Colorado Ballet

Colorado Ballet encompasses a 40-member professional performing ballet company, a studio company for advanced dance students, an academy, and an education and outreach department. Based in downtown Denver, Colorado, Colorado Ballet serves more than 125,000 patrons each year.

The professional company performs primarily at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in the Denver Performing Arts Complex and one show each year at the Robert and Judi Newman Center for Performing Arts at the University of Denver. Colorado Ballet performs classical ballets and contemporary dance works. The Colorado Ballet Orchestra performs with the Company at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, at five productions a year.

With an annual operating budget exceeding $14.8 million, the company employs more than 150 people on either a full-time or part-time basis during the year.

Colorado Ballet received the 2009 Colorado Masterpieces Award. As part of the award, Colorado Ballet toured Colorado in the 2009–2010 season as a part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius initiative, funded by the Colorado Council on the Arts.

Colorado Ballet has performed at the Vail International Dance Festival in 2011, 2015, 2017, and 2024.

In 2013, Colorado Ballet purchased a building in Denver's Art District on Santa Fe. The company moved to its new location in August 2014.Denver Post - Colorado Ballet's new home, sunny and full of possibilities

History In 1961, Lillian Covillo and Freidann Parker established Colorado Concert Ballet to showcase talented students they had been teaching at their ballet school. Their first production, The Nutcracker, played to sold-out houses in Denver's Bonfils Theatre. By 1968, the Company hit the road for its first tour of the state. By 1976, Colorado Concert Ballet produced 33 performances of The Nutcracker and three other productions that season. By October of that year, Colorado Concert ballet achieved full professional status with a total roster of eight professional dancers. Two years later, the board of trustees changed the company's name to Colorado Ballet.

In 1987, Parker and Covillo conducted a nationwide search, at their own expense, for a new artistic director. With their choice of Martin Fredmann, they changed the course of Colorado Ballet. Also that year, a lagging economy in Denver forced Colorado Ballet to look at an emerging national trend among dance companies and as a result entered into an alliance with Tampa Ballet. Colorado Ballet and Tampa Ballet joined forces, performing 18 weeks in Tampa and 18 weeks in Denver. The partnership remained successful for three years, and in 1990, the board of trustees decided to the dissolve the alliance and move the Company permanently to Denver.

In 1993, Colorado Ballet made its New York debut to favorable reviews. In 1995, the Company formed Colorado Ballet II, which is now known as Colorado Ballet's Studio Company. By the time the Company celebrated its 40th anniversary in the early 2000s, the organization's annual budget had grown to $5.1 million, with 30 professional dancers, 20 apprentices and an academy with 250 students. In March 2006, Gil Boggs, former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, was hired as the new artistic director.

After more than two decades of leasing a space near the Colorado State Capitol, Colorado Ballet purchased a building at the north end of Denver's Art District on Santa Fe in 2013. The Company renovated the space and moved into its new home in August 2014.Denver Post - Colorado Ballet's new home, sunny and full of possibilities

During the 2016-2017 season, Colorado Ballet's ticketing revenue exceeded more than $4 million for the first time and more than 87,000 people watched Colorado Ballet's productions.Record 2016-2017 season for Colorado Ballet In December 2016, Colorado Ballet's The Nutcracker was named the best-loved Nutcracker in the 10th Annual Goldstar National Nutcracker Award contest, winning this coveted honor in a field that included more than 80 other productions throughout the U.S.Goldstar Nutcracker Contest

Artistic leaders The artistic leadership of the Colorado Ballet includes (as of 2017-2018 season):

Artistic Director: Gil Boggs, former principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre

Ballet Masters: Sandra Brown, Lorita Travaglia, Maria Mosina

Music Director/Principal Conductor: Adam Flatt

Associate Conductor: Catherine Sailer

Company Pianist: Natalia Arefieva

Academy Director: Erica Fischbach

Academy Principal: Bernadette Torres

Production Department

Pete Nielson, Production Manager Hally Albers, Production Manager, Stage Manager N. James Whitehill III, Director of Production (2021-present)

Dancers Colorado Ballet consists of 40 professional dancers from around the world (as of 2024-2025 season):

Studio Company The Studio Company is a pre-professional training program; members are selected by audition. The program is designed to offer young dancers training and experience working with the professional company.

2018–2019 season Colorado Ballet's 2018–2019 season will open on October 5, 2018.

Sleeping Beauty (choreography by Marius Petipa, music by P. I. Tchaikovsky)

The Nutcracker (choreography by Marius Petipa, music by P. I. Tchaikovsky)

The Wizard of Oz (choreography by Septime Webre, music by Matthew Pierce)

Tour de Force (collaborative production with choreography by artistic staff members of Colorado Ballet, Garrett Ammon of Wonderbound, and Cleo Parker Robinson of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble)

Ballet MasterWorks: Carmina Burana (choreography by Fernand Nault, music by Carl Orff)

2017–2018 season Colorado Ballet's 2017-2018 season opened on October 6, 2017.

Dracula (choreography by Michael Pink, music by Philip Feeney)

The Nutcracker (choreography after Marius Petipa, music by P. I. Tchaikovsky)

Romeo and Juliet (choreography by Derek Deane, music by Sergei Prokofiev)

Ballet Director's Choice (includes Pillar of Fire choreographed by Antony Tudor, music by Arnold Schoenberg; Brief Fling choreographed by Twyla Tharp, music by Michel Colombier and Percy Grainger; and a third work)

2016–2017 season Colorado Ballet's 2016-2017 season opened on October 7, 2016.

Swan Lake (choreography after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov set and updated by former American Ballet Theatre principals Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner and Sandra Brown, Ballet Mistress for Colorado Ballet, music by P. I. Tchaikovsky)

The Nutcracker (choreography after Marius Petipa, music by P. I. Tchaikovsky)

Ballet MasterWorks (includes The Firebird choreographed by Yuri Possokhov, music by Igor Stravinsky; Serenade choreographed by George Balanchine, music by P.I. Tchaikovsky; and Petite Mort choreographed by Jiří Kylián, music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

The Little Mermaid (choreography by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, music by Michael Moricz), opening with Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 choreographed by Clark Tippet, music by Max Bruch)

2015–2016 season Colorado Ballet's 2015-2016 season opened on October 2, 2015.

La Sylphide (choreography by August Bournonville, music by Herman Severin Løvenskiold)

The Nutcracker (choreography after Marius Petipa, music by P.I. Tchaikovsky)

Alice in Wonderland (choreography by Septime Webre, music by Matthew Pierce)

Ballet Director's Choice (includes The Angel of Buenos Aires by Lorita Travaglia, Wolfgang (for Webb) by Dominic Walsh, Light Rain pas de deux by Gerald Arpino and It's Not a Cry pas de deux by Amy Seiwert)

2014–2015 season Colorado Ballet's 2014-2015 season opened on September 26, 2014.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (choreography by Christopher Wheeldon, music by Felix Mendelssohn)

Dracula (choreography by Michael Pink, music by Philip Feeney)

The Nutcracker (choreography after Marius Petipa, music by P.I. Tchaikovsky)

Ballet MasterWorks (includes Concerto Barocco choreographed by George Balanchine, music by Johann Sebastian Bach; Fancy Free (ballet) choreographed by Jerome Robbins, music by Leonard Bernstein; and a new work)

Peter and the Wolf (choreography by Michael Smuin, music by Sergei Prokofiev, opening with Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 choreographed by Clark Tippet, music by Max Bruch)

2013–2014 season

Giselle (music by Adolphe Adam)