Released on = October 4, 2006, 6:21 am

Press Release Author = Ballet Austin

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = Their 2006 - 2007 Season marks Ballet Austin's 50th
anniversary. As the only performing arts organization in Austin with a full time
resident company, Ballet Austin is a $4.5 million company with both an operational
reserve and a Foundation. The company has 22 full-time professional dancers on a
34-week contract. Ballet Austin was the first professional ballet company to produce
The Nutcracker in the state of Texas, and has produced this work every year since
1962 for a collective audience of over 1 million central Texans.

Press Release Body = During its 2006-2007 Season, Ballet Austin, one of the
preeminent dance companies in the United States, will celebrate 50 years of dance
productions to Central Texas audiences.

Ballet Austin is the only performing arts organization in Austin with a full time
resident company. It's a $4.5 million company, with both an operational reserve and
a Foundation. With dancers that are recruited from a 29-city audition tour, Ballet
Austin has 22 full-time professional dancers on a 34-week contract. Ballet Austin
was the first professional ballet company to produce The Nutcracker in the state of
Texas, and has produced this work every year since 1962 for a collective audience of
over 1 million central Texans.

\"Ballet Austin has a 50-year history rich with character, culture, growth and
sustainability," said Cookie Gregory Ruiz, Executive Director, Ballet Austin. "We
are proud to run the fourth largest classical ballet school in the United States and
one of the few that contributes income to the annual campaign. Our 50-year history
represents a sustainable business model in the arts that we hope sets a standard
that other organizations can follow to make a positive impact in their communities
and on the world."

Awards

●Ballet Austin is currently ranked the number one arts institution by the City
of Austin Cultural Contracts funding program.
●Austin Business Journal named Ballet Austin one of the "Top 25 Non-Profit
Organizations" for the past six years.
●Ballet Austin was awarded the Trailblazer Award by the Texas Commission on
the Arts for the most innovative program in the state and the Austin Community
Foundation's Merriweather Award for the Outstanding Project of the year.
●For the last three years, Austin American Statesman awarded Ballet Austin's
Fete with the title "Best Black Tie Event of the Year".

Ballet Austin's rich history began in 1956 when it was founded by Barbara Carson, a
soloist with the New York Civic Opera Ballet. The company's first performance was at
the City Coliseum in December of that year, with excerpts from The Nutcracker
performed with the Austin Symphony Orchestra. Nine years later, Maria Tallchief, the
famous Native American Indian ballerina paid a visit to the school accompanied by
Eugenia Orusso, Executive Director of the American School of Ballet. As a result of
their visit, Barbara Carson attends a choreographer's workshop conducted by George
Balanchine and later became a consultant to the Ford Foundation.

In 1968, the late Stanley Hall, a UT professor and dancer who had performed with the
Metropolitan Ballet of England and Les Ballet des Paris, takes the helm. In 1971,
the dance company changes its name to the Austin Civic Ballet. At this juncture,
the organization still operated as a non-profit organization managed by a volunteer
board of directors and staffed by a small group of dedicated individuals.

1973 Eugene Slavin and Alexandra Nadal become co-artistic directors. Together they
took the company from a civic organization to a professional company.

Mikhail Baryshnikov wows Austin audiences in 1981 in a sold-out performance of 'Le
Corsaire'. In 1983, the Austin Civic Ballet transitioned to a professional company,
changing its name to Ballet Austin.

In 1989, Lambros Lambrou was appointed artistic director, expanding the company from
14 to 24 dancers, recruiting from across North America and Eastern Europe. In 1995,
Stephen Mills became resident choreographer and Cookie Ruiz took the helm in 1997 as
General Manager.

In 1999, Ballet Austin produced a world premiere of Stephen Mills' choreographed
version of The Nutcracker. Also that year, Ballet Austin II, its apprentice company,
was introduced with Michelle Martin as the program's founding director. After a
nationwide search, the Board of Directors names Stephen Mills the organization's
fifth artistic director in 2000 and in 2002, Ballet Austin performs Mills'
adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

In 2004, Ballet Austin returned to the Kennedy Center to perform Mills' adaptation
of The Taming of the Shrew, which the Center commissioned. The Washington Post, in
its review of the performance, called the company, "one of the nation's best kept
ballet secrets."

This year, during the ballet company's golden 50th anniversary, Ballet Austin
received the Humanitarian Award from the Anti-Defamation League for Mills'
groundbreaking Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project, the largest collaborative
project in the company's history.

The 2006 / 2007 Season

Ballet Austin will illuminate the stage on October 27, 28 and 29 with Classic
Beauty, the third act of one of Tchaikovsky's masterpieces, The Sleeping Beauty and
George Balanchine's Serenade.

The season will continue from December 9 through 23 with The Nutcracker; February 15
through 18 with Director\'s Choice / Golden; April 6 through 8 with The Taming of the
Shrew; and May 10 through 13 with A Special Evening with Stephen Mills.

In mid-May 2007, Ballet Austin will culminate the dance company's Golden 50th
Anniversary season as they inhabit the Butler Dance Education Center located at 3rd
and San Antonio Streets. The building's 34,000 total square feet will house the
entire Ballet Austin Company including professional dancers, administrative staff
and Academy and Box Office operations.

About Ballet Austin
Ballet Austin is one of the preeminent dance companies in the United States. Under
the leadership of artistic director Stephen Mills, whose experience includes
choreography and directing both classical and contemporary ballets, Ballet Austin
has adopted a unique blend of classical dance with innovative style and movement.
Ballet Austin Academy, the Company's classical ballet school and the 4th largest
classical ballet academy in the United States, teaches students from 3-years and
older. Ballet Austin Academy rehearses and administers the twenty-three-member
professional company, which is employed thirty-four weeks a year, to dance in five
different main-stage productions under Stephen Mills\' direction.

For additional information, visit www.balletaustin.org.


Web Site = http://www.balletaustin.org

Contact Details = Media Contact:
Patti D. Hill
BlabberMouth PR for Ballet Austin
512.218.0401
patti@blabbermouthPR.com