Carolina Ballet
| Carolina Ballet | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Name | Carolina Ballet |
| Local name | Carolina Ballet |
| Previous names |
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| Year founded | 1997 |
| Principal venue | Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts Raleigh, North Carolina United States |
| Artistic staff | |
| Artistic Director | Zalman Raffael (current) Robert Weiss (founding) |
| Ballet Master | Debra Austin, Marin Boieru, Melissa Podcasy, Pablo Javier Perez, Dameon Nagel |
| Other | |
| Formation |
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Carolina Ballet is one of America's arts organizations, programming traditional ballets and new works by contemporary choreographers. The Ballet was launched as a professional company in 1998 under the direction of Founding Artistic Director Robert Weiss. In 2019, Zalman Raffael became the Artistic Director/CEO joined by Michele Weathers as executive director. For more than 20 years, Carolina Ballet has garnered critical praise from the national and international media, staged over 100 world premiere ballets, and in 2018, chartered the School of Carolina Ballet. Since its inaugural season in 1998, Carolina Ballet and this community have accomplished something remarkable. The company has grown from a budget of $1.2 million featuring sixteen dancers and five apprentices in three programs to a $6.0 million budget featuring 38 dancers in eight programs including the holiday tradition, The Nutcracker.