A decade in, Nedvigin works to realize his vision at Atlanta Ballet

The United States does boast several companies that regularly program world-class classical or neoclassical ballets alongside innovative contemporary work. Among them, New York City Ballet currently numbers 98 dancers and eight apprentices. At American Ballet Theatre, also based in New York City, it’s 81 dancers and six apprentices; and at San Francisco Ballet, where Nedvigin was a principal dancer before taking the helm at Atlanta Ballet, it’s 84 dancers and six apprentices.

Looking abroad, companies such as France’s Paris Opera Ballet, Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet and England’s Royal Ballet also employ several dozen (even hundreds of) dancers and benefit from generous local, regional and national government financial support. All of these companies can afford to hire specialists who may excel in some areas, including niche character roles in story ballets, but not in others.

In comparison, Atlanta Ballet comprises 37 dancers and rounds out the corps de ballet in larger productions by drawing from the 15 or so members of Atlanta Ballet 2, the second company of pre-professional scholarship students in the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education. In 2024, New York ranked first in public funding for the arts and California ranked ninth, according to SMU DataArts. Georgia was 48th.

Credit: Shoccara Marcus

Credit: Shoccara Marcus

Like most arts organizations and artists in Atlanta, Atlanta Ballet and Nedvigin have had to do more with less, and Nedvigin’s appointment as artistic director was not without controversy. At the end of his first season at the helm, several company members, including John Welker, who was in the running for the artistic director job with Nedvigin, left to found Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre. In the early seasons before the COVID-19 shutdown, critics expressed concern that Atlanta Ballet was making a turn to “safe” programming and focusing on technical flash at the expense of artistic depth. 

Immediately post-pandemic, the company seemed to struggle with contemporary work, even as it surged back with strong performances in challenging restagings of ballet standards, including Yuri Possokhov’s version of “The Nutcracker.”

For the last nine years, however, Nedvigin has been gradually reshaping Atlanta Ballet through hiring decisions guided by his ambitious vision. He began his 10th season in Atlanta with a company that includes veterans who consistently impressed Schreier and internationally renowned visiting choreographers such as Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, both with their mastery of traditional ballet technique and their adaptability to new movement vocabulary. Seven new dancers also joined Atlanta Ballet this fall — and while they come from an array of technical and cultural backgrounds, Nedvigin said they share a few essential traits in common.

“When I am hiring, I am looking for versatile dancers who can jump from one style into a completely different one with only a 20-minute intermission in between, because that is what the mixed reps (repertory programs) we put together require,” said Nedvigin. “To do that, a dancer needs to be flexible in their mind, not just in their body.”

For example, in a large open-call audition, which typically takes the form of a ballet technique class, that means Nedvigin is looking for the dancer who watches carefully to see how the class instructor demonstrates a combination and picks up on implicit cues about style and technique that they then integrate into their own execution of the steps. On an audition tape, it means watching not for a dancer with the most consistent technique — Vaganova or Balanchine or Royal Academy of Dance — but rather for a technical chameleon, someone who adapts his or her movement to the demands and aesthetics of the choreography.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Nedvigin said he also needs dancers who are ready to take on challenging roles from day one. He inherited an unranked company, which means any dancer in the company is theoretically eligible to take on a lead — also known as a “principal” — role if he or she is up to the challenge. While new dancers do get a sort of crash course in professional development, “They have to be self-aware right away, to start developing their own sense of what they need to do to improve and grow as a dancer,” he said. “In larger companies, you might get five years to prove yourself, but here you actually get to work with the choreographer of a new piece much earlier.”

This year’s cohort of seven new dancers includes two who were promoted from Atlanta Ballet 2. Rachel Olivia Zinman began as a gymnast in Montreal and spent the last two seasons with Atlanta Ballet 2 after completing her ballet training at Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto, and Julio Santos trained at the Bolshoi Theater School in Brazil and the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in New York before joining Atlanta Ballet 2 in 2024.

Three dancers — Valeria Chaykina, Jonas Tutaj and Talisson Farias — moved to Atlanta Ballet from other major U.S. companies. 

Chaykina, who was born in Podporozhye, a small town in Russia, began her training at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg and most recently spent 10 seasons with the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Originally from Chicago, Tutaj trained in Cuban and Bournonville technique at the Escuela Nacional de Ballet Cuba and Balanchine technique at the School of American Ballet, later joining the company from the Los Angeles Ballet. Farias, like Santos, trained at the Bolshoi Theater School in Brazil before joining the second company in 2021 and then the corps de ballet in 2023 at the Tulsa Ballet.

Milei Lee, who was born in Australia and completed her training at the English National Ballet School in London, and Sayron Pereira, yet another alum of the Bolshoi Theater School in Brazil, both joined the company from Teatrul de Balet Sibiu in Romania.

Credit: Shoccara Marcus

Credit: Shoccara Marcus

Collectively, these seven new dancers demonstrate one of the most significant challenges Nedvigin faces in building a company that can execute his vision. Atlanta Ballet and Atlanta itself are competing on an international stage that includes some of the world’s most prestigious ballet companies located in some of the world’s most attractive cities. While both Zinman, who left Toronto, and Tutaj, who left Los Angeles, were ready for a change of scenery, for Chaykina, leaving Chicago behind was one of the most difficult parts of her decision.

Further, the same challenge confronts the Centre for Dance Education if it is to become a school that, like the company, can attract and retain international talent. “The school and the company are closely connected,” Nedvigin said. “That’s why Balanchine created a school so that he could train dancers for his company, and I have hired 18 to 20 dancers from Atlanta Ballet 2.”

In an audition, Nedvigin said, he sees a dancer for an hour and a half, and at most he can get a good sense of their potential. Watching someone rise through the school or Atlanta Ballet 2 provides a much better picture of the dancer’s ability to actualize that potential. “And being in the hallways and studios with the company, rehearsing with them for ‘Nutcracker,’ helps the young student grow and see what is required and what is possible,” Nedvigin added.

Moving away from home as a tween or teenager is a big step, though, and lack of public transportation and attainable housing, ideally dormitories, near the studio creates barriers to access even for potential students from the Atlanta area.

The company does have housing within walking distance of the studio for Atlanta Ballet 2 members, but they still need a car or rideshare in order to go pretty much anywhere else in the city, including the grocery store.

“To train dancers, we need to be able to bring the talent to us,” said Nedvigin. “A dormitory and better access to MARTA would change the situation completely.” He noted that in a recent reshuffling of its bus routes, MARTA proposed eliminating the stop just down the street from the school. “That’s going in the wrong direction from what we need.”

In spite of the challenges, Nedvigin has made significant progress during his tenure and remains committed to his goal of bringing world-class ballet to Atlanta.

“Maybe we cannot stage something that requires 60 dancers, but we can still bring the same quality and creativity in a smaller work with the same choreographer,” Nedvigin said. “Not everyone can travel to New York or Paris, so our mission is to bring all the richness of ballet home to Atlanta.”

Credit: ArtsATL

Credit: ArtsATL

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