Imagine Ballet Theatre

Imagine Ballet Theatre was created and organized in 2004, under the vision and direction of Raymond Van Mason, former Ballet West Principal Artist and nationally recognized choreographer and teacher. He wanted to create a pre-professional “youth” ballet company to afford aspiring young dancers professional training and performance experience. The Company may utilize up to sixty dancers, ages nine and up, in a regular season. IBT makes it home and is in residence at Peery’s Egyptian Theater in Ogden, Utah. The young dancers have the opportunity to work with guest instructors, dance and perform with professional guest artists, develop and dance story themed roles, and help create something really special…a family-oriented cultural activity for the greater Ogden community. In addition to the educational and promotional opportunities provided for the ballet art form, IBT hopes to discover and utilize previously untapped talents from young local artists in helping with set designs, lighting, music and more. An example, one of IBT’s company members is also a talented young painter. Her high school art class helped paint the set for our production of “Pillow Party”, which featured an enlarged version of one of her paintings. We also look for young choreographers and musicians whose work might be introduced and/or featured in our programs. An example, for our production of “Getting to Know Us” the young dancers each choose a piece of music to choreograph to, wrote and recorded their feelings of dance – the pieces were then weaved together into a ballet. Children with talent, but limited finances, are also targeted for development through IBT’s program.