Run by founding artistic director Katie Puder, the organization is unique in bringing

together musicians and dancers to create new and exciting productions that are truly

collaborative efforts. In its subscription series, the 13-member ensemble of dancers

presents a diverse repertoire of classical and contemporary works from local

choreographers, as well as renowned choreographers such as George Balanchine and

Christopher Wheeldon.

Since its founding in 2012, ACB has commissioned over 50 world premiere ballets,

including four full-length works, all from female or minority choreographers. ACB broke

ground in 2015 with the Women's Choreography Project, which commissions new works

every year by female choreographers - a rarity in the dance industry.

Over the last decade of performances, ACB has collaborated with many other Dallas area

arts organizations, including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony

Orchestra, Verdigris Ensemble, Fine Arts Chamber Players, Bruce Wood Dance, and

Dallas Black Dance Theater.

ACB commits its resources to pushing the limits of interdisciplinary arts collaboration,

finding new ways to achieve equity in the dance field, and ensuring that free dance

education is a part of the Dallas landscape for years to come. Through First Steps, ACB

teaches dance to over 100 children for free each week.

Katie Puder is the founder of Avant Chamber Ballet and serves as its Artistic Director and primary choreographer. She has created over 30 ballets with ACB and collaborated and choreographed with Rapides Symphony Orchestra, International Music Festival in San Antonio, American Baroque Opera Company, Orchestra of New Spain, Abilene Ballet Theater, Verdigris Ensemble and many more.

She started dance with Wichita Falls Ballet Theater and moved to Fort Worth to continue training where she studied with Maria Terezia Balogh and Paul Mejia. She was a member of Metropolitan Classical Ballet for six years and danced in classics such as Raymonda, La Bayadere, Paquita, Don Quixote, and Spartacus as well as a dozen Balanchine ballets including Agon, Four Temperaments and Bugaku. In 2007, she moved to Athens, Greece and studied ballet and contemporary dance at D.A.N.C.C.E.

In 2012 she founded Avant Chamber Ballet and has developed it into a professional company known for exciting new commissions and live music as well as the industry-leading Women’s Choreography Project. Under her leadership, ACB has garnered national attention as an example of a modern ballet company that reflects the future of the art form.

Brad Cawyer is principal conductor of Avant Chamber Ballet, leading multiple programs with the company since the 2016–17 season. Recent productions include Balanchine’s Who Cares?, Concerto Barocco, Walpurgisnacht Ballet, and Raymonda Variations, Katie Puder’s Appalachian Spring and Alice in Wonderland, and Paul Mejia's Romeo and Juliet and Nutcracker. In addition to a tenure as Music Director of the Mesquite Symphony Orchestra, Cawyer has collaborated with ensembles throughout the US, including engagements on the west and east coasts. Since 2014, he has worked with organizations in the Pacific Northwest, including: Orchestra Seattle / Seattle Chamber Singers, Rainier Symphony, Northwest Mahler Festival, and Oregon Bach Festival. In recent seasons Cawyer made his debut in Asia, conducting the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Mongolia. Additionally, he assisted Hans Graf in the Houston Symphony Orchestra’s GRAMMY award-winning production of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. While studying with Alexander Alexeev in Saint Petersburg, Russia, he created the Contemporary East & West International Music Festival. His debut at the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic led to an invitation to be the conductor for the new music ensemble SOUNDWAYS. Before moving to St. Petersburg, Cawyer established the Texas A&M University orchestra, directing the ensemble for three seasons.

Paul Mejia, born in Lima, Peru, joined the School of American Ballet in 1958, where he first appeared as the "Little Prince" in the New York City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. While a student, he was invited by George Balanchine to attend his seminars on teaching and on choreography and to study music with the acclaimed Russian piano teacher Kiriena Siloti. At age fourteen, Paul Mejia choreographed his first ballets, which were performed by dancers from the School of American Ballet. 

Mr. Mejia joined the New York City Ballet as a professional dancer in 1964. During the next five years, he danced principal roles in many Balanchine ballets, including A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Nutcracker, Agon and Symphony in C. In 1972, Paul Mejia joined Maurice Bejart's Ballet of the Twentieth Century where he danced many principal roles through Europe. He created two ballets for ballerina Suzanne Farrell and himself, which were presented in Belgium and in Monte Carlo. 

In 1977, Mr. Mejia staged a season of ballet in Guatemala, were he created four new ballets including Romeo and Juliet, the first of his Shakespearean ballet series. Additionally a ballet was created in Cuba for American Ballet Theater's ballerina Eleanor D'Antuono. During this time period, Mr. Mejia directed "Stars of the American Ballet" through its United States tour. 

Paul Mejia joined the Chicago City Ballet as co-artistic director with Maria Tallchief. During the next seven years, Mejia created fifteen new ballets, including his full-length Cinderella. First created for ballerina Suzanne Farrell, this audience favorite toured nationally and internationally in New York City, Japan and Taiwan to great acclaim. His ballet Eight by Adler, set to music by Richard Adler, was later filmed for PBS and won an Emmy Award for Suzanne Farrell. 

From 1987 to 1998, Paul Mejia was the artistic director of the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet. During these ten years, Mejia added thirty-two of his own works to the company's repertoire, including sixteen world premieres. The extensive repertoire also included thirty-five Balanchine ballets, with Mejia staging of Prodigal Son, Firebird, and Bugaku, making Fort Worth Dallas Ballet one of the world's premier Balanchine companies.

Dedicated to the artistic vision and philosophy of George Balanchine, Mejia has choreographed works in the neoclassical style, as well as dramatic story ballets such as Swan Lake, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Romeo and Juliet. Mejia's Webern Pieces, performed with ballerina Maria Terezia Balogh and Dallas Cowboy football star Herschel Walker, garnered national media attention. Under Mejia's direction, Fort Worth Dallas Ballet enjoyed the distinction of not only artistic excellence, but also financial excellence by producing on-budget and finishing with a yearly surplus. 

In addition to ballet, Paul Mejia has choreographed several operas for Chicago Lyric Opera, Dallas Opera, Fort Worth Opera and San Antonio Festival, as well as for musical, theater and fashion. In 1984, he was selected by Esquire Magazine as one of the "Outstanding Americans under 40".

Paul Mejia is currently a guest teacher and lecturer throughout the United States.