Who We Are
Mission: To promote quality arts education and fostering community engagement through dance.
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.
Our goal is to provide both professional and educational opportunities, supporting underprivileged children and developing young talent in the dance world.
What We Do
Since its inception, the Asheville Ballet has produced both cutting edge interdisciplinary work and full length major work. We have collaborated with other local art agencies (the Asheville Symphony, Asheville Bravo Concerts, Asheville Community Theater, Asheville Lyric Opera), and have worked live with the areas major musical, poetic and visual artists
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.
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.
