History

Russian Ballet of Orlando began in 1989 as the Dance Center Ensemble, the performing company affiliated with the Royal Dance Center in Winter Springs. Select students were asked to learn choreographies and perform at local events under the direction of Beatrix de la Roche Aldana and Denise Renton. Money for costumes, the only expense at the time, was raised through small fund-raisers. Within a few years, the students in the company had improved dramatically and were performing more difficult choreographies. A junior company was established in addition to the original company to provide younger dancers with performing experience and prepare them for the senior company. In the summer of 1992, Ms. Aldana took the senior company to study dance in Paris.

By this time, the artistic directors and the company members themselves knew the company needed and deserved broader exposure and the experience of performing in a theater setting. In the fall of 1992, Ms, Aldana purchased the Royal School of Dance and acquired more dancers on a level with those in the Dance Center Ensemble. In addition, many of the Royal dancers and their parents had experience performing and producing complete ballets. In order to provide all of these young dancers with the training and opportunities they deserved, and to expose the community to the wealth of young talent in the area, the Winter Park Dance Theater was established. A board of directors was organized to decide the direction the company would take, create a corporation, and determine ways to raise funds. Winter Park Dance Theater became a pre-professional youth organization dedicated to excellence in all forms of dance. It held its inaugural performance at University High School in the winter of 1992, and in the spring of 1993 hosted the 3rd Annual Central Florida Dance Festival at Lake Eola, formerly hosted by Ballet Orlando, a former affiliate of the Royal School of Dance.

By the fall of 1993, the company had received enough support to begin rehearsing for The Nutcracker. The Winter Park Dance Theater Guild, made up of all parents of company members, was established to organize existing costumes and props, create other necessary costumes and props, and help backstage. The company successfully presented three Nutcracker performances at the Civic Theatre (two with the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra) and two free performances at Lake Eola. It has since presented the Nutcracker each year with the number of full and excerpted performances increasing to 19 in 1998.

In the spring of 1994, the board decided to change the name of the company from Winter Park Dance Theater to Russian Ballet of Orlando to give everyone in the Orlando area a sense that this company belongs to them. Russian Ballet of Orlando presented its first internationally-themed spring concert in 1994 and has continued with the concept each season.

From its inception as the Dance Center Ensemble, Orlando City Ballet grew yearly both in size and ability. Dancers from the company have been accepted into college dance programs, professional ballet companies, and prestigious ballet academies. The company continued providing its members with excellent training and performing opportunities and the dance world with well-trained artists.

In August 2003 Beatrix Aldana retired after 40 years as a dancer, choreographer, teacher and artistic director. Aldana has appointed Vadim Fedotov and Irina Depler as her successors as artistic directors of Orlando City Ballet, to carry on her vision and to take OCB to the next level as a professional dance company. Fedotov and Depler have continued the OCB legacy and raised the quality of OCB's performance season in both the quality of choreography as well as variety of ballets offered.

In 2006, Orlando City Ballet was renamed the Russian Ballet of Orlando (RBO). After increasing public confusion over the similarity of OCB's name and the Orlando Ballet company, the Board of Directors looked for a name that would distinguish this unique company. Russian Ballet of Orlando was chosen because it better reflects the company's strengths - as the preeminent source of Russian method ballet education and performance in Florida. The new name embraces Depler's and Fedotov's dream - to build a unique, innovative Russian ballet company in Orlando. Russian Ballet of Orlando fulfills that dream and celebrates the culture and heritage that have developed ballet performers that are not only technically superior, but also dramatically powerful.