The Center for Dance Education offers a rich dance curriculum that often leads students to audition for Ann Brodie’s Carolina Ballet. Ann Brodie’s Carolina Ballet, the successor of the Columbia City Ballet, was established to be a pre-professional civic company, for all qualified dancers through open audition. Since its inception it has become the leading civic ballet company in the region; with extensive classical, neo-classical and contemporary repertory.
As a community based civic company, Carolina Ballet, gives opportunities for performance and dance training to those dancers either electing to embark on the first pre-professional steps toward a dance career, or to those electing to dance in the highest professional quality productions and performances as an avocation. In 1990, John Whitehead became the Executive Artistic Director, working closely with Ann Brodie to develop the company. Upon Ms. Brodie’s death in 1999, Whitehead appointed Mimi Worrell as Artistic Director.