Cleveland Ballet was founded in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

in 2014 by Gladisa Guadalupe and Michael Krasnyansky. It is the third incarnation of a Cleveland Ballet, having been preceded by establishments of the same name founded in 1935 and

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

. Guadalupe, an alumna of the School of American Ballet and a former

principal dancer A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. A principal may be male or female. The position is similar to that of '' soloist''; however, p ...

, serves as artistic director, and Krasnyansky, a Ukrainian American businessman, serves as president & CEO. The company has grown from 5 to 26 dancers from 11 countries and territories over its initial 5 seasons, and was one of the fastest growing professional ballet companies in the U.S. In 2017, it became a resident company of Playhouse Square.

History and growth

In October 2015, Cleveland Ballet's inaugural season debuted with the ballet ''Past. Present. Future.'' at Playhouse Square, characterized by ''

The Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of Ma ...

'' as a "stylistically diverse and entertaining" production. The company continued with a production of ''

Coppélia ''Coppélia'' (sometimes subtitled: ''La Fille aux Yeux d'Émail'' (The Girl with the Enamel Eyes)) is a comic ballet from 1870 originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes, with libretto by Charles-Louis-� ...

'' in May 2016, described as "evidence of a company eager and able to do great things", with the dancers' performances as "mostly excellent". By its second season, 2016–2017, the ballet had grown to fourteen members. It concluded the season with a performance of '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'', which was reviewed as featuring "smartly-crafted, deceptively difficult, and wonderfully illustrative choreography". Cleveland Ballet became Playhouse Square's resident classical ballet company in 2017, during its third season. This designation resulted in additional marketing funds, access to more rehearsal space, and priority in scheduling. In 2017, Cleveland Ballet also reintroduced regular holiday performances of

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

's ballet, ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchai ...

'', as a seasonal tradition in Cleveland—the first ''Nutcracker'' production by a local company at Playhouse Square since 1999. Additional performances of the season included the 1909 ballet, ''

Les Sylphides ''Les Sylphides'' () is a short, non-narrative '' ballet blanc'' to piano music by Frédéric Chopin, selected and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. The ballet, described as a "romantic reverie","Ballet Theater", until 1955. A compact disk ...

'', as well as ''Alice'', a new ballet based on

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

's book '' Alice in Wonderland''. In the fourth season, 2018–2019, the company increased to 20 professional dancers. In addition to ''The Nutcracker'', Cleveland Ballet presented ''Fall Collection'' and ''Coppélia'' as main stage productions at Playhouse Square. In its fifth season, 2019–2020, the ballet grew to 25 dancers, performing '' Carmen'' at the Ohio Theatre in October and offering 12 performances of ''The Nutcracker'' at the

Hanna Theatre The Hanna Theatre is a theater at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is one of the original five venues built in the district, opening on March 28, 1921. The Hanna Theatre reopened in 2008 as the new home of Great La ...

in December. The season was cut short by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

in Spring 2020, requiring the cancellation of the company's planned performance of Mozart's ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

''.

Productions

References

{{authority control Ballet companies in the United States Ballet schools in the United States 2014 establishments in Ohio Culture of Cleveland Performing groups established in 2014 Dance companies Dance companies in the United States Ballet-related lists