Texas Ballet Theatre Tickets

In 1961, history was made when the Texas Ballet Theatre was formed, then known as the Fort Worth Ballet. Today, it is one of the nation’s most prestigious ballet companies, famous for staging some of the most memorable ballets, contemporary and classic. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, one of the most iconic places in the US, it is a professional ballet company for whose productions thousands of Texas Ballet Theatre tickets are sold each year, bought by Texan natives and people from all over the US.

Founded in 1961, the roots of what is today the Texas Ballet Theatre were laid down by Margo Dean with Fernando Schaffenburg as the co-founder. In 1985, an odd twenty five years after founding, the then Fort Worth Ballet became a ballet company, fully, and professionally. Three years later, when the Dallas Ballet stopped operating, it expanded its reach to Dallas, where it began performing The Nutcracker, America’s most loved ballet production, in collaboration with The Dallas Opera.

In Dallas, thus, the Texas Ballet Theatre has a presence. It often performs at The Music Hall alongside The Dallas Opera Orchestra. By 1994, the company was performing under the name, the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet, hand in hand with the formation of The Dallas Supporters of FWDB in Dallas. Together, the two organizations staged ballet productions with the latter handling fundraising and the ballet company staging the ballets.

In 2003, the Texas Ballet Theatre and the Dallas Supporters of the FWDB were merged to create the Texas Ballet Theater, which by then had become one of the most prominent ballet companies in the state of Texas. Today, it is based at the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall, as its home in Fort Worth. In Dallas, its home is at the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House. 

Over the course of its long and rich history, the company has seen several iconic artistic directors. The first artistic director and founder was Margo Dean herself, who held the post for four good years. In 1964, Fernando Schaffenburg took on that role, going on to artistically lead the ballet company until 1982. Anthony Salatino stepped in as the artistic director for three years until 1985. From 1985 to 1987, two artistic directors led the company; Nanette Glushak, assisted by Michel Rahn.

In 1987, Paul Mejia became the ballet’s artistic director and held this post until 1998, leading the ballet company to even more prestige in Texas and the US. For the next three years, Ben Houk was the company’s artistic director with Bruce Marks stepping in between 2001 and 2002 as the interim leader of the ballet, added to being the artistic advisor, and assisted by Bruce Simpson, the ballet master-in-chief.

During the ballet’s transition phase, from 2002 to 2003, when it merged with its Dallas corporation, Ben Stevenson as the artistic advisor and Tim O’Keefe as the ballet master led the company through a challenging time period.  Ben Stevenson went on to become the company’s artistic director and is its current artistic director. During his tenure, he has transformed the ballet company into a nationally and internationally renowned outfit, famous all over the world for the ballet productions it stages.

Today, the ballet is home to forty two amazing dancers and runs two academies that teach over three hundred and sixty students. It also runs two outreach programs; the City Dance program which teaches ballet, free, to elementary school students and the Texas Ballet Theatre Student Matinee Program that shows twenty thousand students in Texas a performance of The Nutcracker, for free. Thus, it is a company whose performances are a must see, so order your Texas Ballet Theatre tickets now.