Ballet West, Salt Lake City, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 was founded in 1963 by Glenn Walker Wallace, who served as its first president. It was called the Utah Civic Ballet company. Willam F. Christensen

Willam Christensen

Willam Farr Christensen was an American ballet dancer, choreographer and founder of the San Francisco Ballet and Ballet West in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is known for bringing the complete version of the Russian ballet The Nutcracker to the United States, as well as staging the first American...

 was its first artistic director and also established the first ballet department in an American university at the University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

 in 1951.
In 1968, the Federation of Rocky Mountain States chose the company to represent that group, and by extension, to represent the western United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Due to that choice, the group's name was changed to Ballet West. This is not to be confused with Ballet West in Taynuilt Scotland.
The Ballet West Academy is the official school of Ballet West and is located in Salt Lake City.

Artistic Directors

• Willam Christensen 1963-1978
• Bruce Marks
  Bruce Marks
  Bruce S. Marks is a former Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate.He appeared to lose a 1993 election for the 2nd senatorial district for the Pennsylvania Senate, but a federal judge declared him the winner of that election after finding that the campaign of William G. Stinson had...
  
    1978-1985
• John Hart 1985-1997

• Jonas Kage  1997-2006
• Adam Sklute 2007-

Principal Artists

• Michael Bearden
• Christiana Bennett

• Romi Beppu

• Christopher Ruud

• Sara Webb

Soloists

• Annie Breneman

• Kate Crews

• Katherine Lawrence

• Jason Linsley

Demi-soloists

• Victoria Lock

• Elizabeth McGrath

• Christopher Sellars

• Jacqueline Straughan

Artists

• Emily Adams
• Christopher Anderson
• Silver Barkes
• Katie Critchlow
• Allison DeBona
• Aidan DeYoung

• Lindsey Duerfeldt
• John Frazer
• Megan Furse
• Owen Gaj
• Whitney Huell
• David Kim

• Alexander MacFarlan
• Thomas Mattingly
• Elizabeth Murphy
• Aaron Orlowski
• Beau Pearson
• Eduardo Permuy

• Jennifer Robinson
• Josey Silva
• Kira Smith
• Heather Thackeray
• Rex Tilton
• Arolyn Williams

Ballet West II

• Elanor Bock
• Robert Goodman
• Tyler Gum

• Kathryn Hein
• Stephen King
• Gabriella Hayes Moore

• Trevor Naumann
• Henry Philofsky

• Kaleigh Schock
• Jamie Lynn Schultz