Arts Educator Gioia Michelotti founded Kaleidoscope Dance Theatre as a performing opportunity for young children in 1978. The organization attained tax exempt status the following year. A training program was added to enhance the development of the young dancers in 1980 and a little over a decade later that performing group became known as Ballet Pensacola. In 1992, Kaleidoscope & Ballet Pensacola became one of the anchor tenants in the newly renovated Pensacola Cultural Center. In this setting K&BP has grown to become one of the major arts organizations in the area. In 2006, the Board of Directors officially adopted the name Ballet Pensacola.

In recent years Ballet Pensacola has enjoyed tremendous development with a goal of becoming a cultural cornerstone of the region. Through synergistic efforts of the Board of Directors, the newly formed Ballet Pensacola Guild, Faculty and Staff, the organization has produced critically successful performances and quality training for the students.

In 2003, Bobby Ball began his tenure as Artistic Director of Ballet Pensacola and set about communicating his vision of the future of the organization. That future included a more diverse, community based Board of Directors that could create and maintain funding initiatives that would enhance the organization. He also established a training curriculum for the school and reshaped the production values of the performing company.

In 2004, the Ballet Pensacola Guild was founded to more effectively coordinate volunteer efforts and manage special events. The Guild has proved an invaluable asset in achieving many of Ballet Pensacola’s goals.

Ballet Pensacola has a customer base of nearly 300 students for the school year. Ballet Pensacola presents four major productions each season including Pensacola’s Nutcracker, which has become a holiday tradition for many in Pensacola. Ballet Pensacola also continues to develop and maintain key collaborative partnerships with organizations such as the school systems of Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties, the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, the Choral Society of Pensacola, and the Arts Council of Northwest Florida.

Ballet Pensacola also nurtures outreach efforts to offer access to the Art of Dance to populations that might otherwise never have the opportunity. The publicly lauded Arts-in-Education Program, begun in 1988, offers many young people their first live performing arts experience and through the Dance Chance Scholarship Program, many young students are able to realize their dream of dance training.

Ballet Pensacola continues to fulfill its mission of enhancing the cultural life of the community by developing an appreciation and knowledge of the Art of Dance through excellent dance training and quality performances.