Student Achievements

While most of the country considers the Midwest, Iowa and Des Moines just ‘Fly-Over Country’, we know it’s fertile ground for hard work. In fact, the positive reinforcement and our caring faculty of former or current professional dancers at CCDC is actually an advantage over larger studios in larger cities that practice overt favoritism or a ‘sink or swim’ attitude. A beneficial student to teacher ratio at CCDC makes sure any dancer who wants to perform at their absolute best gets every chance to succeed.

To be clear, we are very selective when choosing which competitions to enter: Youth America Grand Prix and the prestigious Prix De Lausanne in Switzerland offer scholarships and apprenticeships to REAL ballet companies. These we have entered in the past. But, the annual seduction of scattershot, money-making dance conventions is NOT for us. We believe we are preparing our students for the REAL dance competition: for jobs, for apprenticeships, traineeships, scholarships to colleges and Universities, for casting in dance roles that fulfill the artistic impulse. Too often the artistry of dance and the careful nurturing of dance talent is lost in the rush for judges’ scores. We believe in the old-fashioned ethic of hard work and the old-school concept of “delayed gratification”.

Capital City Dance Center’s track record speaks for itself. In our relatively short history, our current or graduate students have gone on to:

• Professional/Apprentice/Trainee contracts with: Oklahoma City Ballet, Minnesota Ballet, Ballet Minnesota, Saint Paul City Ballet, Montgomery Ballet, Maryland Youth Ballet, Northern Ballet Theater and Omaha Theater Ballet
• Acceptances to summer intensives at: School of American Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Boston Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, etcetera
• Scholarships offered or accepted to summer intensives or full-time enrollment at: All of the above including John Cranko Baletschule, Joffrey Ballet Intensive, American Ballet Theater, Houston Ballet, Washington Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, etcetera
• Further dance training with University of Utah, North Carolina School of the Arts, Miami City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Joffrey Contemporary Intensive (New York), etcetera
• National touring company of Billy Elliott