History

Joan Albright and Susan Alessi established The Huntington Center for Performing Arts (“The Center”) in 2005 to offer Long Island a conservatory environment in which to learn & experience the performing arts, without having to travel to NYC! First they established the Huntington Ballet Academy to support the ambitious work of Long Island Ballet Theatre (LIBT) formerly known as Huntington Ballet Theatre; the organization where they had forged their friendship some 5 years prior.

Huntington Ballet Theatre was founded by Jan Hanniford Goetz, who  envisioned  a chamber sized ballet company comprised of professional dancers and students dancers capable of dancing with noted professionals. Ms. Goetz, a gifted choreographer, created the company’s first production -The Nutcracker which was heralded by Newsday as one of the best in the area  and which the company still performs to this day. In recent years the company has been led by various ballet professionals including, Anthony Jones (a protege of Ms. Goetz), Angela Whitehill (founder of Burklyn Ballet Theatre) and at present Christopher Fleming, formerly of New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater, now a sought after choreographer and professor of dance at Goucher College in Baltimore. Mr. Fleming, like his teacher and mentor George Balanchine, is creating original work  for LIBT that includes modern, contemporary and classical styles. 

During the past decade the company’s repetoire has grown to include classical productions of Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and in 2008 a new Nutcracker. It has also performed original, contemporary work at the Long Island Dance Consortium’s Festival of Dance, Huntington Arts Council’s Summer Arts Festival and The Long island Ballet Competition. In 2009 LIBT presented an original Halloween Ballet – Tales from the Crypt choreographed by Christopher Fleming and in 2010 it will present an original version of Alice in Wonderland.