Dance dance dance! The Ballet Centre was born in a long, narrow studio on a tiny street in El Paso, Texas in 1983. Come dance with us!
A freshly retired professional dancer, David Alejandro Duran, inherited the school from Ingeborg Heuser with only nine students. In just one year, as the school’s owner and Director, enrollment expanded by nearly three times and its first recital was offered to the public, free of charge. Created from his own vision, one of a kind handmade costumes were crafted for every girl and boy in the school
. Sets, scenery and props were designed by David and handcrafted by local artist Richard Glass. The Ballet Centre’s first recital set a standard for the school that showed its students that dreams can come to life. Recitals have maintained that level of excellence, technical focus and care for handmade beauty though out the school's thirty years. The school grew over the next decade and eventually relocated to a larger location where it thrived for another decade. After twenty five years in a growing city, rents across the city began to increase and space decreased. Eventually, in 2015, the school faced tenant rates that were nearly three times higher than they were a decade earlier. With several rent increases in just a few years and a burst pipe that flooded the studio, David made the hard decision to close the studio’s doors. Word got out to the school’s alumni and, as dancers tend to do, David’s dancers took the lead. In just three days, over a hundred dancers were connected via social media and a fundraiser was underway. The fundraiser called on dancers, their families and friends to help revive the school. “We have created this fundraiser to save the studio that taught us not only what it is to dance on a stage, but how to treat life itself as an opportunity to create our very own most beautiful and powerful dance.” It took the dancers only ten days to raise three times their goal for the teacher they said taught them “to glide through clouds, fly with fire, float through fog, grow wings to fly and dance with their dreams.” The response they received, they all knew, was a testament to incredible gifts David instilled in them. Just one month after the studio closed its doors, dancers spanning three decades gathered to pass on to David the support they had raised from the community. In addition, the dancers handed David a box filled with nearly one hundred letters from the three decades of dancers he had taught. Each letter told David, in many cases for the first time, just how far The Ballet Centre’s lessons had carried them. David’s dancers had become doctors, artists, lawyers, authors, fashion designers, teachers, musicians, architects, community leaders, mothers and, in so many cases, many wrote to him as dancers still. The Ballet Centre is more than a school for classical dance. Any person who enters the studio leaves smiling for whatever beauty they discovered in themselves that day. It is a magic place that teaches all the true reach of their dreams and the limitless nature of life’s dance.
05/22/2020
We would like to thank our beautiful Michelle, whose family created the David A. Duran Memorial Fund yesterday through the El Paso Community Foundation.
If you wish to honor his life and commitment to dance in El Paso, you may make a contribution to the fund at www.epcf.org. David would be proud to know that his legacy in dance, education and artistry lives on.
Thank you all for your love and embrace in these last days. David's beauty lives in us all.
05/19/2020
Good afternoon, Ballet Centre family.
Please join the Ballet Centre's family of alumni on Thursday May 21, 2020 at 2 pm at 4026 N Mesa St, El Paso, TX 79902 for a confetti-filled balloon parade to honor the love that David gave us all. For those of us lucky enough to have been a part of his recitals, dancing with confetti in your eyes and dodging balloons 🎉🎊🩰, we know that it would fill his heart if we sprinkled every place he touched with color and joy.
Please arrive with your cars decorated as colorfully and brightly as possible. Make signs, write on your windows, float balloons and have confetti ready. Please wear your most colorful attire. If you're not able to get confetti or decorations, please arrive at 1:30pm and we'll have a little bit of extra color to share with you.
05/18/2020
Good morning, Ballet Centre community. It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of David's passing.
Hundreds of dancers are grieving the loss of our beloved teacher who gave each of us so much. David's heart was generous beyond measure and so many dancers are blessed to forever carry the lessons he shared with us in dance and in life.
Among the many lessons he shared with his dancers and their families, his greatest lesson was that it is possible to dance our way to beauty in every second of our lives and no dream is ever out of our reach. We will all miss him every day.
There is no doubt that David is dancing above us all today, his laughter and his light booming in the heavens.
12/02/2017
Adult ballet class for beginners and the rusty and retired starts at 10:30 today! Drop in for $15 and discover your love for dance!
Children's beginner at noon and Advanced Ballet to follow at 1pm!
Let's dance!
09/23/2017
We're thrilled for our new advanced ladies who just started en pointe! There's no doubt this next phase of your dance journey will be challenging and so very rewarding. We thought of you all when we found this article! Enjoy and experiment to find your best foot rituals.
Happy Saturday everyone! Come dance!
Mommy and Me - 9:30am
Adult Beginner- 10:30am
Children Beginner- 12pm
Advanced- 2pm
Treat Your Feet: The Foot-Care Products Dancers Love
Every dancer has learned—probably the hard way—that healthy feet are the foundation of a productive and happy day in the studio. As dancers, our most important asset has to carry the weight (literally) of everything we do. So it's not surprising that most professional dancers have foot care down to....
09/16/2017
It's Saturday! Let's dance!
Mommy and Me: 9:30am
Adult Beginner: 10:30am
Children Beginner: 12:00pm
Advanced: 2:00pm
❤
09/09/2017
Happy Saturday! We're thrilled to announce that we've added a new Mommy and Me (dad's and caregivers are welcome too! 💛) class on Saturdays at 9:30, beginning today! The class is geared toward children ages 3-4.
Drop in and try classes FREE during Fall Registration this weekend only!
Also happening today:
Adult Beginner Class @ 10:30am
Beginner Class @ 12:00pm (ages 6&up)
Let's dance!
09/05/2017
Fall Registration is Open!
Come in September 5-15 to try your first class free. Registration fees will be waived for anyone who enrolls before September 15.
Classes are available for anyone ages 3 and older! Be a part of more than 30 years of dance history.
Adult classes are in swing for the summer! Geared toward nurturing a love of dance in beginners and rekindling the fire in rusty and retired dancers! Call 915-544-4348 today or drop in!
06/18/2017
Mr. Duran shared a story with our Daddy+Daughter class yesterday about the time his mother told him one of the world's best secrets: "Ballet dancers can fly...."
Happy Father's Day to these flying fathers! Thank you for helping our girls fly!
06/18/2017
Our Beginner and Intermediate classes are the perfect way to spend summer! Decades of local dance history are a phone call away! Call 915-544-4348 to register today!
06/17/2017
Daughters teaching their fathers to dance is probably one of the most special ways we could have celebrated Father's Day!
05/22/2020
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12/02/2017
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