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Joe Scruggs
If it wasn't "Rapunzel Got A Mohawk" waking up the space shuttle astronauts then maybe it was "Oh, By the Way" being sung to stump the band on the David Letterman Show. Perhaps it was the Psychic Singers singing "Bahamas Pajamas" on the Today Show. It could be that your child came home from school singing "Goo Goo Ga Ga". One way or another way you've probably heard Joe Scruggs' music. Taking the universal experiences that all families have and turning them into a celebration in song has made Joe's music popular with adults as well as children.
Growing up in El Paso, Joe sang with the youth choirs in the Methodist Church: "During the 1960s the church had a special choir that sang folk songs and I really enjoyed singing in that group." In the 1980s Joe used his folk music background to compose songs for his wife to play in her kindergarten classroom. Finding that teachers and students enjoyed his compositions, Joe recorded his first album in 1984. Late Last Night was the beginning of his professional musical career. Over the years he has produced nine albums and two videos. His music has won numerous awards including the Cable Ace Award and many Parents' Choice awards.
Aided by his high school friend and business partner, Pete Markham, Joe travels the country performing a show fondly called the Nanny Nanny Boo Boo Revue. Three years ago Joe began planning a show that would use his music but not require him to travel. Using ideas he had developed over the past ten years of performing, Joe wrote the music for a musical theater piece called Not Afraid of the Dark. With the music arranged and produced by Gary Powell, Stephen Mills and the Ballet Austin organization turned Joe's concept into a dazzling show of light, dance, and magic.
Joe and his wife have two children and reside in the Austin area.
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 Stephen Mills
Sarah and Ernest Butler Family Fund Artistic Director
Under the artistic leadership of Mr. Mills, Ballet Austin has emerged as one of the nation's premiere developing ballet organizations. The Washington Post recognized Ballet Austin as "one of the nation's best-kept secrets" in 2004. In his inaugural season as artistic director he attracted attention from around the United States with his world-premiere production of Hamlet, hailed in Dance Magazine as "... sleek and sophisticated." He was honored to lead the Company to perform his A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2002 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. This in turn led to the commissioning of The Taming of the Shrew, by The Kennedy Center. His work has been showcased in New York four times at the choreographic showcase, Ballet Builders and most recently at the Joyce Theater where members of Ballet Austin performed with musician Philip Hamilton. Most recently Mr. Mills was named to the Board of Trustees of the national dance service organization, Dance USA.
Mr. Mills has created more than 40 works for companies in the United States and abroad. His ballets are in the repertories of such companies as The Atlanta Ballet, Cuballet in Havana, Cuba, BalletMet Columbus, The Dayton Ballet, The Sarasota Ballet of Florida, Ballet Pacifica, Dallas Black Dance Theater, The Louisville Ballet, The Nashville Ballet, Texas Ballet Theater and Dance Kaleidoscope. In 1998 he was the only American choreographer chosen to present his work, Ashes, at the Rencontres Choréographiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris. He has worked in collaboration with such luminaries as the eight-time Grammy Award-winning band, Asleep at the Wheel, and internationally renowned flamenco artist José Greco II.
Mr. Mills has performed with a wide variety of companies, dancing a very diverse repertoire. He was a performing member of the world-renowned Harkness Ballet and The American Dance Machine under the direction of Lee Theadore. He also performed with the Cincinnati Ballet and The Indianapolis Ballet Theater. Mr. Mills has danced principal roles in the Balanchine repertoire as well as works by Choo-San Goh, John Butler, Ohad Naharin, Vicente Nebrada, Domy Reiter-Soffer and Mark Dendy.
In addition to his work as a choreographer, Mr. Mills is committed as a master teacher to developing dancers. He has been a teacher at many pre-professional academies including Goucher College; Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts in Dallas; The Virginia School of the Arts; The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts; Stephens College and Point Park College in Pittsburgh.
 Michelle Martin
Associate Artistic Director
Ms. Martin had her early dance training at the Alberta Ballet School and danced with the Alberta Ballet Company for four years before joining the Indianapolis Ballet Theatre (IBT) in 1982. While with IBT and, subsequently, the Hartford Ballet in Connecticut, she performed leading roles in Romeo & Juliet, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty and The Moor's Pavane as well as creating roles in many original works. Ms. Martin's teaching credits include guest-teaching engagements at schools and universities in Canada, South Carolina, Michigan, and throughout Indiana and Texas. She was on faculty at Butler University in Indianapolis for five years. Ms. Martin began her tenure with Ballet Austin in 1991 as a dancer with the Company, and in 1992 she was appointed ballet mistress and curriculum director of the Academy. In 1999 she founded Ballet Austin II, Ballet Austin's apprentice program, providing professional development for the 10-member second company and designing educational programming for presentation in schools. Ms. Martin has served on the Texas Commission on the Arts advisory panel for Arts Education and is a recipient of the Austin Under Forty award for contributions in the area of the Arts and Entertainment. Ms. Martin was appointed associate artistic director of Ballet Austin in September 2000.
The Dancers: Ballet Austin II
(www.balletaustin.org)
Ballet Austin II offers educational outreach and touring performances throughout
Central Texas. This concert group provides internship opportunities for emerging
artists, ranging in age from 18-23, selected through Ballet Austin's national
audition program. In addition to a diverse menu of in-school educational performances
and workshops, the dancers perform as the corps de ballet in full-length performances
with the main company.
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