Charleston Ballet

The Charleston Ballet, the official West Virginia State Ballet, was formed in 1956 by Andre Van Damme. The Charleston Ballet's mission is to provide West Virginia with a professional ballet company that offers artistic productions designed to both entertain and educate the community while enabling its dancers to develop artistic excellence. For more than 50 years, the company has strived to enrich the culture of the state with hundreds of traditional and over 250 original works by a variety of resident and guest choreographers.

The company consists of talented local dancers that perform with many guest artists that frequent each season with the company. Annually the troope presents mixed bill shows that offer a variety of dance styles and display the versatility of our dancers and traditional classical ballets like Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia and the holiday series The Nutcracker with the WV Symphony Orchestra at the Clay Center.

The American Academy Ballet, official school of the Charleston Ballet, shares space with the company and offers the best training for both the recreational and professional-track student. Classes are offered for students as young as 4-5 years old through professional levels and are open to the public.

• The Official State Ballet of West Virginia since 1973.
• The company has enriched the cultural climate of the state for over 60 years, performing hundreds of original and trad
• The current Artistic Director, Kim Pauley, is one of the few female directors of a regional company.
• The annual holiday performance of The Nutcracker with the WV Symphony Orchestra is the only one in the state to featur
• • The company’s school, the American Academy Ballet, offers classes for both the recreational and professional-track dan

• Kim Pauley
  CEO/Artistic Director
  Phone: (304) 342-6541
  Send an Email

Located in the security building at the corner of Capitol and Virginia Streets.