Ballet San Jose

What happened?   The San Jose Cleveland Ballet, founded in 1985, was the San Jose half of a two-city co-venture. The Cleveland-based company performed in both cities during the season: as the Cleveland San Jose Ballet in Cleveland, and as the San Jose Cleveland Ballet in San Jose. Both cities had full-time administrative staff members, trustees and independent financial and support organizations. The dancers and artistic staff lived and rehearsed in Cleveland, traveling to San Jose for performances.

On September 7, 2000 the Cleveland Ballet board of trustees suspended operations and cancelled Cleveland's 25th anniversary season. The next day the separate San Jose Cleveland Ballet organization's board of directors announced unanimous support to investigate a plan to create a new ballet company based in San Jose - Silicon Valley. They decided they could rescue the season by raising $2 million in addition to their present $4.5 million annual budget then reached agreement with many of the dancers to become the core of a one-city company based in San Jose.

The formation of this new company was announced September 15, 2000. Dennis Nahat, co-founder and director of the late Cleveland San Jose Ballet and founding artistic director of the San Jose co-venture with Cleveland, is Ballet San Jose's artistic director. More than half of the former company's 40 dancers joined the new company for its first season and new dancers have joined the company since.