The Workshop/Performance Program provides a balanced demonstration of classes and pieces from the current repertory, and creates a pleasant event to be shared by everyone, students and audiences alike. Beginner students have an opportunity to see the upper levels, ballet students (and parents) to see jazz and tap students, and vice versa.

Holiday Performances

Dance Conservatory is the official school of the Ballet Theatre of Dover

Since Dance Conservatory opened its doors in 1985, students have always performed repertory pieces during the school's Workshop Performances. By the 1990s, the repertory pieces had so increased that it became necessary to schedule separate performances. Thus was born the Ballet Theatre of Dover.

Officially organized in 1995 as an entity separate from Dance Conservatory, BTD often features graduates of the school in performance with current students and guest artists.

The company's annual performance of The Nutcracker (December) features students of Dance Conservatory from Intermediate Level through Pre-Professional Program. Seasonal performances in May and August have included classical ballet and contemporary productions such as Sleeping Beauty, Speedway (based on NASCAR racing), Swing Suite, Tommy (a rock-ballet), Carmen (a full-length ballet based on the Bizet opera), and Beatles Suite. Dancers for these productions are selected from the school.

Graduates who have danced with us are currently with companies such as the Dutch National Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and several Broadway touring companies.

Guest artists include Petter Jacobsson of London's Royal Ballet, Pavel Kambalov of The Russian Ballet Theatre of Delaware, Charles Askegard of the New York City Ballet, and Gennadi Savaliev of American Ballet Theatre.

Students of Dance Conservatory are encouraged to attend Ballet Theatre of Dover performances to develop an awareness of and appreciation for the different styles of dance.

The wide range of styles from classical ballet to contemporary offer a performance that will satisfy many preferences. The classical challenges of “Paquita” with music by the ballet composer Ludwig Minkus, is full of Spanish—themed melodies. The technical difficulties of the piece are heightened by Spanish motifs and flair. This is a piece performed annually at the Vaganova School in St. Petersburg, Russia, as a showcase for its graduating students. This school counts as its alumni the likes of Baryshnikov, Nureyev, Makarova, Nijinsky and George Balanchine.

Dances from “Carmina Burana” will feature the music of German composer, Carl Orff, who in the 30’s set an orchestral and choral score using poems from a medieval text of the same name. Themes of the pieces include the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joys of the return of spring together and the passion for life’s simple pleasues. It’s most famous section is “O Fortuna”

Justin Estelle, a guest from the First State Ballet Theatre, Delaware sole professional company will dance the principal role in “Paquita”. He will also dance a solo and duet with Sara Biscardi in “Carmina Burana”.

Tickets for the show are $ 10.00 for Adults and $ 8.00 for Students & Seniors.

Tickets are available at the door and at Dance Conservatory at 302‑734‑9717.

A beloved tale for all ages, The Nutcracker has been an annual Holiday classic. Many versions have been created, all focusing on a young girl, her Nutcracker doll, and the magnificent journey she takes to the Kingdom of the Sweets.

In October 1995, Gelsey Kirkland taught Master Classes at Dance Conservatory. The most celebrated American dancer of the 20th century, she had danced the role of Clara in the Baryshnikov version (this is the PBS version shown annually).

Gelsey infused the role with so much passion and meaning, interpreting Clara as more than a little girl. Behind all the fluff that had accumulated through the years, lay a story of pristine quality … a love story … an awakening … good vs evil. An old-fashioned fairy tale.

Oddly, it is a closer version to the Russian original than the “traditional” Nutcrackers we are all familiar with.

In 1892 the ballet was premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia, a collaboration of the composer Peter Ilych Tschaikovsky and the choreographer of the Imperial Ballet, Marius Petipa. Petipa wrote the libretto loosely basing it on E.T.A. Hoffman’s story “The Nutcracker and the Rat King”. It was brought to the West in 1934. Today, it is one of the world’s most endearing ballets.

To children, it is a perennial fairy tale. To the young at heart, it is a love story that is ageless in its appeal.

Trained at the Rock School, Orlando Ballet School and Houston Ballet School. He was a finalist in the Men's Division at the 2011 Youth America Grand Prix Competition in New York City. He has been offered contracts with Houston Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company. He currently dances with Ellison Ballet in NY and is training to compete at the prestigious Varna International Ballet Competition.

Photo (right): Philip Fedulov and Sara Biscardi (Clara/Sugar Plum, Nutcracker 2011) at their first rehearsal in NYC in November 2011.