How Ballet Companies Are Drawing In New Audiences
At Atlanta Ballet’s 2024 premiere of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon, I saw something for the first time in years: Not only was the performance virtually sold out, but the audience was buzzing with energy. Attendees dressed in black and white in tribute to Chanel, sipping signature cocktails while special guest DJ Kwasi played a variety of new and old hits. This was not your typical ballet experience—it was a performance with the environment of a party, a celebration of the artwork we were all there to enjoy.
Not everyone is drawn to ballet when they’re considering entertainment options. To help with this, ballet companies are trying new strategies to entertain, engage, and educate new audiences in hopes of increasing support. “People are about creating memories and creating experiences right now,” says Tom West, Atlanta Ballet’s executive director. “Our job is to welcome people at every level and make them feel like they’re getting something valuable out of attending a ballet.”
Enhancing the audience experience can have big payoffs. West notes that Coco Chanel, which employed a variety of audience-engagement initiatives, became Atlanta Ballet’s best-attended show (excluding The Nutcracker) since 1998. Similarly, Lourdes Liz, American Ballet Theatre’s chief marketing officer, says last June’s company premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works had a larger audience than the summer season’s opening night at the Metropolitan Opera House, typically considered among the most important at the box office. Woolf Works, inspired by the writing of Virginia Woolf (who explored themes of identity and the constraints of gender roles in society), premiered in conjunction with Pride Month celebrations in New York City. According to Liz, “People really loved it not only because it was new, but because they saw themselves reflected on the stage and could celebrate that.”
New, and particularly younger, audience members seem to be responding to these efforts, not only at Atlanta Ballet and ABT, but also at New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, according to recent reports. NYCB has been consistently attracting younger crowds with initiatives like its $30 for 30 program, which offers discounted tickets for audience members under 30 years old, and ballets featuring popular musicians, like Gianna Reisen’s Play Time, with an original score by Solange Knowles. SFB had great success during its 2024 premiere of Aszure Barton’s AI-inspired Mere Mortals; the ballet not only took on a current hot topic, but the company threw a postshow dance party in the theater’s lobby. Below, administrators share how these strategies are helping to draw people in and keep them engaged.
Setting the Tone
Fatima Jones, chief marketing officer at Dance Theatre of Harlem, believes the theater experience needs to be engaging from the moment the audience walks in the door. DTH and Atlanta Ballet both regularly employ a DJ to help set the mood when patrons arrive. “People are often rushing in—they just got off work and out of the subway, and we want them to walk into the theater and feel like they can release that,” Jones says. “[The music] creates a buffer between real life and the theater and actually helps them get ready to enjoy the work.”
Part of Atlanta Ballet’s success with Coco Chanel was that the attendees felt drawn to the theme. “Atlanta is a city that loves to dress up,” West says, referencing patrons who wore Chanel pieces or a signature “little black dress” to the performances—something the company hadn’t planned but fully embraced. Atlanta Ballet dancers in black-and-white dancewear walked through the lobby selling company-branded, Chanel-themed merchandise. Display panels set up in the lobby showcased Chanel’s history and impact. “We wanted people to be able to come in, mingle, and learn something that they could then talk to their friends about,” West says.
More Than a Performance
Some companies are offering social experiences as an add-on to performances. Last summer, ABT offered a new postshow celebratory-toast series, where audience members gathered on the Met’s Grand Tier for an exclusive reception. Although events like this have been traditionally reserved for donors, ABT made tickets available to the general public. “One of the great parts about attending a performance is talking about what you just watched,” says Liz. “Guests also had a chance to hear more about the work from choreographers like Wayne McGregor, and artistic director Susan Jaffe, and also mingle with the dancers.” Each toast celebrated something different, like Herman Cornejo’s 25th anniversary at ABT or Swan Lake’s corps de ballet. “People can also meet other audience members,”says Liz. “We approached this from the perspective of building community.”
Similarly, DTH offers a Meet the Dancer experience, which allows audience members to meet company members who have just performed. “We always have a really long line for it, because it’s probably the first time a lot of people have the chance to take a picture with a Black ballerina,” Jones says.
Themed evenings can also create buzz. Atlanta Ballet and ABT both hosted Pride Nights celebrating and benefitting the LGBTQ+ community. ABT’s coincided with one of Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City outdoor silent discos, so audiences could celebrate Pride with multiple events in one night. In collaboration with its venue host, DTH hosted a Black Divine Nine Night on one of its tour stops in Virginia last season, bringing together members of Black sororities and fraternities. New this year, DTH will offer a Dance Community Night during its New York City Center season, with discounted tickets and a postshow dance party.
Social Media Reach
Alongside in-person efforts, these companies are exploring new social media strategies by partnering with dance artists and influencers. Both ABT and DTH have company members help run their accounts and provide fans with an intimate look behind the scenes. It allows younger followers to see the grittier side of #balletcore, alongside backstage laughs and gaffes. “This content gets a lot of engagement because it’s really authentic and genuine to what the dancers are experiencing,” says Liz. (ABT has found particular success on TikTok, where it has 728 thousand followers.)
ABT is also collaborating with key voices that align with the brand. For example, last season Cynthia Dragoni (@thedancelens on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube) attended a Swan Lake rehearsal and created a viral video explaining some of the intricacies of Odette/Odile’s character. “She was able to go really in depth and show her followers frame by frame what to look for,” Liz says.
For Atlanta Ballet, engaging lifestyle-content creators and other local influencers not only helped increase ticket sales, it gave potential audience members a chance to see what their experience would be like at the theater. “We had a few influencers attend Coco and post about what they were wearing, how they were getting ready, and their experience once they entered the theater, and maybe that’s something helpful for people to see before they buy a ticket themselves,” West says.
Creating Context for What’s Onstage
For many companies, providing educational materials helps give audiences greater context for the work. Alongside Coco Chanel, Atlanta Ballet produced two tracks of educational programming. The first followed the complicated historical perspective of Chanel and her connection to the Nazi party, which led the ballet to partner with the Kennesaw State University Holocaust Museum and the Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education at The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum. The second track followed Chanel’s influence on the fashion industry, for which the ballet teamed up with the Savannah College of Art and Design. “The local partnerships and resources really drew a lot of people in, and also gave them more insight into Chanel before watching the ballet,” West says. “It was really the only responsible way to present this work.”
ABT produces videos to provide context around its upcoming performances. The company’s digital series, Behind the Ballet with Elizabeth Kaye, featuring ABT’s historian, takes viewers through a detailed history of each production. The videos are about 15 minutes long and hugely popular—an episode where Kaye discusses Swan Lake has 12 thousand views. “It’s an amazing resource that we email out to ticket holders before the performance,” says Liz.
Education initiatives have always been integral to DTH’s mission. “From the beginning, education about ‘Why are we doing this?’ has always been necessary, for our local community and for the larger ballet world who were wondering ‘Can Black people do ballet?’ ” Jones says. Now, however, these initiatives are taking on new forms. Artistic director Robert Garland conducts pre-performance workshops and movement sessions when possible. Jones is also creating a new discussion series with DTH artists that asks “Why do we love ballet?” “We want people to understand the feeling of being a dancer, or the feeling of choreographing, and show our passion and dedication to this art form,” Jones says. “I think that understanding will draw people in.”
