The Dance Theatre of Tennessee is launching its inaugural season with Carmen on Oct. 16-17 at the Ingram Performance Theater located on the campus of Vanderbilt University. Performances will be at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 16 and 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 17 with a pre-show discussion and cast meet and greet for both performances.

Dance Theatre of Tennessee is the performing arm of Asian American Performing Arts Society, a 501c3 charitable organization founded in 2004. Born of a desire to enrich the community by offering an additional avenue for live professional dance and theater entertainment, DTT is presenting its inaugural season performance series with Carmen and other ballets.

Artistic Director Christopher Mohnani offers his adaptation of Carmen based on the famous opera of the same title by Georges Bizet. Seville’s vibrant beauty serves as the background for this tragic story of a fiery gypsy girl whose seduction of a naive officer leads to rejection, jealousy, and ultimately death. Condensed in one act – be immersed in this intriguing world of seduction, betrayal and death as we follow Carmen and her officer, Don Jose, in their journey of passion, distrust, rejection and murder.

Opening the program is a restaging of Chopiniana as staged by Royal Ballet Principal Coach and DTT Artistic Associate Elaine Thomas in honor of the bicentennial of musical genius, Chopin. Then, the DTT will premiere Tzigane, a ballet from Atlanta Ballet II Artistic Director, Tom Pazik.

Tickets are available by visiting www.ticketsnashville.com. General admission tickets are $20 ($12 for students with valid ID, plus ticketing fee) if bought online and are $25 at the door. A pre-show discussion happens 30 minutes before the curtain opens and a cast meet and greet happens immediately after the performance.

For more information, please visit www.dancetheatretn.org, www.facebook.com/dancetheatreoftennessee, call 615-391-5500, or email dance@dancetheatretn.org.