Dance news: Atlanta Ballet’s new hires, dancing in DC, Keith Reeves in New York

Atlanta Ballet choreographer-in-residence Claudia Schreier is creating a new work for eight Atlanta Ballet dancers — among them Airi Igarashi, Sujin Han, Sergio Masero and Jacob Bush — as part of an event at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday, October 22. The 15-minute ballet is a dramatic rendering of Hector Berlioz’s 90-minute choral symphony Roméo et Juliette, presented by the Cathedral Choral Society. A livestream of the full event, Roméo & Juliette: Berlioz & Shakespeare, will be available at 4 p.m. Saturday. Free.

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Seven dancers have joined Atlanta Ballet this season, the company announced this week.

Larissa Dal’Santo and Fernando Xavier both hail from the State Opera and Ballet Theatre in Voronezh, Russia. Patric Palkens was a soloist at Boston Ballet for five years.

Moving up from Atlanta Ballet 2 are Severin Brotschul, formerly with Houston Ballet II; Evelyn Robinson, a graduate from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts high school dance program; Kaitlin Matree Roemer, who trained at the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education; and Hui Wen Peng, winner of a silver medal at the Helsinki International Ballet Competition in Finland.

“When recruiting new dancers, I’m interested in developing talent, but also bringing in dancers to Atlanta Ballet that come with knowledge from their time at other companies,” says Gennadi Nedvegin, artistic director. “The mix of emerging talent combined with artistic expertise creates new energy and is what makes for a compelling company.”

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Former Atlanta Ballet dancer Keith Reeves has joined the New York-based Complexions Contemporary Ballet. In September, Dwight Rhoden, Complexions’ co-founder and artistic director, saw a brief video on Reeves’ Instagram account. Rhoden reached out and invited him to join the company as a principal. Two weeks later Reeves moved to New York. In the following three weeks he learned four Complexions ballets, including StarDust, about the life of David Bowie, and Hissy Fits, one of Reeves’ favorites. “It’s been a whirlwind,” he says.

Rhoden was looking for a male dancer to partner Jillian Davis, who’s been with the company since 2014. Reeves fit the bill and is learning William Forsythe’s sinuous, leggy Slingerland Duet with her. The company’s fall tour is underway now, ending with a November 22 through December 4 engagement at New York’s Joyce Theater. The whole experience is a dream come true, says Reeves, who worked with Rhoden at Atlanta Ballet, performing in his Sunrise Divine. Reeves danced with Atlanta Ballet for five years, and choreographed Bodies in Motion for the company’s Silver Linings program in 2021.