Ballet Quad Cities is a ballet company

Ballet company

A ballet company is a group of dancers who perform ballet, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-round basis, except in the United States, where contracts for part of the year are the norm...

 located in Rock Island, Illinois

Rock Island, Illinois

Rock Island is the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The population was 40,884 at the 2010 census. Located on the Mississippi River, it is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring Moline, East Moline, and the Iowa cities of Davenport and Bettendorf. The Quad Cities...

. It was begun in 1996 by Joedy Cook. Its primary performance venues has been the Capitol Theater

Kahl Building

The Kahl Building, also known as Kahl Building and Capitol Theatre is a building located in Downtown Davenport, Iowa, USA, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building is ten-stories tall and constructed with a steel frame. Louis Sullivan’s Wainwright Building, in St. Louis,...

 and the Adler Theater

Hotel Mississippi-RKO Orpheum Theater

The Hotel Mississippi-RKO Orpheum Theater is located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Hotel Mississippi was listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in 2005...

, both in Davenport, Iowa

Davenport, Iowa

Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...

. However, the company performs both classical and contemporary dance in the greater Quad Cities

Quad Cities

The Quad Cities is a group of five cities straddling the Mississippi River on the Iowa–Illinois boundary. These cities, Davenport and Bettendorf and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline , are the center of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area, which, as of 2010, had an estimated population of...

 region of Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 and Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

.

At the time of its founding the company had one paid dancer. By 2010 the number of dancers who form the company grew to twelve dancers. The original artistic director was Johanne Jakhelln, who left the company in 2006 to return to her native Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

.

In April 2010 the company performed for the first time in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theatre. The ballet’s choreographer, Deanna Carter, had been one of five choreographers to present their work at the annual Ballet Builders.

Dancers

The dancers of Ballet Quad Cities, as of November, 2011:

• Nancy Cole
• Jason Gomez
• Kelsee Green
• Margaret Huling
• Jackie Jensen
• Emily Kate Long
• Jacob Lyon
• Phillip Ollenburg
• Katie Rideout
• Calvin James Rowe
• Jill Schwartz

Ballet Quad Cities School of Dance

Ballet Quad Cities supports its own school of dance, which is also located in Rock Island. The schools philosophy is based on the principles of the Vaganova method

Vaganova method

The Vaganova method is a ballet technique and training system devised by the Russian dancer and pedagogue Agrippina Vaganova . Fusing elements of traditional French technique from the romantic era, with the athleticism and virtuosity of the Italian school, the method is designed to work the body...

 from Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. Beside classical ballet, the school also teaches: creative movement, pointe, jazz, hip-hop, conditioning, yoga, tap, rhythm tap and adult ballet.

External links