2019 marks 50 years since Albany Berkshire Ballet, originally known as Berkshire Civic Ballet, first emerged as a year round professional dance company. We have many exciting things in store as we celebrate this golden anniversary all year long, and beginning later this week we will be sharing 50 archival items (one each week!) from ABB’s half century of history.
📷To set the stage, the half-century story of ABB must go back even earlier than 50 years ago, to its prologue; for the Berkshire Civic Ballet that would become Albany Berkshire Ballet has its roots in the story of Miss Madeline and her Cantarella School of Dance.
Already a well known presence on local stages since age 4, she returned to the Berkshires after attending Juilliard to pass on this love… to a student body that would come to include untold thousands of children and young adults. In 1955, the school opened in Adams, and by 1957 had relocated to a subsequent home on North Street, just a block around the corner from our current home.📷
From the Cantarella School of Dance Official School of The Albany Berkshire Ballet within the next 5 years blossomed the Berkshire Ballet Guild, which would develop over the following few years into the eventual professional company that is now Albany Berkshire Ballet.
Stay tuned each week as we share more history and memories in celebration of our golden anniversary year!
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