New Ballet West Academy Housing Filled With Pre-Professional and Trainee Students

For the first time in Ballet West Academy history, students have settled into new housing options. Nearly fifty pre-professional and trainee students have taken advantage of the newly-opened apartment complex in downtown Salt Lake City. The 28-unit apartment complex is dedicated to the Ballet West student community with leases running in conjunction with student sessions.

Students come from all over the county, with dancers from California, Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and more. Ballet West Academy recently received approval from the Department of State to support international students with student visas and welcomed our first international student into student housing from the Netherlands. Students in housing train at the downtown Salt Lake and Park City Campuses.

“Coming to Ballet West has been a long-standing dream,” said Isabella Guinevere, a BWA pre-professional student. “My first teachers retired from long careers at Ballet West and cultivated a love for this company from the very beginning. After attending my first Summer Intensive here, I fell in love with the culture, the faculty, and the wider community of Salt Lake City. I very quickly knew I wanted to make it home.”

“Unfortunately, finding affordable, safe housing was impossible,” she continued. “This summer when I came, upon receiving acceptance, it was an easy decision to join Ballet West. I now get to live somewhere I know I am safe and will be supported by living with my fellow peers. Without Ballet West housing, I could not be here as a Professional Training Division student continuing to work towards my goals.”

The double-occupancy apartments are located just 1.4 miles to the Ballet Centre with easy access to bus and light rail and includes onsite resident advisors, security features, and utilities included in rent cost. Thanks to a generous donation from Incredible Dwellings, each unit is also fully-furnished. Rent for the housing is lower than the current market cost of rent in Salt Lake City, keeping with BWA’s mission to keep costs affordable for students.

Ballet West has a long history of training students to have excellent technical strength, musicality and artistry. Faculty members and instructors all have professional dancing background from large-scale dance companies. Students also have the advantage of being seen by Ballet West’s Artistic Director Adam Sklute, who is committed to hiring company dancers trained at the Academy.

“I am impressed by the level of our students and am committed to offering opportunities. In fact, 85% of the current company trained with Ballet West Academy,” said Sklute. “Under Evelyn Cisneros-Legate, I feel the level has increased further and I’m looking forward to the next chapter for these programs.”

Students in the Ballet West Academy Training program train four to five hours, six days a week, in ballet technique, pointe, variations, pas de deux, contemporary, character, flamenco, Pilates, conditioning, and seminars on health and music. In addition to Academy-exclusive performances, students have opportunities several times a year to perform with the company on Ballet West’s mainstage alongside the company and Ballet West II.

Students also get their own repertoire planned and designed by Academy Director Evelyn Cisneros-Legate in collaboration with Sklute and the Academy's renowned faculty. The training is a uniquely American syllabus that reflects the legacy of Ballet West. Students at the Ballet West Academy are immersed in a professional environment and experience, first hand, the rigors of a professional career.

For more information, visit https://www.academy.balletwest.org/professional-slc.