The Asheville Ballet has a rich history of pedagogy and performance spanning over 60 years. Originally the Fletcher School of Dance, the Asheville Ballet is North Carolina's oldest non-profit regional ballet company. We thrive because we believe strongly that quality arts education and community involvement should take precedence over mass growth and competition, and because we live here year-round, we can perform monthly, weekly, daily, to help fulfill our community’s artistic needs.
In addition to promoting new work and a professional ballet company for the Western North Carolina region, Asheville Ballet offers an annual lecture series on dance appreciation, in coordination with other local dance presenters, and generates educational articles on dance history and appreciation for national publications and a wide variety of local journals. We have also built a full library of dance-related material.
Photo Credit: Rose Pillmore
Our commitment to supporting Asheville Ballet's professional adult members is evidenced by our challenging and stimulating performances, choreography, and teaching opportunities. ABG continues to nurture the careers of our advanced youth members. Dancers who have worked with ABG have performed with Alvin Ailey, Kirov Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Foth Worth Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Colorado Ballet, Hartford Ballet, Boston Ballet, Geneva Ballet, National Ballet of Cuba, and the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. ABG dancers have appeared in Broadway musicals, Hollywood films, and have won titles all the way up to Miss America. They have also been accepted at the schools of the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Juilliard, Boston Ballet, Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham (company apprenticeship), Robert Joffrey (company apprenticeship), and The Dance Conservatory at Purchase.
The Asheville Ballet has created and found funding for scholarships for advanced dancers to pursue professional work in New York and Europe, and for underprivileged children to study dance right here in Asheville. We have worked with Project Steam, MakeAWish Foundation, Helpmate, Elida Home, Presbyterian Home for Children, and local churches to locate and encourage new dancers and dance appreciators. Our Tix for Tots program makes hundreds of tickets available to introduce children to the wonders of dance.
At Asheville Ballet Guild, we have built our reputation on a belief that dance plays a vital role in the education and culture of our community. We stand by our mission.
Each year, The Asheville Ballet presents the following professional productions:
Spring Into Dance - Asheville, NC
Dirty Dancing Festival - Lake Lure, NC
Fall Into Dance - Asheville, NC
The Nutcracker - Asheville, NC