The Minnesota Ballet is a ballet company and school located in Duluth, Minnesota. Founded in 1965 by Donna Harkins and Jan Gibson as the Duluth Civic Ballet, the company has since expanded into a touring company with fourteen professional artists, who are locally based. From 1992-2007 the Artistic Executive Director of the Minnesota Ballet was Allen Fields, who retired to become Artistic Director Emirtus. Fields acquired rights to works by master choreographer's like Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, and George Balanchine. He was succeeded by Robert Gardner.
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The Minnesota Ballet was once a smaller company but expanded into an internationally touring one. The first performance was in San Salvador, El Salvador in 1995.
Before the Minnesota Ballet existed, Donna Harkin was a ballet teacher with a studio in Duluth. She saw potential in her senior dancers and a beginning to a ballet company. In the spring of 1965, she choreographed her first all-ballet performance and it was quite a success. It was so successful that in December 1965, a group of 20 ballet supporters formed a Board of Directors with Jan Gibson. The mission at first was to be an amateur performing company for advanced students, but it eventually changed to the Minnesota Ballet.
The school teaches accepts dancers as early as the age of 3. The classes range from beginner ballet all the way up, point, jazz, tap, and so on. The school also offers a Day in the Life of a Dancer, where a person can live as a true dancer, allowing them to see whether or not that is the path they want to take in life. The ballet company will even visit school or group events and hold the classes there, so that they can reach out to communities near and far.
Robert Gardner: The artistic director of the Minnesota Ballet.
In his early years, Gardner received scholarships to the North Carolina School of the Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York. He later joined the Joffrey II dancers and while touring America performed several ballets by Antony Tudor, Sir Frederick Ashton, Robert Joffrey, and Choo-San Goh. Before he was granted the role of the artistic director of the Minnesota Ballet, Gardner danced in the company in roles including Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake Act II.
Jack Bowman: The director of the Festival Orchestra.
Bowman is also the Dean of the UMD School of Fine Arts. In addition he serves as music director/organist at Pilgrim Congregational Church in Duluth. Jack Bowman is a British stage actor, who has appeared on stage in Britain for about fourteen years.
Kenneth Pogin: Production Manager and lighting design.
Pogin began his career with the Minnesota Ballet in 1997. He has worked with many celebrities, not just the Minnesota Ballet, like Toby Keith, Poison, and David Copperfield. He also helps out with the Duluth Festival Opera.
Sandra Ehle: Wardrobe designer.
Ehle joined the Minnesota Ballet team in 1998. Ehle attributes some of her talent to working under Betty Madden, the costume designer for Walt Disney Productions. She is well known for her historic costumes and tutus.
Cheryl Vander Heyden: Stage manager.
Heyden has been a part of the Minnesota Ballet Company for about four years now (2009). She has completed two technical degrees from two different Universities. Heyden has also traveled around internationally with other companies.
George Balanchine.
Balanchine is a leading contemporary choreographer, is responsible for the choreography in the show "Who Cares?”, a show in the Minnesota Ballet repertoire. George Balanchine was born in St.Petersburg, Russia in 1904. At the young age of 29, he came to the United States, where he co-founded the School of American Ballet in 1934 with an American arts patron, Lincoln Kirstein. On October 11, 1948, The New York City Ballet was founded, and Balanchine became the principal choreographer and ballet master from 1948 until his death in 1983. Balanchine revolutionized classical ballet, by Americanizing his Russian influences. The two styles blended together, and created an upbeat dance.
Antony Tudor.
Tudor, originally named William John Cook, was born in London, England on April 4, 1908. Antony Tudor changed his name after becoming Dame Marie Rambert's general assistant. In 1939 he moved from London to New York City to help Lucia Chase and Agnes de Mille establish the Ballet Theatre (the American Ballet Theater). He was resident choreographer of American Ballet Theater for ten years. Tudor choreographed with emotion of the whole body, not just with facial expressions. He also created works that were attentive to detail.
Penelope Freeh.
Freeh is a guest choreographer at the Minnesota ballet. Freeh has been a member of the James Sewell Ballet in Minneapolis for fifteen years. In 1998 Freeh received a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and also won a McKnight Fellowship for Dancers in 2003 she received a Jerome Foundation Travel Grant.
Ranges from 1965–Present (44 years of shows)
Sleeping Beauty
Suite Italienne
One Night
Three Virgins and a Devil
Apollo
Cinderella
The Nutcracker
...and many more
Amanda Abrahamson
Anna Acker
Benjamin Biswell
Igor Burlak
Suzanne Kritzberg
Laura Prather
Ryan Stokes
Kaori Takai
Reinhard von Rabenau
Yosuke Yamamoto
Suzie Baer
Nikolaus Wourms
Cinderella
The Nutcracker
Who Cares?
These are held in order to raise money for the ballet. A few that happened over the year 2008–present are:
Wine and Cheese event to raise money
• Sample dozens of wines and micro-brewed beers
• Sample food provided by six of the Northland’s finest restaurants: Nokomis, 301 Sheraton, The Boathouse, New Scenic Café, Black Water-Greysolon, Northland country club
• Silent and live auctions
• All proceeds benefit Minnesota Ballet
Celebrity Dance Challenge:February 2009
• Northland Celebs paired with Ballet Company dancers
• All types of ballroom dances shown
• Winners picked in different categories such as most elegant, most enthusiastic, best stage performance and many more.
Black and White Ball:October 2008
• Proceeds benefited Minnesota Ballet
Sugar Plum Fair: November 2008
• Student presentations
• Silent Auctions
• Proceeds benefit financial aid to qualifying students at the Minnesota Ballet School
1. "George Balanchine: 1904-1983." Biography: The George Balanchine Foundation. 2002. New York City Ballet. 12 Apr. 2009 <http://www.balanchine.org/balanchine/01/index.html>.
2. Minnesota Ballet. 12 Apr. 2009 <http://www.minnesotaballet.org>.
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