August 2, 2021 (Palm Beach Gardens, FL) – Ballet Palm Beach, the professional ballet company of Palm Beach County, is thrilled to announce that after not dancing together for seventeen long months, the full company will be in rehearsals at the studio beginning on August 16th. During the pandemic members of the company used their time to do things like work as instructors at the Academy, earn real estate licenses, learn other new skills, and in the case of Lily Loveland, have a new baby.
The returning company of Lily Loveland, Madeleine Miller, Danielle Glynn, Aaron Melendrez, Shannon Murray, Aurélio Guimarães, Libby Faber and Kelley Ann Mitchell will be joined by four talented dancers from across the country. Francecsa Carlo comes to Ballet Palm Beach from Erie, Pennsylvania, having completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance with a Ballet concentration at Point Park University’s Conservatory of the Performing Arts. Jay Markov began his professional career with Ballet Arizona at the age of seventeen. He continued from there to the Los Angeles Ballet. Jay joins Ballet Palm Beach from his most current position as company member and instructor with Festival Ballet of Providence in Rhode Island. Jessica Alvarez also joins the Ballet from Festival Ballet of Providence in Rhode Island. When not performing, Jessica serves as a judge for national dance competitions in addition to teaching ballet to students throughout the country. Originally from the Orlando area, Nicholas Shewfelt moved to Erie, Pennsylvania and discovered his love for dance in high school. Nicholas has completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance with a Ballet concentration at Point Park University’s Conservatory of the Performing Arts. Colleen Smith, Founding Artistic and Executive Director, is proud to welcome these four dancers to their first season of dance with Ballet Palm Beach. For more information on all the company’s dancers, please visit http://balletpalmbeach.org/the-company/dancers/.
The company is incredibly proud to perform all three of this season’s productions at The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts with all health and safety protocols in place. “We are more than thrilled to be able to bring in-person performances back in this unique period.” says Colleen Smith, the ballet’s Founding Artistic and Executive Director. “We believe the community is yearning to return to live productions.”
The productions include a debut production of Peter Pan & Tinker Bell on Thursday through Sunday, October 14 – 17, 2021 in the Rinker Playhouse, The Nutcracker performed in the grand 2,195-seat Dreyfoos Hall on Saturday, and Sunday, December 4 and 5, 2021, and Giselle in the Rinker Playhouse on Friday through Sunday, March 4 – 6, 2022. Tickets for all three Kravis Center performances will go on sale at a later date. For more information contact Company Coordinator, Ann Faber at (561) 630-8235.
Ballet Palm Beach continues their tradition of community outreach this season with special performances of Queen Esther at various venues in our community on March 16 and 17, 2022. They will then be taking the production to Croatia in June 2022 as part of their Ballet Ambassadors international outreach program.