Our performance story began on March 16, 1952 as Bonnie Dance danced Fokine’s The Dying Swan for our first audience. As dance writer George Hubbard wrote about the experience, “There was one swan and one cello; it was The Dying Swan. It could have easily turned into a wild goose chase or a dead duck, but it was the first public performance by the Louisville Ballet, on March 16, 1952. That was the beginning of the company founded and nurtured by Nancy S. Dysart, Thomas L. Jordan, and William Habich…”
The perfectly named Bonnie Dance went on to become Bonnie Thornton, a committed supporter of Louisville Ballet and the wider Louisville arts community.