Founded in 1983, Manassas Ballet Theatre (MBT) has grown from being the performing offshoot of a local dance studio into a rapidly expanding professional ballet company with an international reach. MBT is the largest professional performing arts organization based in Northern Virginia, is the second largest ballet company in Virginia and is ranked nationally as the 55th largest ballet company in terms of revenue. In 2022, the Prince William County Arts Council recognized MBT as it’s Outstanding Arts Organization.
Our mission is to improve the quality of life in Northern Virginia by providing accessible and affordable professional ballet performances, educational outreach to the community and the highest level of training to the serious student.
To accomplish this mission, MBT has three components:
MANASSAS BALLET THEATRE
Our Company consists of 25 adult, professional dancers supported by an Artistic Director, Ballet Masters and other technical and administrative personnel. Each season, we present four productions, totaling over 20 performances at the Hylton Performing Arts Center and providing Educational Outreach performances at the Hylton that serve over 6,000 area public school students. The Company dancers of MBT come from eleven different countries. Annually, over 100 dancers audition to join MBT, some travelling from as far away as China, Brazil, Japan and the Near East to do so. Each year, our Nutcracker production is the best attended professional level performing arts event in Northern Virginia. MBT provides more media coverage and name/brand awareness to our community than any other area arts/cultural/non-profit institution. MBT has been featured by many regional, national and international media outlets, including The Washington Post, CBS News Sunday Morning, BBC Radio, NPR, The Wall Street Journal-South Korea edition, Czech television, New Zealand television.
MANASSAS BALLET THEATRE ORCHESTRA
MBTO is comprised of over 50 professional musicians who provide accompaniment to MBT’s productions at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. MBT is one of the few ballet companies (and almost uniquely so for its size) to provide live musical accompaniment for each and every production which enhances the audience experience.
MANASSAS BALLET ACADEMY
MBA provides instruction in the Vaganova (Russian) ballet methodology to all levels of students, from the smallest pre-dancer to the aspiring professional or college-bound young adult. The Academy offers vigorous ballet instruction with pointe, variations, pas de deux, jazz, character, modern, lyrical, boys class, adult ballet and more. In addition to the breadth of classes offered by MBA, the Academy also has its own student performing arm, the Manassas Youth Ballet.
