Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Duell.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Daniel. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My ballerina wife Patricia Blair and I co-founded Ballet Chicago after dancing classical ballet performing careers in New York City, she with Eglevsky Ballet for eight years, and me with New York City Ballet for 15 years, (eight as a Principal male dancer). We both had a life-long love for, and deep knowledge of, the choreography of George Balanchine, having both spent our performing years dancing it onstage. When we began working together in Chicago, we discovered deep mutual identification with the art form, with Balanchine, and perhaps most of all, with the way we felt people could be guided and nurtured into outstanding artistic accomplishment. We are both teachers by nature, and felt it a calling to pursue and pass on the art form in the spirit of service to the art form itself, and to the art form’s positive contributions to humanity. Together we decided to devote ourselves to this as our life’s work.
Has it been a smooth road?
It was a roller-coaster at times finding the right niche for our artistic identity and unique offerings within the community, but since the opening of our school in 1995 our forward progress has been steady and sustained. In addition to year-round training, we now have regular performance “anchors” that shape our year consistently and provide superb stage experience for our dancers. Those performances include our annual DanceVision new choreography project in October/November, our annual eleven shows of Nutcracker in December at the Athenaeum Theatre, our annual Spring Repertory at the Harris Theater in May, our annual spring School Performance at the Studebaker or Athenaeum Theatre, and our two summer course showcases in July and August, also at the Studebaker Theater.
Another challenge was overcoming the perception that “pre-professional” means “less than professional”, but outstanding critical acclaim has consistently affirmed that our young artists provide polished, highly professional performances equal to, and even beyond, many professionals. (Read the SeeChicagoDance review of our May 6, 2017 “Platinum Anniversary Celebration” performances at the Harris Theater as an example. Go to: see chicagodance.com and click on Reviews)
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a ballet school with a pre-professional performing Studio Company. We specialize in Balanchine-based classical training and performance of his choreography. We are known first and foremost for our excellence of training, and also for the intensive individual instruction and support every dancer in our school receives. We are most proud of the artistic accomplishments of our dancers, of the diversity of our enrollees, and of seeing our dancers gain employment in professional companies around the world. What sets us apart is our “kind yet demanding” approach to training, the excellence of our performances of masterpiece repertoire every spring at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, our popular Nutcracker at the Athenaeum Theatre, the caliber of our new choreography, and the strength of our reputation in the industry (In a recent list compiled by the trade publication “A Dance Education”, we made it into the top fifteen of the world’s best summer courses, right behind the Paris Opera Ballet School.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Chicago has one of the most vibrant and diverse dance scenes anywhere. Many independent artists and small troupes find space somewhere and make a sustained go of it on small budgets, and many others grow into larger, well-established institutions. It seems that “more breeds more” in Chicago when it comes to dance. Ballet Chicago happens to be situated in the midst of a wonderful “dance corridor” stretching from Randolph Street down to 20th St., along State Street, Wabash Avenue, and Michigan Ave. This stretch harbors ballet schools and companies, modern dance troupes, tap dance, jazz, and ballroom studios, and independent choreographers. The diversity is marvelous.
The Mayor’s Department of Culture and Special Events (DCASE) has long supported and facilitated awareness of dance in its performance halls and its parks. Our annual performances for CPS children every November at the Cultural Center, sponsored by the International Music Foundation, and our participation every year in DCASE’s
annual “Dance Along Nutcracker” are examples of this.
And dance thrives in the West Loop, uptown in Andersonville, farther downtown in Hyde Park, and in the suburbs. So I would say Chicago offers a lot to those who wish to start out in dance here.
Because Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, and because neighborhoods are populated with families, a business like ours thrives here, especially when families and their children experience quality instruction.
Contact Info:
- Address: 17 N. State Street
Suite 1900, 19th floor
Chicago, IL 60602 - Website: www.balletchicago.org
- Phone: 312-251-8838
- Email: dvalente@balletchicago.org (Danny Valente, for enrollment)
- Instagram: bhurst@balletchicago.org (Brittany Hurst, for enrollment)
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BalletChicago
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/BalletChicago
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ballet-chicago-chicago
- Other: https://instagram.com/balletchicago/
Image Credit:
Photos by Ron McKinney Photography
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