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Richmond Ballet professional company member
Angela Hutto has announced that she will retire from professional dance at the
end of this season. Angela will continue her college studies at John Tyler
Community College this summer and next fall. Angela plans to enroll as a
full-time student at Virginia Commonwealth University for the 2010 spring
semester.
Hutto received her ballet training at the School
of Richmond Ballet, spent two years as an apprentice and is concluding her third
season with the professional company member. In addition to her busy rehearsal
and performance schedule, Hutto has been taking online courses through John
Tyler Community College since the fall of 2007 and will enter VCU next spring as
a first-semester junior. She plans to major in Environmental Studies.
“I’ll be sad to leave my second family here at
Richmond Ballet,” said Hutto, “but I’m excited about the new opportunities ahead
of me.”
Hutto has worked with many different
choreographers and danced a number of featured roles during her time with
Richmond Ballet. Jessica Lang, who has choreographed four commissioned works for
the company, recently remarked, “Angela is…extraordinarily gifted in dance, with
a body that is equal parts strong and delicate, a beauty that is quietly
radiant, artistic choice that always appears effortless in her approach and a
mind that could keep every detail straight…I will miss creating on Angela. She
made my work richer.”
In The Nutcracker , Hutto has progressed
from dancing in the Waltz of the Flowers corps while she was a School of
Richmond Ballet trainee to dancing the roles of the Snow Queen and the
Shepherdess this past season. She also danced the role of the
Winter Fairy in this season’s production of Cinderella .
Artistic Director Stoner Winslett observed,
“Angela is a true success story for the School of Richmond Ballet, for the
Richmond Ballet professional company and especially for herself.
She has used not only her natural gifts, but also the resources available
in this community to achieve a glorious professional dancing career while
continuing her college studies in an unrelated field. While we will
miss terribly her majestic presence on stage and her calm, focused demeanor in
class and rehearsal, we applaud her for her well-choreographed steps into
another world, a world that also needs good people and for which she also has a
great passion.”
When asked about Hutto’s time with the company,
Ballet Master Malcolm Burn said, “What a joy to have known, watched and worked
with Angela. I will miss her forever. Angela has always danced with great
passion, commitment, technique and soul, and I count myself blessed to have been
able to work with her and experience her wonderful performances.”
Hutto plans to support and stay connected to her
friends and colleagues at Richmond Ballet. “I’m looking forward to being an
audience member, to watching a piece without knowing anything about how it was
made and seeing how it impacts me.”
Hutto’s final performances with the company will
be during the Studio 4 Series, April 28 - May 3, during which she will dance
featured roles in Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments and Colin Connor’s
Vestiges .
In addition, ten-year company member Danaë Carter, whose
retirement was previously announced, will not return next season. Carter
conlcuded her dance career midseason after Richmond Ballet's The
Nutcracker in December of 2008.
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