Richmond Ballet

OUR HISTORY

Local dance enthusiasts founded Richmond Ballet in 1957 as a performance outlet for students in local dance programs. It existed for almost 20 years as a small, civic company until 1975, when the School of Richmond Ballet was founded. The School sparked the evolution from a student company to the professional company of today.

Since its early days as a civic company in the 1950s through its emergence as a professional company in 1984 to today, Richmond Ballet, The State Ballet of Virginia, has flourished as a home for the past, present, and future of dance. Richmond Ballet boasts an expansive repertory that includes 19th- and 20th-century masterpieces as well as more than 90 new ballets by contemporary choreographers from around the world. The Company made its international debut in London in 2012, followed by a tour to China in 2015, and has performed at The Joyce Theater in New York City in 2005, 2008, 2010, and, most recently, May of 2017.

In addition to the professional company, the Ballet is proud to celebrate the strength of its School of Richmond Ballet, which educates over 800 students annually, as well as its community engagement programs, including the acclaimed Minds In Motion which reaches more than 2,000 students each year in both the Commonwealth of Virginia and Israel.