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Associate Artistic Director: Kirk Peterson

For 17 years, Peterson had a distinguished career with American Ballet Theater as principal dancer, choreographer, Artistic Director of ABTII, Ballet Master, principal character artist and as a Master Teaching Associate. Peterson was also Artistic Director of the Hartford Ballet for five years. During this time, Peterson created or re-staged nearly 20 works including new versions of The Firebird, Le Sacre du Printemps and L'Apres Midi d'un Faune. His choreography has been seen with San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Washington Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, BalletMet, San Francisco Opera and The Royal Ballet School. 

Peterson began his ballet studies at the age of three in his native New Orleans, where he studied for fifteen years with Lelia Haller, a distinguished pedagogue from the Paris Opera Ballet.

He is a specialist in re-staging the full-length classical repertoire such as Giselle and Don Quixote and has had particular success with his The Sleeping Beauty.

In the 2007-2008 Season, Peterson choreographed four new works including Othello for Alberta Ballet, for which he was nominated for the prestigious Prix Benois de la Danse. Peterson was resident choreographer for Cincinatti Ballet for six years and he is also a repetiteur for the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust.

"It was wonderful to work with Alberta Ballet when I created their production of Othello. I was very excited when Jean Gran-Maitre asked me to return to their studios this 2009/10 season" says Peterson.