Cleveland Ballet was founded in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

in 2014 by Gladisa Guadalupe and Michael Krasnyansky. It is the third incarnation of a Cleveland Ballet, having been preceded by establishments of the same name founded in

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

and

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

. The company has grown from 5 to 26 dancers from 11 countries and territories over its initial 5 seasons, and was one of the fastest growing professional ballet companies in the U.S. In 2017, it became a resident company of Playhouse Square.

History and growth

This incarnation of the Cleveland Ballet was founded by Gladisa Guadalupe (then artistic director) and her husband, Michael Krasnyansky (then CEO). Guadalupe is an alumna of the School of American Ballet and a former principal dancer, and Krasnyansky is a Ukrainian American businessman. In October 2015, Cleveland Ballet's inaugural season debuted with the ballet ''Past. Present. Future.'' at Playhouse Square, characterized by ''

The Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio; it is a major national newspaper. In the fall of 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily an ...

'' as a "stylistically diverse and entertaining" production. The company continued with a production of '' Coppélia'' in May 2016, described as "evidence of a company eager and able to do great things", with the dancers' performances as "mostly excellent". By its second season, 2016–2017, the ballet had grown to fourteen members. It concluded the season with a performance of ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...

'', which was reviewed as featuring "smartly-crafted, deceptively difficult, and wonderfully illustrative choreography". Cleveland Ballet became Playhouse Square's resident classical ballet company in 2017, during its third season. This designation resulted in additional marketing funds, access to more rehearsal space, and priority in scheduling. In 2017, Cleveland Ballet also reintroduced regular holiday performances of Tchaikovsky's ballet, ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

'', as a seasonal tradition in Cleveland—the first ''Nutcracker'' production by a local company at Playhouse Square since 1999. Additional performances of the season included the 1909 ballet, '' Les Sylphides'', as well as ''Alice'', a new ballet based on

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

's book '' Alice in Wonderland''. In the fourth season, 2018–2019, the company increased to 20 professional dancers. In addition to ''The Nutcracker'', Cleveland Ballet presented ''Fall Collection'' and ''Coppélia'' as main stage productions at Playhouse Square. In its fifth season, 2019–2020, the ballet grew to 25 dancers, performing '' Carmen'' at the Ohio Theatre in October and offering 12 performances of ''The Nutcracker'' at the Hanna Theatre in December. The season was cut short by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in spring 2020, requiring the cancellation of the company's planned performance of

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's '' The Magic Flute''. Gladisa Guadalupe and Michael Krasnyansky were suspended in November 2023 following “serious workplace allegations” made by employees to the Ballet's Board of Directors. A week later, Michael Krasnyansky resigned. In early January 2024, the Cleveland Ballet ceased its affiliation with the Cleveland School of Dance which was started by then-artistic director Guadalupe. An additional investigation ordered by the Board of Directors found Guadalupe and Krasnyansky to have committed financial improprieties, practiced nepotism in personnel matters, and committed sexual harassment. Guadalupe was fired from her position of Artistic Director on January 10, 2024. Guadalupe and Krasnyansky have denied the allegations. In January of 2024, the Cleveland Ballet Board of Directors appointed Timour Bourtasenkov as new Artistic Director. In April 2024, the Cleveland Ballet Board of Directors Appointed Larry Goodman President and Chief Executive Officer.

References

{{authority control Ballet companies in the United States Ballet schools in the United States 2014 establishments in Ohio Culture of Cleveland Performing groups established in 2014 Dance companies in the United States