Todd Eric Allen
Todd Eric Allen, Artistic Director AND CEO of the Northwest Florida Ballet, began his training at the age of 14 in his hometown of Fort Walton Beach, Florida with Bernadette Clements. One year later he received a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City, where he studied for five consecutive years with Dorothy Lister, Meredith Baylis, Jonathan Watts and Choo San Goh. He attended Virginia Intermont College as a scholarship student and was awarded a Dance Magazine Scholarship to the 1985 Choreographer's Conference in Geneva, New York. Mr. Allen danced with the Louisville Ballet, Boston Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and has performed as a guest artist and teacher throughout the U.S. He has also performed at the prestigious Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington D.C., on two separate occasions, for Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton. Other performing highlights include a tour in Europe with Boston Ballet which featured a gala performance at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain; and a Canadian national tour with performances at Jacob's Pillow. In May of 2000 Mr. Allen was one of fourteen dancers asked to perform in Ocean Dance 2000 featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project and Demetrius Klein Dance Company. Allen has an extensive background in the classics and Balanchine ballets, and has performed featured roles in ballets by Elisa Monte, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Nacho Duato, James Kudelka, Hans Van Manen and Lucinda Hughey.
In 1992 while dancing with Boston Ballet Mr. Allen choreographed his first ballet, IYANU, on dancers from the company for a performance benefiting the Boston Ballet Dancer's Career Transition Fund. Blue Tango, a tribute to Astor Piazzolla and collaboration with Argentine composer Claudio Ragazzi, once again highlighting the talents of Boston Ballet Dancers and featuring a live tango quintet, followed this first work. After the premier performance Christine Temin of the Boston Globe described Mr. Allen as "a choreographer of genuine talent". Allen went on to create works for Festival Ballet of Rhode Island, the dancers of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Mobile Ballet, Sarasota Ballet, Chattanooga Ballet, Ruth Mitchell Dance Theater, Pensacola Opera, Pensacola Symphony, Mobile Opera and his own company, Northwest Florida Ballet. Allen has since been described as "one of the most original and exciting choreographers I know" by Fernando Bujones.
In the summer of 1995 Todd Eric Allen was invited to return to his hometown of Fort Walton Beach, Florida as Director of the Northwest Florida Ballet. In the nine years he has held the position of Artistic Director, Allen has committed himself to his community by developing young minds and bodies through innovative dance education programs, creating an awareness of dance in Northwest Florida and exposing his audiences to a variety of classical and contemporary works. In 2003 Mr. Allen received the Cox Bravo Champion of the Arts Award in Northwest Florida for his work in establishing the NFB Académie, a free academic and artistic education elementary school located in the NFB studios. His groundbreaking work in arts education was featured in Dance Teacher magazine (Nov, 2004) and in Teacher Magazine, a Department of Education publication (May 2005). In 2005 he accepted a 3-month engagement to perform in the Broadway hit, Movin' Out. He served as an instructor at the 2006 USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi.