Company choreographer and former dancer also named fellow by National Arts Strategies, Salzburg Global Forum

Memphis, Tenn. (July 26, 2016) – – – Ballet Memphis announced today that Steven McMahon is the Company’s new Associate Artistic Director, effective immediately. McMahon, who joined the Company in 2004 as a dancer and also has served as its Choreographic Associate and most recently Artistic Associate, retired from the stage at the end of the 2015-16 season. 

As a choreographer, he has created more than 30 original works for Ballet Memphis since 2006 including the full-length ballets Peter Pan, Cinderella, Wizard of Oz, Romeo and Juliet, and Carnival of the Animals as well as the popular mixed-repertory works Confluence, I Am, Being Here With Other People, and new “snow” and “battle” scenes for the Company’s annual Nutcracker. The Company tours many of his works including in its October 2015 run at The Joyce Theater where it performed Confluence.

McMahon, as Associate Artistic Director, will report directly to Founding Artistic Director and CEO Dorothy Gunther Pugh, helping to shape the Company’s repertory and direction as it undertakes its 30^th anniversary season while building a new, multi-million dollar rehearsal and technical space in the heart of Memphis’ arts district. 

In addition, McMahon recently was named a 2016 National Arts Strategies Senior Management Institute fellow, a program of 28 senior-level arts organization staff members from varied disciplines and from across the United States. This eight-month program provides a supportive but challenging environment for growth and inspiration 

In October 2016, McMahon will be one of five Memphians to attend the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Innovators in Salzburg, Austria. The Kresge Foundation is funding McMahon’s fellowship.

A native of Glasgow, Scotland, McMahon did his early training at the Dance School of Scotland before finishing at The Ailey School in New York.