Kansas City Ballet Adds Style To Metro Area’s Cultural Scene

With a calendar packed full of performances, its own school and even a strong outreach effort, the Kansas City Ballet delivers style and grace to this Midwestern landscape.

Created in the late 1950s, the ballet includes 25 members under the direction of William Whitener. The group performs virtually year-round with a total of three repertory seasons per year. Offering a mix of classical and modern works, the ballet company doesn’t forget the holiday favorites as it goes to great pains to bring “The Nutcracker” to the stage each winter.

Making certain Kansas City is known for the arts as well as barbecue, the professional company also puts a strong emphasis on its outreach and educational ventures, reaching a reported 20,000 area students and adults each year.

The group is dedicated to classical ballet and the development of the art within the region. Through the Kansas City Ballet School, the ballet teaches a new generation of professional dancers and also opens itself up to those who wish to pursue ballet for educational and recreational reasons. The school works out of several different campuses and provides professional dance instructors for those who are taking the courses to develop professional careers and even for those who wish to purse dance as a serious hobby. Courses in the school include pointe, jazz, modern dance, flamenco and more.

The company’s busy seasons include well-known ballet performances and lesser known choreographed pieces staged at a number of different venues throughout the Kansas City area. Some past performances have included dances choreographed to Stravinsky, Martinu and Esquivel. In addition to individual performances, the ballet offers season tickets for those who wish to paint the town red on a regular basis.

And while the professional calendar is chock full, the ballet makes it a strong priority to reach out to the Kansas City community. Whether the company is reaching out to adults who may become patrons or working to teach youngsters about the arts, the pursuit is serious business for the members of the Kansas City Ballet. Through its Ballet in the Park series, for example, the company gives entire families an opportunity to experience ballet during riveting outdoor performances in beautiful park settings.

Ballet in the Park is one of the company’s biggest, no-charge undertakings each year. It offers displays of costumes and props along with the free performances, which generally take place throughout the month of September. The free ballet series is offered to expose residents to the wonder that is ballet in locales where they can enjoy natural settings as well. Parks frequented by the troupe include Loose Park Rose Garden, Iron Woods Park in Leawood and Oak Grove Park in Gladstone. Performances generally last about an hour and attendees are encouraged to make them a family outing by bringing along picnic lunches to enjoy while they watch the shows.

Though Ballet in the Park is perhaps one of the group’s best known outreach efforts, the ballet doesn’t stop there when it comes to community education. Each year the troupe brings its talents into area schools through the Reach Out And Dance program in which a weekly dance class is taught to third and fourth grade students. Lessons are designed to include the school’s academic curriculum and run a 24-week schedule.

It takes commerce, location, industry, great schools and more to make a wonderful city, but for a locale to truly stand out the arts must be vibrant and embraced as well. In Kansas City, residents will find themselves with no shortage of places to experience the arts and the ballet is doing its part to ensure that classic performances are a strong part of the city’s landscape.

To learn more about the Kansas City Ballet, its outreach efforts and performance calendar, go online at www.kcballet.org.