Works In Progress: Momentum's Choreographers
- Cindy Case
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Full-length story ballets like Giselle and The Nutcracker dominate the season for most ballet companies, but there are many ways to create dance works outside of that structure. That's where BTM's Momentum comes in. Each season, BTM presents world-premiering shorter works that explore diverse themes and movement styles.
Usually, this includes bringing in guest choreographers to work with the company, which is a process the dancers treasure. However, one of the goals of Momentum is to develop the choreographic voices of our own dancers. This year marks a special milestone for that mission: all eight Momentum choreographers are drawn from within the BTM company.
This year, our choreographers are Karissa Kralik, Diego Sosa, Michael West Jr, Hannah Hanson, Mimi Hardin, Ellie Goods, Karen Fleming, and me! You can learn more about each one on our Meet the Choreographers page, but I wanted to share the individual experiences and inspirations that led to this season's Momentum works. In this blog post and the next one, we'll learn from each choreographer what they hope to share onstage.
Karissa Kralik's Bijou du Coeur
Principal dancer Karissa Kralik is no stranger to choreography. She started experimenting while she was still in high school:
"Our school had an annual benefit performance where dancers could create small pieces, so I think it's always been a part of my dance identity. Taking music theory class in high school helped me understand musical scores, which has helped my choreographic structure better match what is happening in any given composition."
"Even as a high school student, my style was about featuring the lines and steps that highlighted the dancer I was working with. I like when choreography feels good to dancers. It might not be the most natural order of steps, or it might make the dancer think an extra second as they're learning, but the ebb and flow of the movements is always first--along with how the movement matches the musical phrases themselves."
She continued to choreograph while she studied dance in college, which helped prepare her for opportunities at BTM. In addition to staging numerous works for students in our Conservatory, she previously choreographed the work "By Any Other Name" in Momentum 2023.
Her new work is called Bijou du Coeur. She describes it this way:
"Bijou du Coeur was born out of love for the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. I had a dear friend in high school who used the third movement as her college audition piece, and I fell in love with the violin's speed and expressiveness. It always felt danceable to me, like it was simply begging for someone to give it the chance. The piece itself is both the longest piece I’ve ever created and the largest cast I’ve ever used. It’s been a wonderful experience seeing something that has been in my brain for so long finally come to life before my eyes, and it's so rewarding to see such talented dancers bring this vision to life."
When I asked what she hoped the audience would get out of her piece, Karissa said, "I hope they feel a love of dance. With the relationship of the leads to one another, to the corps, and to the quartet, this piece is meant to be an expression of the joy of dance. There's a lightness that comes when a dancer lets go and lets the music take them soaring. I don't know what it feels like to fly, but I think that feeling onstage is the closest I'll ever get. I hope the audience feels something akin to that flight."
Hannah Hanson
Demi-soloist Hannah Hanson returns to Momentum this season after creating the work "All That Follows After" in 2024. She also has a long history of exploring choreography:
"I don't recall having a 'lightbulb' moment when I realized I wanted to try choreography. I do remember making up dances in my living room as a kid to perform for my parents, so I guess it's something I've been doing subconsciously since I was little."
"When I was at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, interested students could apply for a choreographic workshop with Alan Hineline to learn different movement manipulations and different techniques to count and hear music. Five or six of us were chosen to create a full piece to be performed at an in-studio showcase called 'First Steps.' I absolutely fell in love with the process and knew if more opportunities came around, I wanted to be a part of them."
One of Hannah's favorite things about choreographing is working with a corps de ballet and making sure they feel like they spend more time dancing rather than being a "backdrop" for the solo roles.
She says, "As dancers, so much of our time through our training and early careers is spent in the corps, so I have always tried to have them as an integral part of the full picture. I also really love looking at fun and interesting formations and patterns you can create with the corps de ballet. I like to sketch diagrams in my notes and try to notate how each person will move around the stage, and it is really rewarding to see your ideas come to life. It reminds me of finally completing a really challenging puzzle."
This season, Hannah is restaging a piece that she first created at CPYB. "It was the third time I was asked to choreograph, so I wanted to challenge myself and create more intricate pas de deux work. I am very excited to bring it to a professional company this time around and see how I can add nuances to the steps now that I've had more experience with partnering myself."
Hannah says she hopes to leave the audience with a feeling of closure after her piece. "The concept centers around how we can hold onto the happy and meaningful moments in our lives, even if they are in our memories. Just because life moves on, we don't have to let go of what once was, and we can embrace the things or people of our past that have helped shape us today."
Karen Fleming
Audiences may remember corps de ballet member Karen Fleming's work 'The Yachts' in Momentum 2025. Her piece for this season, 'Bloom', was previously performed as part of BTM Conservatory's end-of-year showcase in 2025. It was an audience and dancer favorite, and our director invited her to reimagine it for a mainstage performance.
She says, "I am really looking forward to revisiting 'Bloom' in this year's Momentum performances. I first developed the piece as a contemporary work for our advanced students and trainees, and, as much as I loved it, the creative process felt rushed. After all, I only had four rehearsals with the dancers before they performed!"
Karen has been looking forward to a slower, more thorough process as she reimagines her piece."Now that I am able to come back to it in the context of a company production, I can spend more time exploring the concept and will have much more freedom in terms of the production design.
"Adapting a pre-existing work, however, is not without its challenges. I have new music and am working with a different number of dancers this time around, and these changes require me to be flexible when it comes to restaging the movement. What may have worked in the original version may no longer be feasible in the new one. It has been so interesting to analyze and adjust my own choreography in this way!"
Karen first started exploring choreography during high school, but she says, "It wasn't until I became a Dance Major at the University of Richmond that I really developed my artistic voice. Taking courses in improvisation, composition, and production design taught me how impactful every choice can be when it comes to developing a new work."
"I also owe a lot to my incredible faculty mentor, Professor Anne Van Gelder, for her guidance as I created two fully-produced works for the school's concert dance company. Although my choreographic journey continues to evolve, my guiding philosophy remains the same: start with a clear concept to explore, then use that concept to inform each artistic choice along the way."
Karen says that she hopes 'Bloom' will leave the audience with "a sense of hope and joy. It may feel like winter's darkness will never end, but spring--and the possibilities that it brings--will always come again."
Cindy Case
Although writing is my more typical creative pursuit, choreography is something I have always loved. This season, I am delighted to share my new work, "Ma Petite", with BTM's audience members.
Like Hannah, my first choreographic works were made for the living room. As an adult, my first big opportunity came while I was a second company member with Nashville Ballet. There was a lull in our schedule toward the end of my second season there, and I got permission from the artistic staff to organize a Choreographic Showcase that was made for NBII dancers, by NBII dancers. Bringing that show to our black box theater provided me with a crash course not only in choreography, but also in leadership, persistence, and collaboration.
I choreographed again while I danced with San Diego Ballet. The guidance of my then-Artistic Director, Javier Velasco, taught me a lot about telling a story through movement. In 2022, I had the pleasure of creating the work 'Flow and Ebb' for trainee and apprentice dancers of BTM. A number of those dancers have grown into having beautiful careers with the company, and it makes me so happy that three of them are also in my piece this year!
'Ma Petite' was inspired by the story behind Gabriel Fauré's Dolly Suite. He composed each section to honor an important moment in the life of his friend's young daughter. That got me thinking about the different identities we take on from one phase of life to another, and how, for the next generation, those past identities are a mystery. How many children have been shocked to see a photo of their parent as a child, because they didn't realize they were ever anything other than mom or dad?
To explore that, I wanted different dancers to portray snapshots in the life of a single, hypothetical person: from her mother beside her cradle to a young girl at play, an adolescent taking her first fearful steps by herself, an independent young woman seeing the world, and then finally a grown woman with a daughter of her own.
I hope that the audience will feel the love and meaning that comes with each of these stages and recognize their own journey in them. Each phase of our lives is finite, and that makes our time together precious. This season, it's an honor to share Momentum with seven fellow choreographers whose work I deeply respect.
Interested to learn more? I'll be back on Monday, February 9, to hear from the other four choreographers in the performance. Until then, consider reserving your seats for our Valentine's Day Weekend performances of Momentum!
Headshot photos by Clara Molina
Rehearsal photos by Lauren Martinez
