Ballet West

Ballet West's mission is to entertain and excite audiences, both in our home state of Utah and beyond, by presenting great classics, historic masterpieces, and new cutting-edge creations, all at the highest standard of artistic and professional excellence. Ballet West also seeks to build future artists and audiences by providing excellent classical ballet training and by offering meaningful education and outreach programs designed to inspire a diverse audience of children and adults alike.

Each season, Ballet West presents six mainstage productions. These range from classical masterpieces to new commissions by contemporary choreographers, and additionally include one story ballet production created for children ages ten and younger. Both the main company and Ballet West II participate in touring activities, performing nationally and internationally. Furthermore, Ballet West's education and outreach programs reach more than 110,000 children, teachers, and community members annually, by providing quality arts education across the state of Utah. These programs present free-of-charge, accessible introductions to the artistry and athleticism behind the art form of ballet. Finally, Ballet West is at the forefront of shaping the next generation of dancers: The Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy serves over 900 students at four training campuses in northern Utah.

Ballet West possesses a cache of capabilities that support our mission and long-term organizational goals. This includes strong community support from major donors, foundations, government agencies, and corporations; a wealth of talent from varying backgrounds in our artistic, production, and administrative departments; and a keen focus on fiscal responsibility from season to season. All these elements work cohesively to ensure that Ballet West's presentations operate at the high caliber of excellence to which we hold ourselves as an organization.

Ballet West has grown measurably in the past decade, accomplishing much along the way - including eradicating organizational debt and launching a brand-new dance festival. With these accomplishments comes the responsibility to strategically plan for the next decade, ensuring our long-term livelihood and commitment to providing high-caliber performance to the Utah community and beyond. The organization's strategic plan for the next 5 years includes overarching artistic and financial goals that focus on sustainability, innovation, and brand awareness.

Ballet West launched a campaign for a revitalized production of The Nutcracker in September 2016 with the support of the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation. We also invited the community to play a lasting role by contributing support for this large-scale, iconic production. The Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy, experiencing significant enrollment growth over the past year, is now the training ground to over 900 pre-professional students across four campuses. Ballet West has maintained a balanced budget while working to remain debt-free; we plan to increase the organization's endowment by $2 million over the next five years, enhance our cash reserves, and cultivate increased individual and foundation support. Ballet West's new comprehensive sustainability plan will call upon the board of directors, non-board members, and leaders in the arts alike to evaluate the organization's current business model. This will establish a path to maximize revenue opportunities, thus supporting the organization's classical and innovative artistic visions. Planning sessions for this strategy have commenced.

Ballet West's National Choreographic Festival celebrates new and existing works that challenge and advance the form of ballet. As part of the inaugural festival in May 2017, Ballet West hosted four visiting ballet companies in Salt Lake City. An ongoing initiative now in 2019, our festival continues to provide a platform for artists to convene in the spirit of entrepreneurship and collaboration. Ballet West's youth education and outreach programs contribute to Utah's vibrant and energetic cultural community by providing meaningful education programs free-of-charge that reach over 110,000 students, educators, and community members annually.

Our touring endeavors continue to broaden as Ballet West has successfully sold out performances in New York City, Washington, D.C., Dallas, and Victoria, British Columbia in recent seasons. This fall, we anticipate a tour to New York City, as well as to Minneapolis (MN), Irvine (CA), Anchorage (AK), and Northridge (CA). Enhanced marketing campaigns that promote several of Ballet West's artistic pillars will unfold over the next two seasons including the 75th anniversary production of The Nutcracker, the Choreographic Festival, increased local and national promotion of the Ballet West Academy, and continuing national marketing campaigns.