Belle REDUX / A Tale of Beauty & the Beast

Back by popular demand, this Valentine’s Day weekend, Feb. 10-12, Ballet Austin presents the audience favorite, Belle REDUX / A Tale of Beauty & the Beast, a sleek, sexy and contemporary take on the centuries-old love story. The production was commissioned by the global innovators at 3M, who challenged Ballet Austin Artistic Director/Choreographer Stephen Mills to produce a new dance work celebrating the magic of innovation.

“Innovation infuses everything we do at 3M, from how we operate our business to how we serve our customers and view the world around us,” said 3M Executive Vice President Joaquin Delgado, who commissioned the work and is the inspiration behind the project. “It’s vital that we never lose sight of the importance innovation plays in our daily lives, and that we as a society constantly seek new and better ways of doing things. This process of continuous improvement is so essential to all of us at 3M that we approached some of the most innovative people in Austin, Stephen Mills and his team of artists and creative professionals at Ballet Austin, to explore the true nature of innovation through dance and create a brand new artwork that reminds us to always innovate.”

Belle REDUX / A Tale of Beauty & the Beast follows the well-known storyline of the French novel La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) first published by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740 and then abridged and re-released by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont six years later. Over two centuries, this tale of a beautiful young woman, who becomes entrapped and then enamored of a prince-turned-beast, has evolved through various art forms. 

French filmmaker Jean Cocteau advanced Beauty and the Beast storytelling through his groundbreaking movie La Belle et la Bête in 1946. Fifty years later, Cocteau’s film noir inspired American composer Philip Glass to create an operatic score that serves as an alternative soundtrack for the movie. In 1991, Walt Disney Pictures transformed the story into an Academy Award-winning animated motion picture, which Disney then adapted into a Broadway musical four years later. Over the years, Beauty and the Beast has constantly transformed and is now a case study on innovation.

In 2015, Stephen Mills again innovated the Beauty and the Beast story and its presentation by unveiling a 21st century, multi-media experience that showcases his classically innovative choreography and a haunting new score by award-winning, Austin-based composer Graham Reynolds. Fellow Austinite and freelance designer Michael B. Raiford collaborated with Mills on simple yet dramatic set and costume designs that bring a sense of gravity and mystery to Ballet Austin’s interpretation of this enduring tale.

“Belle REDUX / A Tale of Beauty & the Beast is unlike anything I’ve previously brought to the stage, and much of that has to do with the way this work was conceived,” Mills acknowledged. “In 2011, Joaquin Delegado, who was then running 3M’s Austin businesses, approached me with an idea and a concern. He was worried that young people might grow up in a world where the art of innovation—the act of making something better, more interesting or more useful—would be lost or confused with advancements in technology, which is not the same thing. He wanted Ballet Austin to create an original dance work underscoring the complexity of innovation and how it differs from invention, or creating something from scratch. 

“I spent two years exploring this issue, visiting with 3M scientists and engineers in Austin and in the company’s St. Paul, Minn., headquarters where Joaquin is now based. Through that process, I came to really understand the difference between innovation and invention, and how to translate my understanding into a new ballet. I’ve always loved Jean Cocteau’s film, La Belle et la Bête, and as I revisited the original story and its multiple iterations, it was clear that Beauty and the Beast was a study in innovation, ready for yet another evolutionary turn.

“To be sure, Ballet Austin’s version of this story is not a fairy tale,” Mills continued. “This is a very grown-up interpretation that is darker, passionate and more complicated than a bedtime story. I’m thrilled with my collaborators’ work on Belle REDUX, including Graham Reynolds’ poignant score and Michael Raiford’s sophisticated sets and costumes. I want to thank Joaquin Delegado and his team at 3M for challenging me intellectually and artistically with this project and for entrusting the entire Ballet Austin family with the responsibility of bringing this innovative new production to the public.”

French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve first publishes the novel La Belle et la Bête in 1740.

Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont abridges the first published version of the tale written in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve into the version most commonly retold, while working in London as a governess.

French filmmaker Jean Cocteau creates his ground-breaking movie, La Belle et la Bête.

American composer Philip Glass composes new music for Jean Cocteau's film, La Belle et la Bête, making the work into an opera.

Ballet Austin Artistic Director/Choreographer Stephen Mills brings innovation to the stage with his World Premiere 3M Innovation Commission, Belle Redux / A Tale of Beauty & the Beast.

Known for his innovative and collaborative choreographic projects, Stephen Mills has works in the repertoires of companies across the United States and around the world. From his inaugural season as Artistic Director in 2000, Mills attracted attention from around the United States with his world-premiere production of Hamlet, hailed by Dance Magazine as “...sleek and sophisticated.” The Washington Post recognized Ballet Austin as “one of the nation’s best-kept ballet secrets” in 2004 after Ballet Austin performed Mills’ world premiere of The Taming of the Shrew, commissioned by and performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The Company was first invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in January of 2002 with the Mills production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and at The Joyce Theater (NYC) in 2004. In 2005 after two years of extensive research, Mills led a community-wide human rights collaboration that culminated in the world premiere work Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project. In 2006 Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project was awarded the Audrey & Raymond Maislin Humanitarian Award by the Anti-Defamation League. In September of 2013, the work made its international debut with a tour in three cities across Israel. 

In 1998 Mills was the choreographer chosen to represent the United States through his work, Ashes, at Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris. Most recently, Mr. Mills was awarded the Steinberg Award, the top honor at Le Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur International Choreographic Competition for One / the body’s grace. 

Mr. Mills has created more than 40 works for companies in the United States and abroad. His ballets are in the repertoires of such companies as Hong Kong Ballet, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Atlanta Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Washington Ballet, Cuballet in Havana, Cuba, BalletMet Columbus, Dayton Ballet, Sarasota Ballet, Ballet Pacifica, Dallas Black Dance Theater, Louisville Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Texas Ballet Theater, The Sacramento Ballet and Dance Kaleidoscope. He has worked in collaboration with such luminaries as the eight-time Grammy Award-winning band, Asleep at the Wheel, Shawn Colvin and internationally renowned flamenco artist José Greco II. 

As a dancer Mr. Mills performed with a wide variety of companies such as the world-renowned Harkness Ballet and The American Dance Machine under the direction of Lee Theodore. He also performed with the Cincinnati Ballet and The Indianapolis Ballet Theater before becoming a part of Ballet Austin. Mr. Mills has danced principal roles in the Balanchine repertoire as well as works by Choo-San Goh, John Butler, Ohad Naharin, Vicente Nebrada, Domy Reiter-Soffer and Mark Dendy. 

In addition to his work as a choreographer, Mr. Mills is a master teacher committed to developing dancers. He has been invited as guest faculty at many pre-professional academies including Jacob’s Pillow, Goucher College, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts in Dallas, The Virginia School of the Arts, The New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, Stephens College and Point Park University in Pittsburgh. Mr. Mills is a member of the national dance service organization Dance/USA and has served both in leadership roles and on the Board of Trustees for the organization. In 2013, Mills was a participant in the Chief Executive Program of National Arts Strategies.

Called “the quintessential modern composer” by the London Independent, Austin-based composer/bandleader Graham Reynolds creates, performs and records music for film, theater, dance, rock clubs and concert halls with collaborators ranging from Richard Linklater and Jack Black to DJ Spooky and Ballet Austin. Heard throughout the world in films, on TV, on stage and on radio from HBO to Showtime, Cannes Film Festival to the Kennedy Center, and BBC to NPR, he recently scored the film Bernie, featuring Jack Black, as well as the Hulu TV series “Up To Speed” and his score to the Robert Downey Jr. feature, A Scanner Darkly, was named Best Soundtrack of the Decade by Cinema Retro magazine. 

With Golden Arm Trio, Reynolds has repeatedly toured the country and released five critically acclaimed albums including the simultaneous release of The Difference Engine: A Triple Concerto and DUKE! Three Portraits of Ellington on Innova Records with distribution by Naxos, the world’s biggest classical label. As co-artistic director of the 501(c)3 Golden Hornet Project with Peter Stopschinski, Reynolds has produced more than 50 concerts of world-premiere, alt-classical music by more than 60 composers, as well as five symphonies, two concertos and countless chamber pieces of his own. With Forklift Danceworks, Reynolds has scored pieces involving 18 trash trucks, 200 two-steppers, a solo work for “traffic cop” and most recently PowerUP. Graham is an active company member, sound designer, and composer with the internationally acclaimed Rude Mechanicals and resident composer with Salvage Vanguard Theater. He has received over half dozen Austin Chronicle Best Composer wins and has been involved in projects supported by the MAP Fund and NEA.

Michael Raiford is a designer based in Austin, Texas, and oversees scenic and costume design and video direction for Belle Redux / A Tale of Beauty & the Beast. Previous work for Ballet Austin includes scene design for The Magic Flute and The Mozart Project. Regional Theatre Credits Include: South Coast Repertory, Cleveland Play House, Geva Theatre Center; Playmakers Repertory Theatre, Central City Opera ( Colorado) , Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Ford’s Theatre (Washington, D.C.); Opera Boston; New Victory Theatre ( New York), The Lyric Theatre ( Oklahoma City), and Actors Theatre of Louisville where he designed 20 productions including 12 world premieres for Humana Festival of New American Plays. Also In Austin: Rigoletto, Austin Lyric; Tesla and Big Love, Rude Mechanicals and 100 productions at ZACH Theatre. He is a creative consultant/director in: architecture, advertising, and, yes, marching band/DCI and WGI. His Master of Fine Arts is from The University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for 10 years. He is a member of United Scenic Artists. Visit flickr.com/photos/michaelraiford/sets.

Now residing in Austin, Mr. Tucci has created lighting designs for the current Ballet Austin repertory and West Side Story, Annie, Gypsy, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Music Man, Oklahoma!, A Chorus Line and The Sound of Music for Austin Musical Theatre. He is the recipient of the B. Iden Payne Award for lighting (Gypsy). He also designs for Bruce Wood Dance Company, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Ballet Arlington, Texas Ballet Theater, Houston Ballet, Fort Worth Opera and Casa Mañana Musicals. Other works include American Ballet Theatre’s Configurations choreographed by Choo-San Goh with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the video Baryshnikov: The Dancer and the Dance, Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre’s Carmina Burana, Cynthia Gregory’s staging of Swan Lake and Fernando Bujones’ dances for Ballet de Monterrey. For the 1996 Summer Olympics, Mr. Tucci designed lighting for the Cultural Olympiad, which showcased six national and international companies. Internationally, Mr. Tucci’s work includes Christopher Bruce’s Kingdom - Geneva Ballet, Flemming Flindt’s Caroline Mathilde and Lucifer’s Daughter - Royal Danish Ballet.

Colin Lowry joins Ballet Austin for the first time with this production of Belle Redux / A Tale of Beauty & the Beast. Some favorite projection design credits include, at ZACH Theatre: One Night with Janis Joplin (co-production with San Jose Rep.,) 33 Variations, Ragtime, The Book of Grace, Rent and The Laramie Project, at Ariel Dance Theatre: Gyre, Flush, Everything Between and Geometry of Proximity (2013 Austin Critics' Table Video Design Award Nominee,) and at the Rude Mechs: Requiem for Tesla and How Late It Was How Late (2003-2004 Austin Critics’ Table Award for Video Design.) Colin is also full-time producer-editor for Querium, an Austin edu tech start-up, and a co-producer of The Bowie Project: A Rock and Roll Soundpainting.

Jeff Kurihara is currently based in Austin, Texas, designing video and media content for theatre, dance, live music, events and installations. In 2013 he received an MFA from The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance focusing in Media for Live Performance. Some of his recent work includes collaborations with: The Contemporary Austin, Blue Lapis Light, Texas State University and The Oregon Children's Theatre.