KOBE ATWOOD COURTNEY was introduced to dance through Richmond Ballet’s Outreach program Minds in Motion. They trained with Richmond Ballet, under the encouragement of Jasmine Grace. They finished their training at San Francisco Ballet School. There, they were fortunate to perform pieces such as Balanchine’s “Stars and Stripes” and Jiri Kylian’s “Sarabande”. While also studying ballet they had the opportunity to choreograph multiple pieces on their peers, as well as train as a teaching apprentice under Jeffery Lyons. They then spent two years working with Orlando Ballet and their school. They were able to learn from many different works such as “Lyric Pieces” by Jessica Lang and “Lambarena” by Val Caniparoli. They continued their career with Festival Ballet Providence, where they were able to dance leading roles in pieces choreographed by artists like Yury Yanowsky, Ja’ Malik, and Lia Cirio. After Leaving Providence, they moved to NYC to work as a member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Touring internationally under the direction of Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson. They currently work as a freelance artist and are embarking on their Choreographic career. They’ve had the opportunity to work with MOBBallet (Memoir of Blacks in Ballet) in their “Pathway to Performance” course.  Some other highlights of their choreographic career include, setting work for Rhode Island Women’s Choreography Project, as well as being apart of Complexions Contemporary Ballet’s first CHOREO-LAB. 

Photos by: Jeremy Kyle Gruner