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Manassas Ballet Theatre (MBT) is a professional American professional ballet company located in Manassas, Virginia. The mission of MBT is "to improve the quality of life in Northern Virginia by providing accessible and affordable professional ballet performances, educational outreach to the community and the highest level of training to the serious student." The Company has grown to be the largest professional performing arts organization in Northern Virginia and the second largest ballet company in Virginia. It's productions have received acclaim in the international press, including the BBC {ref} https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/20130411, NPR (ref) https://www.npr.org/2013/03/19/174753335/a-ballet-memorial-to-a-son-killed-at-war, CBS News {ref} https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-marines-story-told-through-ballet/, The Washington Post (ref) https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-marine-killed-in-iraq-memorialized-with-a-ballet-by-his-mother/2013/03/06/d2a27d18-859a-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394_story.html?utm_term=.7f1620f78d3d, USAToday and Czech TV.

History The company was founded in 1983 Leslee Gearhart as Manassas Dance Company to be a a performance outlet for the associated dance studio. In 1997, Amy Grant Wolfe became the Associate Artistic Director, charged with the mission of transforming the Company into a full professional performing organization. In, 1999, Ms. Wolfe replaced Ms. Gearhart as Artistic Director. In 2000, the Company hired its first full professional dancers; Igor Sapotko (from Belarus) and Yuri Nikitenko (from Russia) (ref) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/10/15/dance-company-takes-professional-step/f460f0d2-76a6-4888-bccf-e9956c80caee/?utm_term=.0f2d7dbfe42c. Under Ms. Wolfe's leadership the Company has grown from a $30,000 annual budget to over $1.25 million; from no dancers to the current roster of 27 professional dancers.

Artistic Director Amy Grant Wolfe was appointed Artistic Director of Manassas Ballet Theatre in 1999. The title of CEO was added in 2012. Ms. Wolfe graduated with a BFA in Theatre (minor in Dance) from Baldwin-Wallace College and earned her MFA in Dance from Southern Methodist University. At SMU she was twice received an award as the outstanding graduate student. Professionally, Ms. Wolfe danced with Dallas Ballet, Midland Ballet and the Southwest Dance Collective before moving to Virginia in 1990. Stemming from her vacations in Europe, Ms. Wolfe had the vision of an community where the arts flourished, adding to the vitality and economic force of the community as in the Italian hill-towns. Her efforts in growing MBT and in helping make the Manassas/Prince William County community into a vibrant arts destination were recognized by her receipt of the Seefeldt Arts Pioneer award in 2012.

Productions Manassas Ballet Theatre creates four productions annually and reaches an audience of over 22,000 individuals every season. The repertoire is based on classic ballets using Vaganova methodology (Nutcracker, Giselle, Swan Lake, etc) interspersed with new works choreographed by/for MBT. The Nutcracker production is annually the largest professional arts event in Northern Virginia with over 12,000 attendees. Other signature works include MBT's acclaimed "Colin: Son, Marine, Hero" which tells the story of Ms. Wolfe's son Colin who enlisted as a Marine after 9/11 and was killed in combat in Iraq and an original staging of "Carmina Burana" which has described as "kinetic" in nature. MBT is the resident ballet company of the Hylton Performing Arts Center located at George Mason University's Science/Technology campus in Prince William County.

Almost uniquely for ballet companies of its size, each MBT production is accompanied by live music. Usually this take the form of the professional musicians making up the Manassas Ballet Theatre Orchestra, led by conductor Christopher Hite.

MBT also provides on of the largest educational outreach programs in Virginia; annually providing free ballet programming to over 6,000 students of the Manassas City and Prince William County public schools.

The associated Manassas Ballet Academy provides vigorous, pre-professional ballet training to aspiring college and professional dancers. (ref)https://manassasballet.org/the-academy/