Mission Statement
Carolina Ballet’s vision is to remain one of the top ballet companies in America with national and international recognition, thus contributing to the enhanced reputation and ever-increasing quality of life in our community and the State of North Carolina. Carolina Ballet’s mission is to perform world-class professional ballet, entertaining and enlightening audiences in Raleigh, the Triangle region, the State of North Carolina, and beyond. It will accomplish this mission by: * attracting, developing, and retaining excellent dancers and artistic personnel combined with a fiscally responsible management and board of directors; * commissioning new works by innovative choreographers; * presenting traditional ballets of legendary masters; * educating current and future audiences through programs for school-aged children and other performance outreach activities.History
Carolina Ballet, Inc. was founded in 1984 as Raleigh Dance Theatre, Inc. by Ann Vorus, owner of the Raleigh Dance Theatre. As a student company, its purpose was to provide performance opportunities for students of the school. Over several years, both the school and the company grew in reputation and stature in its metamorphosis as Carolina Ballet Theatre, a pre-professional regional company under Ms. Vorus and her successor as Artistic Director, Mary LeGere. Performances of the company began to attract favorable notice from area dance critics. In the fall of 1993, Raleigh lawyer Ward Purrington suggested to Ms. Vorus and the Raleigh Dance Theatre board that the company aspire to professional status. Market research suggested a professional dance presence in the Triangle region was not only needed but desired as well. Robert Weiss, a former principal dancer with New York City Ballet and past artistic director of Pennsylvania Ballet, was selected in April 1997 as the founding artistic director of the new professional company, known as Carolina Ballet, Inc.Notable productions
* Handel's ''Messiah'', choreography by Robert Weiss, premiering in 1998 * Beethoven, Janáček, J. Mark Scearce ''Dancers
Dancers of the Carolina Ballet, as of July 2021:Principals
Soloists
*Sam Ainley *Taylor Ayotte *Kathleen Black *Luke Potgieter *Sokvannara Sar *McKenzie Van Oss *Lauren WolframCorps de Ballet
*Kim Cockrell *Zoe D'Astolfo *Saskia de Muinck Keizer *Mia Domini *Laurel Dorn *Heather Duncan *Nicholas Fokine *Joseph Gerhardt *Braden Hart *Anthony Hoyos *Anna Ingold *Aaron Magee *Stephen Marshall *Ayla O'Day *Sofie Rose Peetoom *SarahAnne Perel *Rachel Robinson *Deirdre Scanlon *Bilal Smith *Anne WrightReferences
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