Ballet West's Adam Sklute bows out after 20 years

Ballet West has spent the last two decades climbing out of a hole, and the man who did the digging is finally stepping away. Adam Sklute, the company's artistic director since March 2007, announced his retirement back in May, and the 2026-27 season will be his last. It's a long goodbye — the company's 20th anniversary season doubles as his farewell tour — so there's plenty of time to catch the work before he hands over the keys.

To understand the scale of what Sklute is leaving, it helps to know where he started. When he took over, Ballet West was in rough shape: ticket sales were sliding, the program had shrunk to only three productions a year, no new work had been created in nine years, and dancers were leaving. The Academy had fewer than 150 students, and the board was seriously considering closing it altogether while plans for new facilities sat stalled. The board gave Sklute three clear orders: strengthen the dancers and the productions, build national and international recognition, and grow the Academy.

Twenty years later, the numbers tell the story. The operational budget grew from around $7.8 million to about $22 million, and Ballet West is now recognized as one of the top ten ballet companies in the country. The repertoire expanded from the usual classics like Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella to new works built for Utah audiences, including Dracula, Jekyll & Hyde, Onegin, and Madame Butterfly. Sklute also launched the Innovations program, which evolved into The Choreographic Festival and Works from Within, the Family Classics Series, and the Academy Trainee program in 2010, through which nearly 75% of the company's dancers are trained. The company now puts on seven productions a season instead of three.

The Academy is perhaps the most visible part of that growth. The Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy now reaches 900 to 1,000 students across four campuses — Salt Lake City, Trolley Corners, Park City, and Utah County — making it the fourth largest ballet school in the U.S., with its education and outreach program serving somewhere between 152,000 and 172,000 children and adults across the Intermountain Region. In 2013, the Jesse Eccles Quinney Ballet Centre opened, connected to the historic Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theater. In 2017, the George S. & Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation funded new sets and costumes for The Nutcracker, and in 2024, the Utah Legislature declared that production a Living Historic Landmark — the only one of its kind in the world. That same year, the company acquired Ballet West II.

If you want to see the legacy in person, the farewell season is packed. Dracula runs October 23 to 31, followed by Rolling With the Stones from November 6 to 14, and then the big one: The Nutcracker, billed as America's 1st Nutcracker, from November 27 through December 26. The 2027 half brings Don Quixote in February, The Glass Slipper in April — performed by Ballet West II and Academy students — and Carmina Burana later that month, before Works From Within closes things out in May. There are also master classes at the Ballet Centre for anyone who wants to see the training side of the house.

Ballet West was founded in 1963 by William F. Christensen and Glenn Walker Wallace, and it still carries the title Home of America's 1st Nutcracker. Today it runs with 40 company members, 14 second company members, and a thriving Academy, led by executive director Michael Scolamiero, who was named CEO of the Year in 2025. Sklute's twenty years have been about more than just keeping the lights on; they've been about turning a struggling local company into a national name. The 2026-27 season is the last chance to see that work while he's still at the helm.