Stallings creating performance piece for Cirque du Soleil benefit in Las Vegas

Lauri Stallings of glo, at Goodson Yard at the Goat Farm Arts Center. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Credit: hpousner

Credit: hpousner

Lauri Stallings of glo, at Goodson Yard at the Goat Farm Arts Center. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Lauri Stallings is not a conventional choreographer, and Cirque du Soleil is not your everyday circus. So it seems almost an inevitable match of creative spirits that Stallings is working on a piece with seven artists from her Atlanta-based glo troupe and Cirque performers that will be premiered Friday in Las Vegas.

It will debut as part of Cirque founder Guy Laliberté's third annual Las Vegas fundraiser "One Night for One Drop" (benefiting clean-water efforts internationally) at the Mirage.

Stallings' connection to Cirque is not new. When she was a Chicago resident prior to her arrival in Atlanta, she served as a talent scout and led auditions for the Quebec-based troupe.

When "One Night for One Drop" is done, Stallings can get back to developing "And all directions I come to you," a movement piece that glo will premiere in New York's Central Park as part of a performance art exhibition of U.S. and international artists kicking off May 15.

Stallings' ever-active organization also is presenting dance-performance artists Erik Thurmond and Malcolm Low/Formal Structure in a program titled "in the thrust towards the future...i want to leave something of use," March 26-28 at Midtown's Rhodes Theatre, as part of glo's Tanz Farm series. Details here.