Phoenix already is home to one nationally acclaimed dance company, Ballet Arizona. Slawomir Wozniak thinks there’s room for two.

Wozniak is the artistic director of Phoenix Ballet, formerly known as Ballet & Friends. The name change, one year ago, makes a statement about the company’s ambitions, as does the title of its next concert: “Rising.”

The program — a coming-out party of sorts — features four works, including two world premieres, with influences ranging from the neo-classical style pioneered by George Balanchine to the high-energy contemporary dance you might see on reality TV.

“With dancing, there are no borders, no limits,” says Wozniak, a former principal dancer for the National Opera in his native Poland.

“Rising” will be performed Saturday and Sunday, May 16-17, at the Mesa Arts Center and Thursday, May 21, at the Sedona Performing Arts Center. It then will move to Poland for the Lodz International Ballet Festival this month.

For now, all the company’s dancers are volunteers, and most still are students, but they bring some impressive star power. Mesa native Gisele Bethea, 16, was a junior gold medalist at the 2014 USA International Ballet Competition. Guest artist Zherlin Ndudi has danced solo roles for Miami City Ballet and Donetsk Ballet. And 12-year-old phenom Sophia Lucia has appeared on TV’s “Dance Moms,” “Dancing With the Stars,” “So You Think You Can Dance” and “America’s Got Talent.” In 2013, she set a record for performing the most consecutive pirouettes — 55 — according to the World Record Academy.

“Some of them are very young, but most of the ballet companies around the world use young dancers in their productions,” Wozniak says. “Ballet needs youth, it needs power, it needs flexibility.”

The pop-crossover appeal also extends to two guest choreographers premiering new works in “Rising.”

Ricky Palomino of Phoenix was on Season 3 of “So You Think You Can Dance” and has choreographed for the Pointer Sisters, Taylor Dayne and Patti LaBelle. Albert Blaise Cattafi is a member of Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance, which tours a show called “Rock the Ballet,” and recently finished a stint performing with Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles-themed “Love” in Las Vegas, playing the Walrus.

Cattafi, 30, is classically trained but also loves Broadway and break dancing.

“If you have a limited vocabulary in words, you have a hard time telling a story,” he says, and the same is true for movement.

Blending classical and popular dance isn’t the same thing as dumbing down the art form, he says, adding that he has mixed feelings about the “So You Think You Can Dance” phenomenon on Fox.

“Every time you put dance in the living rooms of people who wouldn’t normally see it is great,” he says. “But I feel like it kind of celebrates rolling around on the floor”.

“Americans tend to celebrate mediocrity these days. And that’s what we’re completely opposed to in this building. If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing perfectly.”

“This building” is Wozniak’s Master Ballet Academy in Scottsdale, which he founded with his wife, Irena, in 2007. He says he chose Arizona for the weather — and for the opportunity to become the proverbial big fish in a small pond.

“In New York, you’re going to be a piece of a puzzle. My dream is to create my own puzzle wherever I go,” he says. “I want to build my New York here.”

Wozniak took over Ballet & Friends, a non-profit founded in 1988 that produces an annual “Nutcracker” featuring student dancers, from artistic director Nina Marlow. He choreographed a new version of the holiday show that has become an audience favorite, selling out thousands of tickets weeks in advance.

With “Rising” he hopes to take the rebranded Phoenix Ballet to a new level of artistry and name recognition, which would help expand its donor base and put it on the road to full professional status.

“Everything is starting to fall into place,” he says. “Being a stubborn Polack, I will find a way to make it happen.”

Writer: Kerry Lengel/ The Republic