Colorado Ballet Tickets | Schedule for 2024/2025 Events

Colorado Ballet

Colorado Ballet company was founded in 1961. It currently has thirty-one professional ballet dancers from diverse backgrounds and countries. The company performs at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and the University of Denver every year.

The ballet company is associated with Colorado Ballet Orchestra and Colorado Ballet Academy, a training school for aspiring dancers. The Academy has eight top-class studios spread across Denver.

Many noteworthy professional ballet dancers and choreographers from the leading ballet companies teach the students at the academy. 

Colorado Ballet usually performs for 125,000 patrons every year and is a favorite in the region. Check out our website for more details. 

History and Founding of Colorado Ballet

Lillian Covillo, an American ballet dancer, and Freidann Parker started Colorado Concert Ballet in 1961 to create a space for their students to perform and showcase their skills.

The first show they performed was a sell-out. The company performed The Nutcracker in Denver's Bonfils Theatre. It continued to taste success and went on its first tour in 1968.

The name changed from Colorado Concert Ballet to Colorado Ballet in 1978. It had 33 performances of The Nutcracker and three other productions in 1976 and went on to become a full-fledged ballet company with eight professional dancers. 

The founding artistic director personally searched for their successor in 1987. They finally zeroed on Martin Fredmann. However, the economic conditions in Denver weren’t positive during the time. Colorado Ballet collaborated with Tampa Ballet to perform in both regions.

The teams had shows for eighteen weeks each in Denver and Tampa. They continued the collaboration for three years before calling Denver their home ground. 

Colorado Ballet continued to grow into the 1990s. The company gave its first New York performance in 1993 and pleased the audience. Two years later, the company formed Colorado Ballet II, or the Colorado Ballet’s Studio Company. 

Colorado Ballet had a new artistic director in 2006. Gil Boggs, a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, was hired for the position. 

Awards and Recognition

The company received Colorado Masterpieces Award in 2009. It performed at the Vail International Dance Festival in 2011, 2015, and 2017. 

Colorado Ballet earned more than $4 million as revenue from ticket sales in the 2016-2017 season. What’s more, The Nutcracker won the best-loved Nutcracker performance at the 10th Annual Goldstar National Nutcracker Award contest. Go through our website for additional details about the shows by Colorado Ballet.