Stephen Mills

Following ten years of study in the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Mills started dancing at the age of 18.[1] As a dancer, he performed with a wide variety of companies such as the Harkness Ballet and The American Dance Machine under the direction of Lee Theadore. He also performed with the Cincinnati Ballet and The Indianapolis Ballet Theater before becoming a part of Ballet Austin 1986. Mills has danced principal roles in the George Balanchine repertoire as well as works by Choo-San Goh, John Butler, Ohad Naharin, Vicente Nebrada, Domy Reiter-Soffer and Mark Dendy.

Mills choreographed his first work, Red Roses, to the music of Edith Piaf in 1989 for Ballet Austin. In 1998, Mills was chosen to represent the United States through his work, Ashes, at Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris. Mills choreographed several works for Ballet Austin as Resident Choreographer before being named Artistic Director in 2000. As Resident Choreographer he created works such as: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cinderella with the music of Alexander Glazunov.

In his inaugural season as artistic director in 2000, Mills released a world-premiere production of Hamlet.[1] He has worked in collaboration with such artists as DJ Spooky[2] on Echo Boom, visual artist Trenton Doyle Hancock on Cult of Color: Call to Color,[3] eight-time Grammy Award-winning band, Asleep at the Wheel on Big Sky,[4] Shawn Colvin, flamenco artist José Greco on Bolero and award-winning Austin composer Graham Reynolds on Bounce, Though the Earth Gives Way, Cult of Color: Call to Color, and Belle REDUX/A Tale of Beauty & the Beast.[5]