Utah’s Ballet West is reaching record attendance, this is why

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Ballet West officials report record-breaking attendance as of late, with Utahns coming to the theater by the thousands.

With new tech and entertainment in abundance, Utahns’ heightened interest in ballet begs the question of what is giving rise to the upward trend.

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Salt Lake City’s Ballet West reports nearly selling out all 10 shows of this season’s production of Swan Lake, attracting an astounding 16,348 attendees.

This makes this season’s Swan Lake the most attended Ballet West production in more than 40 years and the second-most attended production in the company’s history, surpassed only by the Nutcracker.

“There were some performances where there were literally no seats for sale and there were some that there were just scattered singles throughout the run,” Michael Scolamiero, Ballet West’s Executive Director, said.

Scolamiero said the production generated more than $960,000 in revenue, which is several hundreds of thousands more than the production generated in its last run five years ago.

The record attendance, however, comes after Ballet West’s production of Dracula also outperformed previous records, suggesting a promising upward trend in overall attendance.

While Scolamiero said they are still diving into what is leading to this success, they believe the heightened interest in Ballet West can be attributed to several factors, including an increase in returning attendees and greater focus and spending on marketing.

Scolamiero said the audience, which is trending younger than in the past, is returning and subscribing at higher rates.

He said he has worked in several states with a larger population per capita during his career and has noted higher engagement among the people of Utah.

“I think the support for the arts is part of the pioneer spirit in Utah, it goes back hundreds of years,” Scolamiero said. “The State of Utah invests not only in dance but in the arts in general, and when you are, as a government, putting the arts on the radar, it’s clearly paying off for Ballet West and hopefully for other arts organizations as well.”

When addressing what attracts the audience to Ballet West, Scolamiero mentioned the “jaw-dropping” athleticism of the dancers and the reputation of the company as “one of the most accomplished and highly regarded classical ballet companies.”

“For people who haven’t come, they should know that what they’re going to see rivals the artistry of ballet companies in major cities across the country,” Scolamiero said.

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