PRODUCER • EDITOR
TELEVISION PREMIERE: Austin PBS
Concept • Choreography: Stephen Mills
Producer • Editor (Film Edition): Paul Michael Bloodgood
Executive Producers: Stephen Mills • Cookie Ruiz
Music: Graham Reynolds
Production Design: Michael B. Raiford
BELLE REDUX / A TALE OF BEAUTY & THE BEAST is a contemporary ballet that reexamines the timeless story of Beauty & the Beast in a very non-traditional way. Ballet Austin Artistic Director / Choreographer Stephen Mills, Composer Graham Reynolds and Production Designer Michael B. Raiford have created a provocative and sensual retelling of this famous romance with sets and costumes that project fantastical, Alexander McQueen-type elements against a gritty, minimalistic backdrop. The look and feel of the production, while very contemporary, was heavily influenced by the 1946 film noir, La Belle et la Bête, by French filmmaker Jean Cocteau, and many stylistic elements, including the lighting design, are reflective of that ground-breaking movie. Graham Reynolds’ haunting music blends classical instruments with industrial sounds to create a remarkable score that is both unsettling and soothing—commanding and hopelessly romantic.
PRESS QUOTES
“Mills’ version is dark, passionate and psychologically complicated, with choreography rooted in modern classical ballet but with gestures and movements that at times feel almost feral.”
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
“Mills movement vocabulary merged the classical with the new-found. Edgy and abrupt shifts of silhouette altered with moments of formal grace. Small, almost quotidian gestures by one dancer came in between sweeping dramatic movements by a group.”
AUSTIN 360
“Marked by a dark elegance and vermilion overtones…Mills’ choreography is…seductive and passionate…”
ARTS AND CULTURE TEXAS
“[Mills] was able to tell the story and expose its mythic underpinnings through movement and design elements that made bold symbolic and psychological statements.”
THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE
PAUL MICHAEL BLOODGOOD • SAG-AFTRA