A mixed-repertory production with a focus on artistic collaboration, Program 4 features works performed by Louisville Ballet artists with choreography by Robert Barry Fleming, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Executive Artistic Director; Adam Hougland, Louisville Ballet Resident Choreographer; Brandon Ragland, Louisville Ballet Company Artist; and Anne Jung, 2021/2022 Dysart Award inaugural winner and Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company Artist. Guest artists include Louisville-based singer and songwriter, Carly Johnson, and poets/spoken-word artists Hannah Drake and Isiah Fish.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE DYSART AWARD HERE
IMPORTANT PROGRAM UPDATES:
Music for Anne Jung’s #fourwithsix was composed by Cyril Baldy and based on the following works by Pat Metheny + Charlie Haden:
“First Song” / “Cinema Paradiso” / “Two For The Road” / “Message To A Friend”
Meet the artists behind PROGRAM 4 Artistic Director Robert Curran talks with inaugural Dysart Award winner, Anne Jung, and 2021/2022 Dysart Award nominating panel co-director, Rupert Tookey. He’s also joined by Robert Barry Fleming, Actors Theater Louisville Executive Artistic Director and PROGRAM 4 choreographer, and Kateryna Sellers, Louisville Ballet Company Artist.
Leigh Anne Albrechta, Natalia Ashikhmina, Emmarose Atwood, Lexa Daniels, Justin Michael Hogan, Caitlin Kowalski, Mark Krieger, Simone Muhammad, Minh-Tuan Nguyen, Brandon Ragland, Sanjay Saverimuttu, Aleksandr Schroeder, Kateryna Sellers, Shelby Shenkman, David Senti, Ryo Suzuki, Ashley Thursby, Phillip Velinov, Brienne Wiltsie
Find out more about our resident, professional Company Artists here.
STUDIO COMPANY DANCERS
Owen Bakula, Nicholas Bentz, Sarah Bradley, Anthony Cefalu, Christian Chester, Reece Conrad, Kelsey Corder, Anna Ford, Veronica Higgins, Isabelle Hilton, Dagny Ingle, JonMarie Johnson, Tarique Logan, Celeste Lopez-Keranen, Addison Mathes, Owen Materne, Jake Mingus, Jordan Noblett, Chloe Puffer, Sarah Ray, Paige Riffer, Daniel Scofield, Madeline Skaggs, Charlotte VanErmen, Amber Wickey
Watch for a behind-the-scenes glimpse inside the Louisville Ballet studios and into the process of making PROGRAM 4.
VOCALIST / SONGWRITER, “BURN YOUR FEARS”
A dorm-room conversation changed Carly Johnson’s life. she was in her first year at the university of the arts in Philadelphia, studying jazz vocal performance, and despite her powerhouse voice, she couldn’t help feeling envious of her roommate Charlotte Littlehales’ writing chops. “she was a songwriter,” Johnson recalls. “I was always taken aback by that. I was like, ‘That’s so cool—I wish I could do that.’ And she just looked at me and said: ‘Carly. you can play the piano, and you can sing. you can do it. You just have to try.’”
Fifteen years and hundreds of gigs later, Johnson—now a celebrated Louisville-based singer who’s performed nationally and in Europe with her eight-piece band—has done more than try: her debut solo album of original music, more than four years in the making, comes out this December on Sonablast! records. it’s a stunningly soulful collection fusing her musical education with her reverence for rock, soul, and pop music, and it was co-written with her old roommate and now trusted collaborator: Charlotte Littlehales.
A mainstay in the Louisville music scene, Johnson has had the honor of performing with numerous greats, including Jacob Duncan and his folk-fusion band Liberation Prophecy, My Morning Jacket, Houndmouth, and Norah jones, but this self-titled album reflects the actualization of her own vision—and the fulfillment of a dream. “Jazz was paying the bills and keeping my vocal chops in shape,” she says, referencing her years performing in clubs as a jazz vocal/guitar duo with guitarist Craig Wagner, “but my end game was that I always wanted to do my own album of original music.”
POET / SPOKEN-WORD ARTIST, “I AM”
“No one is in control of your art, your gift, or your narrative except you. Tell your story.”
Hannah L Drake is a blogger, activist, public speaker, poet, and author of 11 books. She writes commentary on politics, feminism, and race and her work has been featured online at Cosmopolitan, The Bitter Southerner, The Lily, Harper’s Bazaar and Revolt TV. In 2019 during Super Bowl Sunday,Hannah’s poem, “All You Had To Do Was Play The Game, Boy,” which addresses the protest by Colin Kaepernick, was shared by film writer, producer and director Ava DuVernay, and then shared by Kaepernick. The poem has been viewed more than two million times.
In 2016, Hannah’s poem Formation poem went viral being shared over 20,000 times around the world. In 2018, the Youth Violence Prevention commercial featuring Formation won the “Culturally Legit” award from the American Advertising Federation. A lover of writing and social justice, Hannah’s blog offers commentary on current events and has been viewed around the world. Hannah’s work is filled with passion and truth, believing that communication is indeed the beginning of change. Hannah is the author of several works of poetry, Hannah‘s Plea-Poetry for the Soul, Anticipation, Life Lived In Color, In Spite of My Chains, For Such A Time As This and So Many Things I Want to Tell You-Life Lessons for the Journey. Her debut novel Views from the Back Pew was received with stellar reviews and was performed on stage to a sold-out audience. Her follow-up novel, Fragile Destiny has been hailed as life-changing. Currently, Hannah completed a collection of commentaries on race and feminism entitled, Dear America, I Am Still Rooting For You along with a collection of commentaries called Dear White Women, It’s Not You, It’s Me. I’m Breaking Up With You. Her collection of poetry Love, Revolution and Lemonade has been called brilliant and inspiring.
POET / SPOKEN WORD ARTIST, “I AM”
Isiah Fish is a queer poet & performer from Louisville, Kentucky. He holds an M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University Carbondale where he worked as an editor for Crab Orchard Review. His work has been published in Albion Review, Blood Orange Review, Foglifter, & Miracle Monocle.
ROBERT CURRAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Harald Uwe Kern, Senior Ballet Master
Mikelle Bruzina, Senior Ballet Mistress
Helen Daigle, Ballet Mistress
CHRISTEN BOONE, INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Stacy Blakeman, Director of Community Engagement
Farrah Ferriell, Interim Director of Development
Natalie Harris, Director of Marketing
Kristine Orms, Director of Education
PRESIDENTRalph de Chabert |
VICE PRESIDENTPamela Thompson |
TREASURERJames E. Haynes |
SECRETARYMatthew E. Hamel |