OBT celebrates 30 years

At 30 years, Olympic Ballet Theatre has become Snohomish County’s premier regional dance company – and has made a considerable arts presence from home in Edmonds to Bellevue’s Meydenbauer Center and Seattle’s Moore Theatre.  

Former company members, teachers, board members and theatre ”angels,” going back to the beginnings of Olympic Ballet as well as current supporters, gather for a gala reunion and celebration on Oct. 2, at the Nile Country Club for the Beaux Arts Dinner and Auction.  

It will be a grand event in celebration of a company that received its own retrospective exhibit “Moving Through Time,” in 1996 at the Edmonds Historical Museum.  

The visionary founders, John and Helen Wilkins, took over the Dorothy Fisher Concert Dancers in 1981 and renamed the company Olympic Ballet.

This evening of cocktails, dinner, and both silent and live auctions that offer vacation packages, art, theater tickets, and gourmet restaurants, also features a preview of the 2010-2011 Season, including an excerpt from a new staging of “Coppelia,” a story ballet about a clever girl who tricks a doll maker.  

The premiere of Coppelia in spring 2011 brings a well-known comedic ballet to delight audiences and challenge dancers.  

With family crowd-pleasers such as the annual full-length ballet of “The Nutcracker,” often seen Peter and the Wolf, Swan Lake - Act I I, and Giselle, OBT offers the classics for loyal patrons.  

World premieres such as John Wilkins’ The River, Helen Wilkins’ Eleutheria, and Daniel Wilkins’ Religalistic are contemporary and dramatic ballets that are important to the spectrum of dance.

Still grounded in classical ballet, the non-profit company has kept to standards of excellence that have been lauded by colleagues in Regional Dance America.  

Olympic Ballet played host to 700 dancers in master classes and performances for Regional Dance America 2003, held in Everett.  Helen Wilkins’ “Viennese Waltzes” and a work by John Wilkins set to music by Corelli were performed at Expo 86 in Vancouver, Canada.

The company performs for 10,000 people a year, including nearly 5,000 school-aged youths, starting at age 3 with creative ballet classes and auditioning at 13 for the school’s non-profit company Olympic  Ballet Theatre.  

OBT-trained dancers have gone on to study at many prestigious schools such as School of American Ballet, Boston Conservatory, New York University and Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet.

“The excitement of being a teacher is to watch how dancers can change.  Something inspires them to jump the hurdle.” said Helen Wilkins.  “You find that you’re giving kids focus, concentration, and the discipline for details they use to conquer and move on in any walk of life.”

In a humorous nod to our ecological era, this season’s theme is “ballet goes green.”

“We’re going to recycle our ballets, reduce your stress with dance, and reuse our energy,” said Helen Wilkins, recipient with her late husband of the City of Edmonds’ Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.  

Not only does this season represent growth with the premiere of Coppelia in the spring, but also represents an opportunity to look back on 30 years of accomplishments and celebrate a long and lasting legacy in the community.  

The Beaux Arts Dinner and Auction offers just that opportunity to unite old and new, celebrating the past while looking forward to a bright and “green” future of dance!  

For more information about the Beaux Arts Dinner and Auction or for information regarding Olympic Ballet Theatre’s performance season, which includes traditional performances of The Nutcracker in November and December, Carnival of the Animals in February and Coppelia in April, call 425-774-7570 or visit www.olympicballet.com.