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 Ketchikan
Theatre Ballet's beginnings trace back to the fall of 1961 when Virginia Klepser,
a college graduate with a business degree and a graduate of the Novikoff School
of Ballet, was in need of a Ketchikan career. She founded Virginia's School of
Ballet with 35 paying students, and a mission to "teach more than dance…to
balance recreational dance with serious dance study". She successfully founded
a school that continues to teach dance, discipline, organizational skills and
positive self-image.
In
1968 Mrs. Klepser recognized the need for her advanced students to have more performing
opportunities. Ketchikan Theatre Ballet, a non-profit performing company, was
formed with Mrs. Klepser as Artistic Director and a Board of Directors to oversee
operations and raising funds to support the company.
Upon
her retirement in 1980, Mrs. Klepser sold the dance school to the non-profit Board
of Directors therein becoming Ketchikan Theatre Ballet. 1984
saw the studio struggling financially and trying to find an Artistic Director
with a dedication to the original mission of KTB and the community of Ketchikan.
The Board of Directors eventually hired former student Marguerite Auger, who had
trained in New York City and received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance from Cornish
College of the Arts. As the new Artistic Director, Auger brought her enthusiasm
and dedication back to her hometown and to Ketchikan Theatre Ballet. With
Auger's dedication and guidance over the last two decades, Ketchikan Theatre Ballet
has grown to three dance studios, over 225 students, four instructors, a business
manager, a development director and an office assistant. The dance faculty teaches
creative movement, ballet, jazz and tap to students of all ages, six days a week,
with an average of 100 students taking class each day.  At
current, KTB can boast that it employs three alumni. We have also had former students
choreograph performance pieces or give workshops for current students. We are
proud to be able to provide an environment where our dancers can return to their
hometown and share their talents with our students.
Aside
from making great strides in its classrooms, KTB works
closely with other community arts organizations and dance schools in Southeast
Alaska. KTB, the Ketchikan
Area Arts and Humanities Council and First
City Players are dedicated to seeing an arts center housing all three organizations,
enabling them to share space and resources. KAAHC and KTB work closely to bring
professional dance companies to Ketchikan to perform and give master classes to
dancers in the community.  As
a part of the community wide Festival of the North
each February, An Evening of Dance features our performance company dancers and
has included dance companies from other southeast communities. Our annual Spring
Gala performance in May showcases all of our school's dancers, ages 4 through
18, giving each KTB dancer a chance to shine. Our most popular performance is
our presentation of the Christmas classic The Nutcracker,
performed each December featuring our mid- to upper-level dancers and members
of the community.
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