Event

Ballet Arkansas/Visions

What is VISIONS: A Choreographic Competition?

VISIONS began as the vision of Ballet Arkansas' Artistic Director, Michael Bearden, who wanted to create a event that would give choreographers an opportunity to have their works be seen and appreciated by audiences and the dance community, as well as have the opportunity to receive a contract to have their choreography fully produced.

Choreographers from around the country submit artistic proposals for consideration and a committee selects 5 competitors from those proposals to be the VISIONS Choreographers. A week before the VISIONS Competition, the choreographers draft their cast of dancers and have a total of 11 rehearsal hours over 5 days to set their choreography on their cast. The night of the competition, the resulting works of choreography are performed for 4 judges, 3 of those judges are professionals in the local and national dance community, with the audience counting as the 4th judge.

The big finale of the competition is the announcement of the VISIONS Winner, who receives a contract with Ballet Arkansas to expand their choreography to have it fully produced for performance in Ballet Arkansas' Spring Mixed Repertory Production.