Ballet Fantastique is an American ballet theater company based in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...

. Founded in 2000, Ballet Fantastique creates and performs all-original dance theater repertoire. The company became a resident company at Eugene's

Hult Center for the Performing Arts The Hult Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts venue in Eugene, Oregon. The Hult Center is located downtown on Willamette Street between 6th & 7th Avenues, adjacent to the Graduate Eugene (previously Hilton Eugene) and Conference ...

in 2014 and tours across the US and internationally.

About

The company has been featured in ''The Washington Post'', heralded a "bold, cross-disciplinary dance company" by Dante Zuniga-West of the ''Eugene Weekly''. According to ''Portland Center Stage Reviews'', Ballet Fantastique has "made a name for itself in out-of-the-box revisions of classic story ballets" and is "not your grandmother's ''Swan Lake''." Ballet Fantastique concerts feature collaborations with live artists and musicians and other cross-disciplinary collaborators, including Hollywood combat choreographer Michelle Ladd Williams (

Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually developed into ...

and Recognized Fight Director, Society of American Fight Directors) for the world premiere of Ballet Fantastique's ''Robin Hood & Maid Marian'' in 2023. The company fields auditions from dancers across the US and internationally.

Academy of Ballet Fantastique

The Academy of Ballet Fantastique offers dance instruction for children, adults, and aspiring professional artists ages 2–24, and also offers a separate Community-based Teen/Adult Dance Program. In the Professional Training Division, dancers age 9 and up study the Vaganova Method of training in limited class sizes of 12 students or fewer. Students participate in professional performances with the company, and may audition for company positions and apprenticeships upon graduation. Academy of Ballet Fantastique coaches are experienced in the well-recognized Vaganova method of training as well as in

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

and professional performance. The Young Dancer Program at The Academy of Ballet Fantastique is for dancers age 2 and up, and follows a progressive training approach, introducing young children to creative movement, music education, and dance fundamentals. Ballet Fantastique's outreach programming includes scholarships for dancers in financial need, free tickets for youth to attend concerts, in-school integrated arts residencies, and school assembly performances.

History

Ballet Fantastique was founded in 2000 by Choreographer-Producers and mother-daughter team Donna Marisa and Hannah Bontrager. Ballet Fantastique became an Oregon

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

in 2003 and earned 501(c)(3) non-profit status in 2006. The organization was established to bring dance training, performance opportunities and performances to the Lane County area. The company's first performance at the Hult Center was ''Danse Renaissance'' in June 2003. On October 30, 2010, Ballet Fantastique opened its highly visible City Center for Dance at 960 Oak Street, funded largely by a grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust. It was nominated for a regional Emmy Award in 2023. Since 2003, the company has presented all-original contemporary ballet productions each season at the

. Ballet Fantastique also tours, and has performed at the internationally recognized

Oregon Shakespeare Festival The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is a regional Repertory, repertory theatre in Ashland, Oregon, United States, founded in 1935 by Angus L. Bowmer. The Festival now offers matinee and evening performances of a wide range of classic and conte ...

Ashland, Oregon Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. It lies along Interstate 5 in Oregon, Interstate 5 approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of the California border and near the south end of the Rogue Valley. The city's population w ...

, at the Lincoln Performance Hall in downtown

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, and across the NW and internationally.

Company repertoire

Ballet Fantastique performs all-original repertoire created in house in collaboration with a wide range of multi-disciplinary artistic collaborators. Selected list of new works created and premiered by Donna and Hannah Bontrager, Resident Choreographer-Producers for Ballet Fantastique:

External links

Ballet Fantastique Ballet Fantastique Official Website

References

{{authority control Dance schools in the United States Fantastique, Ballet Dance in Oregon Culture of Eugene, Oregon 2000 establishments in Oregon Performing groups established in 2000