the name implies, is truly enterprising. Each project represents a unique creative undertaking in the group's history. JDP has toured schools, colleges, community arts events and festivals. JDP has toured in NC, SC and FL, The SAN FRANCISCO BUTOH FESTIVAL ('02); the "MARTIN LUTHER KING MEMORIAL BREAKFAST" (Asheville '01); the FRINGE FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE AND PERFORMANCE ART (Atlanta '99) and the North Carolina Dance Festival (since '98).

Brynar Mehl comes to Western North Carolina from Europe, New York, Vancouver, Vermont and Texas. He performed for eight years with the Merce Cunningham Company, during which time he premiered many of Cunningham's signature dances. Mehl is credited with bringing the Cunningham technique to Europe. His ballet mentor was the great Margaret Craske. The piece presented in this concert, "Velocity," was created over the summer in donated space at Fletcher School of Dance, and premiered at the Cullowhee Arts Festival. It is a trio set to Eric Satie's music with original composition and electronic layering by pianist Steven Noll. Mr Mehl is ballet master for The Asheville Ballet and AnnDunnDANCErs.

Sam Humphreys is the first recipient of The Asheville Ballet Guild's Young Choreographer's Competition. This very talented fifteen-year old has studied choreography for four years, and music all his life. The award consists of all the dancers, time, space, lighting, sound and publicity required for creation and performance of an original piece of choreography. Humphreys has used his award to make "Fantasy and Fugue," a quartet set to Leonard Bernstein's rendering of the 23rd Psalm and a Bach fugue.