Mission

Columbia Ballet Collaborative (CBC), founded in 2007 by five professional dancers enrolled at Columbia University, is comprised of students from all of the university’s undergraduate colleges and affiliates, some of whom are current or former professional dancers. CBC is student-run and directed and its members have danced professionally with such companies as Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ballet West, Boston Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, New York City Ballet, Miami City Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Orlando Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, and Zurich Opera Ballet. CBC holds auditions to select students to perform in semiannual performances that include works by both professional and student choreographers.

Featured in The New York Times, and appearing in Dance Magazine, TimeOut NY, and VanityFair.com, CBC is committed to enriching the arts in the Columbia community and providing a platform for the collaboration between professionals in the New York dance community and Columbia University students. Our mission is to encourage interdepartmental collaborations, cultivate performances of new works, participate in outreach programs, offer free weekly classes, and provide affordable ticket prices to our performances. Regarding CBC's focus on developing new works, The New York Times states, "New choreographic voices are rare in ballet, and the collaborative's contribution in this respect have been vast already."

CBC offers free weekly ballet classes to the Columbia University community in Barnard's Studio 1 and holds auditions at the beginning of every semester for the fall and spring performances.  

Header photo by Eduardo Patino.NYC

"Harmonic" choreographed by Claudia Schreier