Description
In 2010-2011, Colorado Ballet celebrates 50 years of bringing world-class quality dance to Colorado. As one of the state's oldest and most successful arts institutions, Colorado Ballet is the only organization of its size and stature to produce classical ballet.
Colorado Ballet is a nationally recognized regional dance company that was conceived as a ballet school, and founded in 1950, by Denver natives Freidann Parker and Lillian Covillo. To showcase their talented students, the life-long friends established Colorado Concert Ballet in 1960. The Company presented its very first production of The Nutcracker at the Bonfils Theater in Denver to sell-out audiences.
"Our dream, at the time," said Covillo, "was to have a company that was professional, so the dancers we were training didn’t have to go to other cities to find jobs."
By 1978, Colorado Concert Ballet employed 16 men and women, and had achieved full professional status. The board increased the annual budget to $100,000 and refined the company’s name. In doing so, Colorado Ballet was born. 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.
"It all began in our imagination and continued to grow and become reality," Parker recalled just weeks before her death in 2002.
In response to the lagging economy in Denver, Colorado Ballet looked to an emerging national trend among dance companies and entered into an alliance with Tampa Ballet. Through shared expenses, the alliance enabled the companies to develop an excellent artistic product with reduced financial risk. By 1990, Colorado Ballet achieved greater financial stability and community recognition, so the alliance was discontinued to better enable future growth of the Denver company. The decision reestablished Colorado Ballet as a resident company.
Colorado Ballet is now one of the foremost arts organizations in the region. With a company of 30 professional dancers of national and international acclaim, 17 studio company dancers, a $6.6 million operating budget, an expansive repertoire, and two locations for the Academy of Colorado Ballet, Colorado Ballet is a highly regarded ballet company.
From the beauty of classical ballets to the debut of world premieres by internationally acclaimed choreographers, the current season brings with it a rich, challenging and diverse repertoire. The exhilarating repertoire is designed to keep the company vital, while enticing audiences to explore all aspects of dance.
Like all top dance companies, Colorado Ballet is in a continuous state of evolution, forever caught on the cusp between what it just was and what it is about to become.
In the 2006-2007 season, Gil Boggs, a former American Ballet Theatre principal, began his tenure as artistic director of Colorado Ballet. Under his leadership, the company has received some of the best critical reviews in its history, and looks forward to many more exciting and inspired seasons.
The idea that was born nearly 50 years ago in the hearts of Lillian Covillo and the late Freidann Parker, continues to flourish as Colorado Ballet becomes one of the most ambitious choreographic showcases in the country.
"Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would see the day that Colorado Ballet would achieve such artistic success - not only in its production, but in the high quality of the dancers," said Covillo. "How truly great it is!"
