REBECCA KELLY BALLET, "a miniature ballet company - never less than highly charged!" acclaims BACKSTAGE, about this contemporary ensemble based in SoHo in New York City and the Adirondack Mountains. The 8-member ensemble has performed in major New York City theaters and toured and taught throughout the US and Europe since 1980. Rebecca Kelly Ballet features contemporary classical dancers and ballets performed on pointe, with Kelly's characteristic undulating torsos, coils and spirals, curving arms, and surprising off-center balances. Its stage productions are refreshingly varied, accessible, often featuring original scores.

Rebecca Kelly creates abstract and narrative ballets which convey her humanistic outlook, fusing classical dance with modern forms resulting in an arresting lyrical yet earthy quality.  Kelly brings out strong individuality with a culturally diverse group of dancers. Themes range from topical issues about the environment and astute social commentary, to poetical works involving the sheer energy and beauty of the highly skilled dancer and the complex use of the body.  Classical line and touching performance, coupled with intense musicality and energy distinguish each of Kelly's works. No matter what topic, Kelly reveals provocative and compelling images, with a directness of expression which easily engages the audience. The Company spends a portion of its summer in a second home in the Adirondack Mountains, where as artists-in-residence in Lake Placid, NY since 1987, it has developed many new ballets.

RKB has appeared on television on the CBS Early Show and USIA ArtsAmerica. Kelly was the subject of a documentary on artistic collaboration, directed by Paul Larson of PBS Mountain Lakes TV. Kelly has been interviewed on "All Things Considered" for National Public Radio, on North Country Public Radio, and American Today, a program of the USIA. RKB has been profiled in Pointe Magazine, American Arts, Continental and Working Woman magazines.

REBECCA KELLY, BIOGRAPHY
Free Lance Choreographer, and Artistic Director of Rebecca Kelly Ballet
Born in Princeton, NJ, the daughter of a career diplomat, Rebecca Kelly was raised in London, Khartoum, Sudan, Brussels, and Wash, DC. Her formative dance training was at the Washington School of Ballet. She graduated cum laude from Bryn Mawr College with a B. A. in History of Oriental Religion.

In 1979 she founded Rebecca Kelly Dance, with her husband and modern dance partner Craig Brashear. The following year she was selected as one of three Young American Choreographers to represent the United States at the Chateauvallon Festival in France. She has since created over 65 contemporary and classical works for her own and other companies, including Ballet Pacifica, The Carlisle Project (1991-1996), Boston Ballet II, as part of the Choreographers and Composers Collaboration Project. She has also staged several Nutcracker variations, and created repertory for the North Country Ballet Ensemble of Plattsburgh. Kelly was commissioned to create the ballets “L’Histoire du Soldat” and her Carmen-based," Jose's Dream", for live performance with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York City. She participated in the distinguished 2005 Elan Awards.

Throughout the years, three characteristics have remained constant in Kelly's work - her attention to topical and humanistic issues, the way she both cultivates and harmonizes the individuality and diversity of her dancers, and how she maintains focus on the purity of the dance and dancer first, rather than ornamentation of costume or settings. With an extensive repertory of both modern and ballet works, Kelly is described as "at ease in classical as well as contemporary styles, " and one "who choreographs with boldness and imagination...high emotion through pure movement" by The New York Times.

Kelly's "Air" was performed at the Hollister Awards Ceremony hosted by the NGO, Temple of Understanding, whose peace building programs emphasize experiential knowledge and dialogue as a means of connecting people across the spectrum of religious traditions.

In 1986 RKB began its long association with the Adirondack region. Invited as Artists-in-Residence to the Lake Placid Center for the Arts in upstate New York, the Company has been in residence every summer since, where Rebecca Kelly has created many new ballets, and RKB has pioneered and developed extensive dance programs for rural youth in Clinton, Franklin, Essex and St. Lawrence counties. Its ONSTAGE dance day camp is well-known throughout the tri-county region, and attracts students locally, as well as from Canada, Florida, and Long Island.

Craig Brashear and Rebecca Kelly founded Kids Co-Motion, in 1992, a unique choreographic approach to orient and strengthen strong language and movement skills in the young child. The celebrated interactive early childhood movement program, brings new families together in dance and music. Flourishing in both urban and rural locations, KCM is the creative movement program of the Riverdale Neighborhood House, Riverdale NY, and the Lamm Institute Pre-School in Brooklyn, for children with developmental delays. It has also been taken into the curriculum of several Pre-Schools serving SoHo, the West Village, and the Upper West Side.

Kelly's manual, Dancing with Delight, a teacher and parenting guide to positive learning experiences and dance for the young child, can be ordered through the Company. Kelly's essays and insights on dance, audition process, rehearsing, understudying and choreography have been published in Dance Pages, a national quarterly serving the dance community, and in Take it to The Limit, a book about athletes and endurance. She is the recipient of the Young Woman of Achievement Award from the National Council of Women, and Good Housekeeping Magazine recognized her as one of 100 Young Women of Promise on the occasion of its 100th Anniversary. Kelly sits on the Advisory Board of Notes in Motion, a NYC-based choreographer's collective.

Photographs: "Air" with Emily SoRelle and Raul Peinado,
and RK headshot by Todd Bissonette
RK rehearses "Carmen, Jose's Dream" by Adrian Buckmaster