OUR STORY

About Us

Founded by Noble Barker in 1985 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community based ballet school, New Haven Ballet (NHB) is the standard for classical dance training throughout Greater New Haven, Connecticut. Last year New Haven Ballet reached over 6,500 children and adults through ballet training, performances, and community programs.

NHB School

• Over 300 children and teens study classical ballet and other forms of dance at NHB School each year.
  • We offer students opportunities to learn through master classes with professional dancers and guest teachers, including Alicia Mae Holloway who danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Alejandro Ulloa who offered partnering classes, and Savannah Durham, a dancer with New York City Ballet.
• New Haven Ballet offers dance classes at five studio locations: our Audubon and Whitney studios in New Haven, studios in Bethany and Branford, and we established a new satellite studio at the Dixwell Community House “Q House” in New Haven, serving children from the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods.
• New Haven Ballet provides more than $62,000 in financial aid to NHB School students and through scholarships to DanceAIR graduates who continued their training at NHB School.

Performances

• Every year our dancers present four performances of The Nutcracker and an annual spring production at the Shubert Theatre New Haven.
• Summer residency at Choate students perform at the Paul Mellon Arts Center.
• Students perform in up to three additional community performances each year.
• All performances are professional production quality and many feature guest artists from notable companies such as New York City Ballet.
• We hire professional costume designers and provide students with costumes made by the makers that supply costumes for leading professional ballet companies around the world.
• Performances feature spectacular sets designed and constructed by the same professional set companies that work with Broadway shows.
• Many performances feature live musicians including players from Music Haven and the Neighborhood Music School who accompanied our student Company dancers at the Shubert Theatre in May 2023.
• The performance also included NHB’s School performing Coppélia, and a performance by our Shared Ability dancers, attracting an audience of approximately 1,200 people. The DanceAIR program culminated in a free performance at ACES ECA Arts Hall for 325 family members and friends.
• New Haven Ballet offered free community performances during 2022-2023, with two featuring Nutcracker excerpts in Branford and at Q House in New Haven, and a performance in June 2023 on the Branford Green featured excerpts from Coppélia. Over 850 people attended these performances.

Community Programs

• New Haven Ballet collaborated with New Haven public schools and LEAP to redesign and restart our DanceAIR program, where nearly 60 students participated in dance training from the Q House, and Edgewood, Truman, Lincoln Bassett, and John S. Martinez Schools.
• Shared Ability workshops for youth and young adult dancers with special needs are offered every spring and culminates in a performance at the Shubert Theatre.
• In addition to community performances where audience members attend for free, we donate over 260 tickets to veterans, families with children who have cancer, and families in need to our annual Nutcracker performances at the Shubert Theatre.
• 125 teens and adults participated in Open Division recreational dance classes.

Photo: ©Thomas Giroir Photography