Regional Dance Company of the Week: Salt Creek Ballet, IL

Salt Creek Ballet was established in 1985 to present professional quality dance programming to west-suburban audiences, provide high-level performance opportunities for area dancers, and encourage appreciation and awareness of dance in an underserved area.

The Company's high standards and unique blend of major classical productions and artistically diverse and challenging repertory programs (including works set for the Company by both resident and guest choreographers) have brought critical acclaim, sold-out performances, and a loyal following.

The Company began as a vision of its Founder/Director Emeritus, Patricia Sigurdson. Trained at the Royal Ballet School in London and in New York City with Frederick Franklin and Robert Joffrey, Sigurdson danced professionally with American Ballet Theatre and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. As a leading Chicago-area teacher and director/founder of her own school, she trained an exceptional group of highly motivated and talented young dancers. She believed that her students would benefit from professional-level performance experience. Sigurdson also felt that the western suburbs would benefit from and support a quality, classically-trained dance company.

Sigurdson was able to assemble a nucleus of professionals and community leaders who shared her vision and had the requisite expertise and resources to begin the artistic and administrative process that would lead to the development of a strong, vibrant regional ballet company.

Sigurdson led Salt Creek Ballet for thirteen years. During her tenure the company performed a wide range of classical and contemporary works for tens of thousands of individuals while earning a national reputation for excellence in dance performance and education.

Sergey Kozadavey and Zhanna Dubrovskaya became Artistic Directors upon Sigurdson's retirement in 1998. Trained at the famed Vaganova School in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Kozadayevs danced for 20 years at the Maly Theater in St. Petersburg, performing worldwide in the leading roles of many classical and contemporary ballets. Before coming to Salt Creek Ballet, they spent seven years with the Colorado Ballet as Ballet Master and Assistant Ballet Mistress. Under the leadership of these consummate professionals, Salt Creek Ballet strives for new heights of artistic excellence.

To learn more about Salt Creek Ballet, click here

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Info courtesy of SCB. Photo Credit: Scott Lewis