Ozark Ballet Theater

ADULT CLASS SURVEY & GIVEAWAY!

OBT is growing and we need your help! If you're interested in adult dance classes, or you're currently an adult dancer and you want your voice to be heard, take our quick survey and you could win a free 10-class-pass to any of our adult offerings in the fall! Click the link below!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoWCSOypJoa3gduSzXqV031-hfGlG0YAak1aqxp750mFb7lw/viewform

Proud of this young man! Leo DeBari (11) was accepted into the junior division and is on the wait-list for the senior division (not his age group!) at the illustrious Boston Ballet Summer Intensive. He'll be training there this summer before joining us for our own Summer Intensive!

Leo has danced with OBT since our very first production and it's been a pleasure to see him grow from a level 1 little into the studious and disciplined young man you see today! We know he'll do OBT & northwest Arkansas proud this summer!

Nearly 5 years ago, during our first program in NWA - a free library summer class series - a quiet 12 year old girl walked into our studio. 4 studios later and she's still showing up. OBT's first student, Maria Dumond, is graduating from Fayetteville Public High School tonight, with many honors.

From day 1, Maria set the standard of a model student in the classroom and on the stage. Her work ethic, humility, generosity, leadership, grace and electric performance energy helped keep us inspired through the hardest struggles in the early days and still inspires us daily. She has become our most trusted teacher, our principal student dancer, and we are proud to call her our student and friend. Every professional guest artist we've ever worked with has commented on her infectious stage presence and professionalism. She is a treasure to Northwest Arkansas, Ozark Ballet Theater, her family, her students and her friends.

After receiving scholarship offers totaling over $30,000 from major university and conservatory dance degree programs across the country, Maria has elected to accept an $18,000 combined dance and academic scholarship to the university of Massachusetts at Amherst where she will dual major in Dance and Environmental Science. Any ballet company in the world would benefit from hiring her and, if she puts 1/10th of the passion into environmental studies that she puts into dance, we have no doubt she could help save the world one day.

Join us in congratulating Maria! Have any pics or memories from the last 5 years? Show us in the comments!

It would be difficult to overstate how mothers make classical ballet possible around the globe. In honor of Mothers Day, we'll give you a few examples today!

First - with our costume budget maxed out ahead of swan lake we reached out to our globe-trotting, principal ballerina Emily Bromberg and asked if she had a Odile (black swan) tutu she could find and bring with her. "Not yet, my mom can make one though."

Knowing better than to question the all-consuming power of the seasoned dance mom we left it at that. The day after Emily arrived for Swan Lake rehearsals there was a package at our door from Freda Bromberg - a perfect fit, first try, completely custom from no pattern with no fitting.

Happy mother's day!

It's been a week and we're still awestruck by the talent of these dancers! Let's go back to the lake?

This International Dance Day, Ozark Ballet Theater wishes to highlight "International". Ozark Ballet Theater is proud to welcome families and dancers from Mexico, Belgium, Cameroon, France, Germany, The Czech Republic,, Brazil, Kazakstan, Nigeria, the UK, Ireland - from India and China. From Ukraine. From Russia. Dancers from all walks of life, from many religions, who speak many languages. In the studio and onstage, these families come together - stateless - with no ancient animosities or current bloody conflicts able to deter them from their allegiance to the pursuit of beauty. We see this as the opposite of war and conflict and we hope and dream that, in some small way, the lessons our students learn from sharing the stage with one another can lead to a more peaceful and understanding future.