Jennie Creer-King, owner and director of Central Utah Ballet in Lehi, Utah, announces brand new professional ballet company Chrysalis Ballet with Associate Director, Garret Smith
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LEHI, UTAH, April 2021—Jennie Creer-King, owner and artistic director of Central Utah Ballet in Lehi, Utah, and world renowned choreographer, Garret Smith, announced the opening of Chrysalis Ballet, Utah’s newest professional ballet company. Chrysalis Ballet was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely impacted jobs, income, and performance opportunities for ballet dancers around the world.
“The idea of Chrysalis Ballet developed over the past year as I have offered free professional ballet classes at Central Utah Balet to dancers unable to pursue work or other professional dance opportunities due to COVID-19,” said Creer-King. “The joy of having these beautiful artists in my classes ignited my desire to direct a professional ballet company.”
Chrysalis Ballet Company is a professional project-based ballet company providing rigorous and innovative dance training methods and creative professional-level performance opportunities. Company dancers will gain exposure to creative processes through new original works while fine-tuning foundational and historical classical ballets. Chrysalis Ballet company will explore multimedia performance platforms, including film, live music, and pop-up mini performances across the state.
Auditions for Chrysalis Ballet will take place during a week of auditions June 2-5 from 10:00am-1:00pm. Those interested in joining the auditions may submit a resume and headshot to [email protected].
About Garrett Smith
Garret Smith is a world renowned choreographer and is associate director and resident choreographer for Chrysalis Ballet. He began his training in Salt Lake City, Utah with the Utah Regional Ballet, where he was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and was honored to meet George W. Bush at the White House where he was presented with an award by Mikhail Baryshnikov. He later studied at the Houston Ballet Academy and created five works from Houston Ballet II’s repertoire. Garret’s extensive choreography experience includes choreographing for the Norwegian National Ballet, Marlinsky Ballet, Les Grands Ballets De Monreal, Bolshol Ballet (Faces Project), Norwegian National Ballet, Ballet West, Ballet National de Bordeaux, and more. Garret’s recent choreography includes Mortal Form, which took 1st place at the 2015 Genesis International Choreographic Competition; Solace, seen in a new premiere in Deauville, France; as well as a U.S. premiere of his work Imitations with Norwegian National Ballet for the 2018 Dance Salad Festival. His choreography can also be seen on Netflix on the original new series Tiny Pretty Things.
About Jennie Creer-King
Jennie Creer-King, Owner and Director of Central Utah Ballet, danced professionally with Ballet West and Oregon Ballet Theatre. She has earned both a BFA in Performance and a MFA in Teaching Pedagogy and Choreography from University of Utah. Jennie served as Assistant Professor of Dance at Brigham Young University and Artistic Director of BYU Theatre Ballet touring both nationally and internationally. Jennie owned Classical Ballet Academy for over 10 years and implemented a non-profit youth ballet company at Provo Civic Ballet before joining Ballet West as Principal of the Barbara Barrington-Jones Ballet West Academy at Thanksgiving Point. During her time there, she grew the student base to over 500 ballet students in the short period of 4 years. Jennie has been employed as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Utah for the past 10 years in the Ballet Division.
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For more information on this topic, please contact:
Mikelle Despain
[email protected]
801-369-5338
https://centralutahballet.com