Wood, sculptures by Chad Awalt

The Asheville Ballet Guild, Inc. presents the North Carolina premier of two ballets by Artistic Director, Ann Dunn. Glass Menagerie and WOOD will be performed March 18, 19, and 20 at 7:30pm at Diana Wortham Theater. Tickets for adults are $18-28; children and students are $10. Call the box office for reservations at (828) 257-4530. The performance is the third in Asheville Ballets four performance season.

Wood is the result of a year-long collaboration between Dunn and Atlanta figurative sculptor, Chad Awalt. Last summer, Awalt made full-body casts of The Asheville Ballet Dancers posed in shapes that Dunn was interested in exploring in movement. He used the casts as models for the life-size, hand carved wooden sculptures that he created in his Atlanta studio over the last eight months.

Dunn, meanwhile, choreographed the ballet, using the same poses as starting points. There is a dance for each of the sculptures, set to the evocative jazz and blues of Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and Art Blakey. Finally, Dunn wrote poems for each of the pieces, evoked by the synthesis of the sculptures, dance, and music - all in the same space. Lighting artist, Fluffy, has created rich designs to enhance the golden glow of the magnificent nudes and provide the atmosphere for the ballet.

Following the Friday night performance, the audience is invited to an artists reception at the Marie-Terrel Gallery at 20 E. Walnut Street. Chad Awalt and Ann Dunn will be present, as will the dancers and the sculptures. The Marie-Terrel Gallery represents Awalt in the Western North Carolina region. For more information and prices of the sculptures in this series go to www.marieterrelgallery.com.

An early version of Wood received its premier in Atlanta in November on The Georgia Shakespeare Festival Stage, produced by Oglethorpe Universitys Art Museum.

Dunns other new work, Glass Menagerie, uses the compelling vocabulary of classical ballet to express the tensions and emotions of the tragic characters in Tennessee Williams great American drama. Hindemiths haunting Mathis der Maler provides the musical backdrop for the fateful interplay of Amanda, Laura and Tom Wingfield, and the gentleman caller one hot St. Louis summer in the 1930s.

Chad Awalt, fine figurative sculptor, is represented by galleries across the United States. He has appeared in solo, juried and group shows in museums and art-expos. His work is in corporate and private collections, such as Disney and Jack Nicklaus. For more information, and to view his most recent work, go to www.chadawalt.com.

Ann Dunn, distinguished classical and contemporary choreographer and poet, has executed commissions for such international venues as Lincoln Center in New York City, for national tours such as Gian Carlo Menottis Amahl and the Night Visitors, and for symphonies, museums and opera and dance companies. Her work has appeared from Yale University to Notre Dame to Georgia Tech. For more information go to www.ashevilleballet.com.