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garrett smith | Dance Open America

GARRETT
SMITH

CHOREOGRAPHER

Garrett Smith was born in Salt Lake City, Utah where he began his training with the Utah Regional Ballet. Garrett was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts where he was honored to meet George W. Bush at the White House, and was presented with and award by Mikhail Baryshnikov. He studied at the Houston Ballet Academy and created five works for Houston Ballet II’s repertoire. Garrett joined Houston Ballet and danced works by Stanton Welch, Jorma Elo, Nicolo Fonte, Christopher Bruce, Christopher Wheeldon, and Ben Stevenson. Garrett was presented with an award at Houston Ballet by Peter Martins from the New York Choreographic Institute Fellowship.

Mr. Smith joined Norwegian National Ballet where he worked personally with choreographers Jiři Kylían, Nacho Duato, Alexander Ekman, and danced other works by William Forsythe. Garrett was commissioned by Houston Ballet to create new works in the 2013, and 2015 seasons. Other recent commissions include The Mariinsky Ballet, Les Grands Ballets De Montreal, Bolshoi Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Ballet West, Texas Ballet Theater, Milwaukee Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Salt Contemporary Dance, and Odyssey Dance Theater. Mr. Smith was a selected choreographer to make a new work for the National Choreographers Initiative 2014.

His choreography Mortal Form took 1st place at the 2015 Genesis International Choreographic Competition. Smith’s choreography Solace was recently premiered in Deauville, France as part of the Festival de L’Art Russe, as well as a U.S. premiere of his work Imitations with Norwegian National Ballet, for the 2018 Dance Salad Festival. Garrett co-choreographed a new Swan Lake production on ice at the Dynamo Stadium in Moscow, combining figure skaters, acrobats, and ballet dancers, such as Olympic Gold Medalist, Evgeni Plushenko and prima ballerina Olga Smirnova.

Garrett Smith worked on Symphony no. 5 for the evening Dancing Beethoven from Les Grands Ballets 2019-2020 season.

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