Marla Brattain Hansen, Co-Artistic Director

Marla and her husband, Alfred Hansen, founded Idaho Dance Theatre in 1989. Since that time, she has choreographed over 60 ballets for IDT. She is also an Associate Professor at Boise State University in the Department of Theatre Arts and directs the Dance Minor, the Dance Option BA Degree and the BSU Summer DanceFest workshop. Marla choreographs regularly for BSU Theatre and Music Department productions including Metamorphoses, Cabaret, HMS Pinafore, Pippin, Into the Woods and Damn Yankees, to name a few. She loves to collaborate with other artists and organizations and recently choreographed the Opera Idaho productions of Faust and Amahl and the Night Visitors. She has been named the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, "Dance Educator of the Year" in the Northwest District.

Marla received her early professional training as a Harkness Ballet company trainee in New York City. She attended the University of Utah where she earned her BFA and MFA in ballet while dancing as an apprentice with Ballet West. She was principal dancer with Portland Ballet Company for three years and choreographed several ballets for PBC and other Northwest companies. From1981 to1989 she danced with American Festival Ballet (AFB), during which time she was a principal dancer, teacher, ballet mistress, choreographer and acting artistic director. She choreographed the full length Cinderella, Firebird and numerous other shorter ballets for AFB. She received the 1988 Idaho Commission on the Arts Artist Fellowship for her Firebird choreography.