The Alexandra Ballet is a pre-professional ballet company in St. Louis, Missouri, founded in 1949, that cultivates top dance talent.[1] The company regularly performs classical ballets including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pas de Quatre, Les Sylphides, and an annual performance of The Nutcracker. Many guest choreographers have worked with Alexandra Ballet including Marek Cholewa, Petrus Bosman, and Kennet Oberly.
In 1949, Alexandra Zaharias first opened the Alexandra School of Ballet at Olive and Boyle in the city of Saint Louis. Prior to 1949, there were few ballet schools or ballet teachers in St. Louis.[2] Alexandra Zaharias decided to go to New York to study under George Balanchine after seeing legendary ballerina Alexandra Danilova dance Swan Lake at the Kiel Opera House. When she returned to St. Louis, she opened the Alexandra School of Ballet.
As a pre-professional ballet school, Alexandra Ballet focuses exclusively on classical ballet. Established in 1949, Alexandra Ballet is the only St. Louis ballet school to continually provide pre-professional ballet training in Vaganova (Russian), Paris Opera (French), Enrico Cecchetti (Italian), Balanchine (American), Bournonville (Danish) ballet techniques. Dance classes range from creative dance and pre-ballet for young dancers just starting out to technical training in academic ballet, pointe work, variations, pas de deux, character, modern, and men’s classes, all designed for the serious ballet dancer. All of the school's faculty has been selected with great care and is led by Alexandra Zaharias.
The company is an early member of Regional Dance America (RDA), achieving RDA's highest ranking of "Honor Company" status, and has been host to the Mid-States Regional Dance America Festival.[3] Currently, the company has over 30 dancers that regularly win scholarships and awards each year.[4] The company performs at the Purser Center of Logan University in Chesterfield, Missouri, as well as at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center of University of Missouri-St. Louis in Saint Louis, Missouri. Its repertoire consists of both classical and contemporary pieces, as well as its annual December performance of The Nutcracker.
