Ballet Rogue began as a place we needed ourselves.
Before Ballet Rogue, Iita and Mimi had been dancing together through independent projects in Adelaide. When those opportunities changed, we found ourselves facing a familiar question for many classically trained dancers: where do you keep dancing when the usual pathways no longer fit?
So we decided to build the space ourselves.
We did not want to create a smaller version of a traditional ballet company, or a performance attached to a dance school. We wanted to create something serious, independent, collaborative and true to the dancers we were.
That is why we called it Ballet Rogue.
After Ballet Rogue began, other dancers started finding their way to it: dancers who had trained seriously, taken different paths and were still looking for a meaningful way to perform.
Some teach. Some study. Some work in other fields. Some are returning to the stage after time away. All of them continue to carry ballet in their lives.
Ballet Rogue has grown around those artists.
It is neither a traditional ballet company nor a dance school, but a third space for classically trained dancers who want to keep performing with commitment, individuality and artistic purpose.
Through Bloom Ballet Gala and Beyond Ballet Gala, we saw that this space was not only needed by us. It was needed by others too.
Ballet Rogue continues as a place for Adelaide and South Australian ballet dancers to keep dancing seriously, creatively and on their own terms.