Local Dance Group Invited to China

Texas Ballet Theater announced today that it has accepted an invitation to attend the prestigious China Shanghai International Arts Festival. The dance company is the the first North Texas arts group ever invited to perform at the event. The company's first Chinese performance, Cleopatra, will be televised to an audience projected to be more than 500 million people.

Performances of Western Ballet and Chinese dance, classical and pop music, opera and theatrical productions are scheduled for the festival. Arts groups participating include American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Kirov Ballet, James Galway, Andrea Bocelli, Yo-Yo Ma, and others.

The company was originally founded in 1961 as the Fort Worth Ballet. Upon the demise of the Dallas Ballet, the group changed its name to Texas Ballet Theater and began to focus on performing for the entire North Central Texas region. The ballet performs at Fort Worth's Bass Performance Hall, Dallas' Music Hall at Fair Park and the historic Majestic Theatre in downtown Dallas.