Greer, South Carolina

Cara Marie Gary (center) with Amy Belknap (left) and Laynie Wolfe (right) performing in Coppelia.

International Ballet

The Company

Imagine ...a famous conductor imploring a retired ballet dancer/teacher in the Caribbean, to come back to Greenville to meet a pair of ballet prinicpals from eastern Europe....

...the conductor?  None other than Maestro Edvard Tchivzhel of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra.  The retiree building coral reefs?  Lena Jankowsky Forster, former ballet teacher and director at several Upstate ballet studios.   The pair?   Vlada Kyssleova and Hennadii Bespechnyi, principal dancers performing Russian ballet classics all over the world.

The talent and training embodied in this couple so inspired Lena that she leaves her island life to return to South Carolina to launch International Ballet (IB) and the International Ballet Academy (IBA).  Classical  Russian training and authentic choreography are the trademarks of International Ballet

International Ballet and International Ballet Academy  have been honored with awards for its dancers in international competitions, such as the Youth America Grand Prix and the Lifar Ballet Competition.  As resident company at the Peace Center, we offer masterpiece ballet performances such as Giselle, Swan Lake, Walpurgis Nacht, Don Quixote, as more, under the meticulous and passionate dedication of our Artistic Directors.

Click below for a peek at our Youtube site:

Features from our performances