Cleveland Ballet Is Reborn

December 6, 2015

When Dennis Nahat’s Cleveland San Jose Ballet left Cleveland for Silicon Valley in 2000, northeast Ohio was left without a top-flight ballet company. Now, 15 years later, former Cleveland San Jose Ballet principal and artistic associate Gladisa Guadalupe has relaunched the troupe under the Cleveland Ballet name. “The former Cleveland Ballet was a great institution, and I am not in any way trying to replace or ride on the coattails of it,” says Guadalupe. “The city deserves to have a great resident ballet company again.”

Guadalupe says the new company will employ six dancers on nine-month contracts for its 2015–16 preview season. In October, Cleveland Ballet made its debut at Playhouse Square, and it will dance Coppélia in May. Going forward, Guadalupe plans to build the troupe to 18 dancers, and perform a mix of downsized story ballets and new contemporary work.