HISTORY AND MISSION

Our mission is to create, perform, teach, and promote dance as an essential and inspiring element of our community.

Nashville Ballet’s history of consistent growth and steady expansion is a credit to the dedicated artists and philanthropists who worked tirelessly to bring the art of ballet to Nashville. Those visionaries worked diligently to bring this classical art form to a city that was already well on its way to becoming a cultural hub.

Nashville Ballet officially became a professional company in 1986, but its beginnings started a decade prior:

1974: A small group of committed dancers opens Dancers Studio in the Green Hills area. Dancers Studio offers ballet and other dance classes to the public, including many Opryland USA theme park performers.

1981-1985: Six teenagers from the Dancers Studio create The Young Dancers’ Concert Group, a performance group led by Jane Fabian, a native Nashvillian who taught at Dancers Studio. The group rehearses in donated space downtown and first performs in 1981 at TPAC’s Polk Theater. After several successful productions, the Young Dancers’ Concert Group evolves into Nashville City Ballet, a regional performance group.

1986: Nashville City Ballet transitions to a professional performance company and hires its first artistic director, Dane LaFontsee.

1987: Nashville City Ballet officially changes its name to Nashville Ballet.

1989: Nashville Ballet hosts its first Ballet Ball fundraiser, originally known as Masked Ball, co-chaired by Clare Armistead and Elizabeth Nichols. Paul Vasterling is hired as a company member.

1991: Clay Jackson, Welling LaGrone, and Donnie Nichols co-chair Ballet Ball and it becomes an annual fundraiser. Nashville Ballet grows out of its space downtown and moves to a building on Sidco Drive to provide larger rehearsal studios and expand the offerings of School of Nashville Ballet. Nashville Ballet has 17 company members and begins an Outreach & Community Engagement program to bring the art of ballet into the community.

1992: Friends of Nashville Ballet is founded as the volunteer auxiliary of Nashville Ballet, planning dancer dinners, hosting special guests, and planning fundraising events for Nashville Ballet.

1998: Nashville Ballet names Paul Vasterling artistic director, after serving as Ballet Master and various other positions within the company.

1999: Nashville Ballet makes its international debut, performing in Basel, Switzerland.

2000: Nashville Ballet purchases the building at 3630 Redmon Street, in the Sylvan Heights neighborhood, where it remains. The building, a former indoor tennis facility, is renovated to meet the needs of the company and School. Thanks to generous donors, Nashville Ballet becomes the first performing arts group in the city to own its own building.

2005: Nashville Ballet embarks on its second international tour, performing in Argentina after Paul Vasterling is granted a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship.

2008: The Nutcracker is reinvented as Nashville’s Nutcracker. Set at Tennessee’s Centennial Exposition in 1898, it features new sets, costumes, Vasterling’s original choreography, and on-stage magic tricks.

2010: Nashville Ballet introduces its Professional Training Division, which concentrates on strengthening and preparing promising dancers for professional careers.

2014: Nashville Ballet launches its ELEVATE Capital Campaign, a public fundraising initiative to help expand its facilities to accommodate more programs and better serve students in Middle Tennessee and beyond. 

2015: Following a successful fundraising initiative and the largest single donation pledge in Company history, Nashville Ballet completes $5.2 million worth of expansions and updates to the Martin Center for Nashville Ballet. 

2016: Created by men for men, the School of Nashville Ballet launches a tuition-free Young Men’s Scholarship Program to encourage and create more opportunities for young men interested in the ballet profession.

2017: Nashville Ballet performs at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 

2018: Paul Vasterling celebrates 20 years as Artistic Director of Nashville Ballet with a special artistic endowment fund dedicated to growing the art form of ballet and seeking world-class and diverse dancers, choreographers, designers, and other collaborators. Former Company Dancer Christopher Stuart is appointed as the company’s first-ever resident choreographer. 

2019: Nashville Ballet is featured in The New York Times for the world premiere of Paul Vasterling’s Lucy Negro Redux. 

2020: For the first time in Company history, Nashville Ballet stages and films Nashville’s Nutcracker for television. The performance makes its televised premiere on NewsChannel 5 WTVF.

2021: Nashville Ballet receives two TELLY Awards for the broadcast premiere of Nashville’s Nutcracker. 

2022: Artistic Director Paul Vasterling wins an Emmy Award for his work on the broadcast premiere of Nashville’s Nutcracker. Company Dancer Mollie Sansone is named the Company’s first-ever female Resident Choreographer.

2023: Artistic Director Paul Vasterling retires after 25 seasons as Nashville Ballet Artistic Director. June 1, 2023, Nashville Ballet names Nick Mullikin Artistic Director and CEO, after serving as Associate Artistic Director and other positions within the organization.

TODAY: NASHVILLE BALLET IS THE LARGEST PROFESSIONAL BALLET COMPANY IN TENNESSEE.

Nashville Ballet presents a varied repertoire of classical ballet and contemporary works by noted choreographers, including original works by Artistic Director Emeritus Paul Vasterling and Artistic Director Nick Mullikin. Nashville Ballet, along with Nashville Ballet's second company (NB2), serves nearly 60,000 adults and children annually through performances and outreach, and community engagement programming. Curriculum-based outreach programs bring dance education to community centers, colleges, public libraries, and public elementary, middle, and high schools across the state. School of Nashville Ballet provides world-class instruction in ballet and other forms of dance for dancers of all ages.