Ballet Ariel School

The Ballet Ariel School offers excellence in classical ballet training for children age 5 and up. The student curriculum is based on the teachings of the Italian master Enrico Cecchetti. Cecchetti was a great teacher who lived from 1850-1928. His most famous student was Anna Pavlova, but he trained many great dancers in Russia, and later when he was the ballet master of the Ballet Russes, and in his studio in London. In London he trained Margaret Craske who became the ballet mistress for American Ballet Theatre in 1947. She was influential in preserving and teaching Cecchetti technique in the United States. Larry Boyette arrived in Denver from American Ballet Theatre in 1959 to direct the Ballet Arts Center. Mr. Boyette studied Cecchetti technique with Margaret Craske and continued the Cecchetti legacy in Denver for 45 years. The Ballet Ariel school director Ilena Norton and many of the faculty studied with Mr. Boyette and is preserving the Cecchetti legacy for new generations of students.

The faculty at the Ballet Ariel School set high standards for the quality of the training and advancement in the curriculum to the professional level. Our school encourages students of diverse backgrounds and interests to study ballet. We believe that students benefit in their physical, artistic, and intellectual development from the discipline of the ballet art. We also provide opportunities for performance so students may experience the excitement of the theatre. Students perform in the Nutcracker and the annual school recital. Advanced students may dance in the performing company.

Ballet Ariel students have successfully auditioned for summer intensives at American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, San Francisco Ballet, and others.

More information about our school, classes, and schedule is available in the documents linked from the left side of this page.

Call 303-945-4388 or e-mail balletariel@comcast.net to register for classes.