Department of Dance

Students entering the ballet program at Brigham Young University will be instructed within a unique knowledge base that combines artistry, critical thinking, technical achievement and spirituality.  Our goal is to guide students in their role as artists/educators/choreographers/scholars with an awareness and sensitivity to their gifted abilities, and the impact those abilities will have because of their contributions to their community, and society in general.

Through exceptional training at all technique levels, ballet at BYU represents an environment where high academic and artistic standards allow students to be nurtured as fine artists, while also offering incredible challenges for lasting personal and artistic achievement. 

Ballet students participate regularly in performances on and off campus with BYU Theatre Ballet, our touring company, and Ballet Showcase Company, our training company.  Students have the chance to perform both traditional classical ballet as well as innovative contemporary choreography.   Other on-campus productions, including operas and orchestra collaborations, offer students additional performance opportunities to develop and refine their artistry. Student choreographed works are featured annually in department-sponsored concerts, and select works are chosen for the semi-annual American College Dance Festival.

The mission of Theatre Ballet is to foster love and appreciation for ballet, recognizing it as an artistic means of expression and communication. Striving for unequivocal excellence, Theatre Ballet seeks to be a gospel-oriented catalyst for students to achieve their highest potential. We aspire to serve, educate, and edify audiences through uplifting performances, outreach programs, and teaching opportunities.

Theatre Ballet annually tours states in the western half of the United States. On tour the company’s program includes classical excerpts from well-known ballets such as Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Raymonda, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, La Corsaire, Paquita, Coppélia, La Bayadère, Les Sylphides, and Don Quixote. Ballet in Concert and World of Dance provide opportunities for the company to perform full-length classical as well as original classical and contemporary works created by faculty and professional guest choreographers. Theatre Ballet was accepted this past year to perform works from the Antony Tutor Trust, an honor for a university ballet company. Theatre Ballet also participates and adjudicates choreographic works at the American College Dance Festival in a rotation with the university’s modern dance company to further expand the company’s experience and reputation.

For Theatre Ballet tour schedules and booking information please visit:

http://pam.byu.edu

The mission of the Ballet Showcase Company is to provide performing opportunities in a company setting, both through formal performances and lecture demonstrations, for select students who have excelled at ballet, for those who are ballet majors, and for those who are working at developing and broadening their performance skills, in possible preparation to perform with Brigham Young University’s Theatre Ballet or in the profession.