Once unleashed, artistic creativity can be a powerful, even irresistible, force.

North Side native Alan Obuzor was in the early stages of a very promising career at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre when injuries forced him to reassess what he could do. He found teaching rewarding, but it didn't answer all his needs.

Founding his own company, Texture Contemporary Ballet, was the way to go. It enables him to create dance as a choreographer and continue to dance himself but in ways which would not aggravate his problematic knees.

Texture Contemporary Ballet will present the full-length show “Blur” at performances Thursday to Sunday at the New Hazlett Theater, North Side.

Obuzor's company is devoted to upholding “high classical-ballet standards of technique and skill within a more-diverse and contemporary style,” according to its mission statement. Its dancers are all classically trained professionals, many working at top ballet companies, who are brought together on a project-to-project basis.

“Blur” is comprised of six pieces that will be performed in three acts.

The first act is devoted to “Emwaby Mee,” which is for 22 dancers and was jointly created by Obuzor and associate artistic director Kelsey Bartman.

“It's choreographed to music from African composers and musicians, but not necessarily what you would first think about African music,” he says. “It has a wide range of sound, which gives each of the songs its own feel.”

Four short pieces fill the second act, opening with a duet choreographed and performed by Obuzor and Bartman to “Lacrimosa” by Zbigniew Preisner.

Gabriel Smith, who dances with BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, created both the choreography and the music for another duet in the second act, which will be performed on a 4-foot-square platform.

Bartman and Obuzor also created the final act of “Blur,” called “The Pulse of Time.” They were inspired by the music of Cello Fury, the most edgy and pop-culture-enjoying group of cello players one is likely ever to hear.

“Cello Fury's music has so much range and is very exciting, sentimental and touching. All these aspects make each section of this piece its own sort of thing,” Obuzor says.

Obuzor began dancing when he was 9 and made rapid progress.

“I have three sisters, all younger. Mom liked us to try different things,” he says. “She had us try gymnastics. There was a dance studio in the same building where we took gymnastics, so she said, ‘Let's try dance and see if they like that.' ”

After he took a short musical-theater class, Obuzor started studying ballet and immediately fell in love with it. He continued with gymnastics while studying ballet, but both take a lot of time. When he had to choose, he picked dance.

Obuzor moved up to Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School when he was 11 and joined the company when he was 17. He left the company when he was 24 because of injuries — repeated stress fractures of his knee cap.

“I felt like I would have been promoted if I was healthy, because pretty much every year I had a stress fracture, rehab and came back,” he says. “I had a lot of opportunity to work with great people and have great parts to perform.”

Many dancers have to deal with chronic injuries and learn to work around it. Obuzor finally decided he needed a year off to fully rest and recover. During that time, he began teaching and choreographing.

While Obuzor now teaches at the ballet school where he was a student not so many years ago, forming Texture Contemporary Ballet in 2011 fulfills his need to express his own voice and to experience the collegiality of dance creation.

“We don't have money to pay people. We're volunteers,” Obuzor says. “I have much more experience in creating the art. I thought if I could create something then I would have something when looking for board members or donors or grants.”

His company had no grant money its first year, but broke even. “We paid the dancers a little. It was a wash (financially), which was a great beginning,” he says.

“Blur” was created with funding from the Pittsburgh Foundation's Advance Black Arts in Pittsburgh and the Heinz Endowment's Small Arts Initiative.

Mark Kanny is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7877 or mkanny@tribweb.com

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