Overview
Mission
Saint Paul City Ballet's (SPCB) mission is to make ballet accessible to all through extraordinary performances of beloved ballets and new works, excellent classical training, and progressive outreach.
Company
The company of Saint Paul City Ballet is a collection of professional dancers and choreographers. The technical foundation of the Company is firmly rooted in classical ballet; paying homage by staging and performing excerpts from well-known and beloved ballets. But ballet is a living tradition and all of the classics were once ground-breaking artistic experiences. In that spirit the Company actively collaborates to produce new innovative works and explores new directions for this exquisite art form.School
SPCB is continuing the tradition of ballet instruction since 1952 at the historic Grand Avenue studios. SPCB offers classes for pre-professional dancers, adults, and young children including classical ballet, and sacred arts (Judeo-Christian). Saint Paul City Ballet currently provides ballet instruction to over 500 students annually, from ages 4 to 85.Outreach
In 2007, the SPCB partnership with St. Paul's North End area schools was renamed the Bruce Larson Outreach Program in honor of its founding partner. This program continues to offer under served children ballet lessons after school in their own neighborhood. SPCB serves the broader population of St. Paul through the St. Paul Public Schools Community Education program as well as providing tickets for inner city school children to SPCB ballet performances.
Georgia Finnegan Amdahl
Executive Director
Georgia founded Saint Paul City Ballet in 1997, and during her tenure she has held the positions of executive director along with producer, school director and artistic partner.
She has simultaneously built the school of Saint Paul City Ballet and spearheaded the development of the Saint Paul City Ballet Company. Georgia has overseen the production of new repertory and full-length ballets for SPCB. She has also organized engagements in St. Petersburg, Russia with Gabriela Komleva and in Ascoli Piceno, Italy with Anna Marie Holmes.
Georgia is a creative professional with experience ranging from teaching to nonprofit management to public speaking. She has a degree in education and has taught students, elementary age through adult for the past 35 years in both ballet and French. She possesses the qualities of calm determination and tenacity.
Board of Directors
Marla Murphy-Guddal, Chair:
Executive Vice President, Lee F. Murphy Insurance Group
Patrick Murry, Vice-Chair and Treasurer:
Murry & Murry, LTD
Patti DeMay: Former Grand Avenue business owner
Patricia McDonald:
Publisher, Afton Historical Society Press
Marguerite Hattouni Spencer, Interim Secretary:
Senior researcher - The Kirwan Institute for Race & Ethnicity
ADVISORY
Ross Edwards Bruce Larson
Ana Freire Paul Quast
Lori Gleason David Regan
Mary Hele Elizabeth Sorensen
Rachel Koep Linda VanderVliet
Gabriela Komleva
Collaboration
SPCB partners creatively with music and visual arts organizations of the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota, realizing the collective power of live performance and bringing that power to a more diverse and wider audience. We create relationships with artists of other disciplines to exchange wisdom, innovation, and creative energy.
Recognition
In 2008, six Saint Paul City Ballet (SPCB) students traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia on special scholarship to study art and ballet.
In 2006, SPCB School students were invited to perform in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, under direction of Anna-Marie Holmes, Ballet Adriatico.
2005-2008, SPCB was selected by the German-American Heritage Foundation to be the beneficiary of The Emperor's Ball.
In August 2003, Gabriela Komleva, professor of St. Petersburg Conservatory, ballet mistress and coach of the Maryinsky (Kirov) Theater, honored SPCB School by officially recognizing its superior classical ballet training in the Russian style. Ms. Komleva is an honorary SPCB Board member.
The Archdiocese of Minneapolis and Saint Paul call upon the Sacred Arts program at the Saint Paul City Ballet for movement during conferences, prayer services, and Masses.
Saint Paul City Ballet currently has over 100 student, parent, and community volunteers who generously give of their time.
History
2010 marks the 58th anniversary of the historic Grand Avenue studio and our eighth year as Saint Paul City Ballet.
Key figures in establishing ballet in Minnesota were Lorant Andaházy and Anna Andrianova Andaházy who founded Andaházy Ballet in 1947. They ventured to the Midwest in 1947 after careers in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Over the years many staff members and current adult students studied under the Andaházys at the Grand Avenue studio.
Saint Paul City Ballet also has a strong legacy from St. Anthony Park School of Dance begun by Sarah Linner Quie in 1982. Our Young Dancer, Contemporary and Sacred Arts programs developed from this partnership.
Currently, SPCB is privileged to have a professional association with Gabriela Komleva, Professor, St. Petersburg Conservatory, coach and former prima ballerina of the Maryinsky Theatre(Kirov) in St. Petersburg, Russia. Ms. Komleva frequently travels to St. Paul to teach and coach the students of SPCB continuing our rich ballet lineage.
