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Welcome To Yellowstone Ballet Company!
Incorporated in 1990, Yellowstone Ballet Company is one of the first Montana ballet companies. Artistic Director, Kathleen Rakela, started out with an original production of Cinderella including guest dancers from the Stuttgart Ballet and Joffrey Ballet. She then began annual The Nutcracker productions and gradually added classics such as Giselle, La Fille Mal Gardee, excerpts from Sleeping Beauty and original productions Hiawatha, Hansel & Gretel, Romeo & Juliet of the Rockies and Pinocchio. Dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Moscow Ballet, Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet. Paris Opera Ballet and regional companies highlighted these productions in principal roles.
Before founding YBC, Rakela performed with Sacramento Theatre Ballet and Southwest Ballet, studied music, art, theater, and design at Sacramento State University and obtained a BA degree in Media and Theater Arts from Montana State University. Her ballet training has mainly been with Marguerite Phares who was rated by Dance Teacher as one of the top US ballet instructors. She also trained at Harkness House, Joffrey Ballet and with David Howard in New York City and at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada.
Kathleen received her teacher training under Sheila Darby FISTD and at the Royal Academy of Dancing, England. She obtained a teaching credential (AIST) with the the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, London, England in the Cecchetti Method of Ballet. She has been coaching ballet dancers for over twenty years, some which have gone on to professional careers.
In 1996 Rakela was the recipient of the Montana Dance Arts Association Fellowship and in1998 the Montana Arts Council Fellowship for
the Performing Arts. Her choreography has been recognized internationally with excerpts from her original ballet Romeo & Juliet of the Rockies chosen for presentation at festivals in Amsterdam and Germany in 2000.
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