About the Yellowstone Ballet School

Teacher/Director Kathleen Rakela has performed with Sacramento Theatre Ballet and Pacific Ballet before opening the Yellowstone Ballet School in Livingston in 1987.

She has studied music, art, theater, and design at Sacramento State University and has a degree in Media and Theater Arts from Montana State University. Her ballet training has mainly been with Marguerite Phares and David Howard. She also studied with the Martha Graham School, Harkness House and the Joffrey Ballet in New York City and at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada.

Kathleen received her teacher training under Sheila Darby FISTD. In 1982 she completed her teacher training at the Royal Academy of Dancing, London, England and obtained a teaching credential in the Cecchetti Method of Ballet. She holds an Associate Degree with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, London, England and has been teaching ballet for over twenty years.

She was the recipient of the Montana Dance Arts Association Fellowship in 1995 and the Montana Arts Council Fellowship for the Performing Arts in 1998. Her choreography has been recognized internationally and her original ballet Romeo & Juliet of the Rockies was chosen for presentation at festivals in Amsterdam and Germany in 2000.