Kansas City Ballet Informations

The Kansas City Ballet (KCB) is an American professional ballet company based in Kansas City, Missouri. The company was founded in 1957 by Russian expatriate Tatiana Dokoudovska. The KCB presents five major performances each season to include an annual production of The Nutcracker. In the 2016–2017 season, KCB grew to an all-time high with 30 company dancers, 15 second company dancers, 64 full-time and part-time staff, and a network of over 400 local volunteers. The KCB, its school, and its staff are all housed in, operate from, and rehearse at the Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity, a renovated, seven-studio, office, and rehearsal facility in Kansas City, Missouri, that opened in August 2011. The company performs at and is the resident ballet company at the nearby Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, a performance venue in downtown Kansas City that opened in September 2011.

In 1957, Tatiana Dokoudovska founded the Kansas City Ballet (KCB) at the Carriage House next to the old brick Conservatory building (the old Grant Hall). On April 30, 1957, the company gave its premiere performance at the Victoria Theater (now the Lyric Theatre) with Dokoudovska serving as its first artistic director. The program included two ballets: Michel Fokine’s original Les Sylphides, and Ruse d’Amour, an adaptation by Dokoudovska of Fokine's The Toys. In December 1957, the Kansas City Ballet Company became a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization with a board of directors, business manager, and musical director.

In the 1958–1959 season, the company name changed to the Kansas City Civic Ballet.

In 1963, the company moved to a small place on 45th street near the Nelson Atkins Museum.

In 1966, guest artist Nathalie Krassovska came to Kansas City to set Anton Dolin’s restaging of Pas de Quatre on the company.

In 1967, Dokoudovska brought Shirley Weaver, a Kansas City native and former dancer with the Metropolitan Opera and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, to the KCB. Weaver danced major roles with KCB, choreographed, served as (honorary) ballet mistress, and taught alongside Dokoudovska at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music for many years.

For the company’s 10th anniversary in 1967, it performed a program at the Kansas City Music Hall featuring three guest choreographers.

In 1968, the company moved to Treadway Hall on the University of Missouri–Kansas City Campus.

In April 1968, choreographer Zachary Solov began a multi-year collaboration with the KCB, coming to Kansas City to choreograph and stage two world premiere ballets with the KCB: an abstract piece set to Mozart's Symphony No. 40 and a theater ballet based on Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns. The program also included performances by New York City Ballet guest artists Edward Villella and Patricia McBride.

For the opening of the 1969–70 season, Solov returned to Kansas City to create and present three world premiere ballets with the KCB: The World I Knew (set to Massenet's Scenes Alsaciennes), Zygosis, and Divertissement. Lead roles in the first piece were danced by New York City Ballet guest artists Jacques d'Amboise and Melissa Hayden.

For the spring 1970 performance, the KCB presented the ballet Laurencia, staged by guest artists.

In 1970, the mayor of Kansas City, Ilus Winfield Davis, proclaimed a special “Civic Ballet Week". During the 1970-1971 season, the company name changed back to Kansas City Ballet.

In spring 1971, Solov returned to Kansas City to present a program titled "Ages of Innocence" with the KCB. Solov choreographed/set two additional works for the KCB: Rhapsody and Celebration. The program also included two pieces danced by New York City Ballet guest artists Jacques d'Amboise, Melissa Hayden.

In December 1972, KCB performed its first The Nutcracker.

During the 1973-74 season, the KCB moved to a former appliance store building.

In 1975, the Lyric Theatre was designated as the season performance home for the company. In 1975-1976, a fall performance was added to the annual The Nutcracker production as well as a spring production for a three-production season. The company subsequently implemented its first sale of subscription series season tickets.

In 1976, Dokoudovska stepped down as artistic director of the Ballet to devote her time to teaching as head of the ballet department at the Conservatory of Music on the University of Missouri–Kansas City campus. That same year, KCB qualified as a member of the National Endowment for the Arts Dance Touring Program.

In 1977, the company office moved to the Prescott Firehouse in Kansas City, Kansas, an upstairs room with a fire pole in the corner. In April 1977 New York City Ballet dancer Patricia McBride performed her first full-length production of Giselle with the KCB.

In January 1981, Todd Bolender, a renowned and long-time New York City Ballet (NYCB) dancer, teacher, and choreographer, accepted the artistic directorship of the Kansas City Ballet. His first year proved to be pivotal for the company with the introduction of major new works and the implementation of several major initiatives.

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