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Celebrating its 74th year as an organization, The Washington Ballet grew out of the success of The Washington School of Ballet, founded and directed for years by legendary dance pioneer Mary Day. The School opened in 1944 and the Company was established in 1976 with Ms. Day’s singular vision clearly illuminated: to create a stellar institution of teaching, creating, and enlightenment through dance.
Artistic Director Julie Kent’s long-term vision is to elevate the prominence of the company as world-class ballet company in the nation’s capital by concurrently expanding the size of the company while broadening its repertoire. She has introduced into the repertoire seminal works by George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Jerome Robbins, Antony Tudor, Justin Peck, and Alexei Ratmansky while embracing the work of emerging choreographers including Clifton Brown, Gemma Bond, and Ethan Stiefel, among others. Her commitment to the development of both the dancer and the art form is fulfilled through presentation of beloved classic 19th-century ballets and landmark 20th-century works while reaffirming a commitment to commissioned works that will contribute to the evolution of ballet and its relevance in our times. TWB’s three-part mission: ensuring excellence in its professional performance company; growing the next generation of dancers through its school, professional training division, and Studio Company; and serving the community in which it resides through community engagement programs will continue to propel TWB to a more prominent place within the nation’s capital and beyond.
In addition to being an iconic ballerina, Kent has the distinction as the longest-serving dancer at American Ballet Theatre, having danced with the company for 29 years. Her extensive roles encompass the breadth of the ballet repertoire and as a muse to choreographers who created works on her. Her continued devotion to serving the art form, to promoting arts education and to using her experience to nurture, train, and develop the next generation of dancers are the tenets by which she will further elevate TWB and its Company, school, and community engagement programs and initiatives.
TWB and Day were pioneers of diversity in dance, nurturing dancers of varied backgrounds including Virginia Johnson, Artistic Director of Dance Theatre of Harlem. This tradition has continued in leading the dialogue and action in the larger dance community to incorporate dancers from diverse backgrounds into the Company. TWB has served as an exemplary company in welcoming dancers of color and their families through an integrated faculty and company. Towards this end, prior artistic director Septime Webre initiated activity for TWB@THEARC, community engagement programs housed at the Townhall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) in SE Washington, DC. The programs include The Washington School of Ballet’s Southeast Campus, the DanceDC program, and DanceDC Merit Scholarships. These programs have served over 70,000 children and thousands of adults since their inception in 1999.
Diversity in choreographers has been a fundamental tenet in the TWB artistic decisions to nurture and present choreographers with fresh interpretation of classical ballet repertoire while also presenting classical iconic choreographers and works. In a review of TWB repertoire, a combination of classics and exciting new works and themes is evident.
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