Best Choreographer

Dancer/choreographer/professor T. LANG’s ethereal vision has manifested over the past few years through cerebral, electric works such as her four-part Post Up series (the last of which will debut this fall); 2012’s Mother/Mutha, which was a stirring look at African women who were forced to breed slaves; and For Unmarried Girls Before They Wed, a piece that shed light on relationship issues from a woman’s point of view. Wherever you find her works in the city, just know you’re in for a heady, spiritual treat. www.tlangdance.com. less...

Hope Mirlis is a theatrical jack-of-all-trades. Although her background isn’t in traditional dance choreography, she’s worked in Atlanta theater for the past 10 years as an actor, director and administrator. Mirlis came to Atlanta from Long Island, N.Y., to study theater at Emory where she did some concert dance, but her forte has been her work with Synchronicity for the past two-and-a-half years. Mirlis also founded and helps manage the young company. Atlantans may remember her staging Action Movie: The Play at Dad’s Garage Theatre during which an actor was wounded. less...

Nicole Livieratos, artistic director of GardenHouse Dance Company, has provided a steady stream of solid work that is compelling, strangely funny and unabashedly idiosyncratic. Her work includes some elements of conceptual performance art, but she never forgets the straightforward pleasures of technically proficient dance movement. less...