Our mission is to use the power of music and dance to communicate, inspire and move audiences through excellence in performance, artistic innovation and to use the power of dance to transform the lifes of the youth and to enhance their health, aspirations, achievements, skills and life chances by creating transformational Dance training programs as we tap into their power to believe in themselves.
We accomplish this by bringing together young people of different classes and nationalities to teach them their own power through the art of dance.
We believe that dance is the most successful form of education for young people who never developed the power of belief.
We believe that tapping into their power to believe will open them up to learning, working together, discipline and peace.
We know this can work because we’ve experienced this in our lives.
Founded as United Broadway in 2004 by our Artistic Director, Alvaro Maldonado, IBT has grown from a small group of dancers in the Washington Metropolitan area, New York and San Francisco to a full-fledged international touring dance company. In the last five years, IBT has organized tours through Latin America with pre-eminent performers from the United States to perform a repertoire of classical music with American musical arrangements to be performed in fine arts performing centers in Latin America and the United States.
Throughout our history, we have used the power of international exchange programs to provide small, minority communities with much needed exposure to foreign cultures. By exposing these under-served youth in the United States and Central America to art and all of its virtues, we hope to inspire in youth a love and appreciate for art.
In 2006, the IBT organized an exchange program between the dance communities in El Salvador and the United States. This exchange, in association with the Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of the United States in El Salvador, was a partnership between IBT, the Youth Orchestra of El Salvador, and the Gymnastics Federation of El Salvador. This exchange program exposed the youth of El Salvador the music of some of the greatest composers in history coupled with our most talented performances modern dance.
Due to the success of our exchange program in 2006, we returned to Latin America in 2007, bringing with us a symphony orchestra and a rock band, fusing songs from the 70’s and 80’s with classical music arrangements and members of our dance company. In 2009, we traveled to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica performing 15 concerts in 2 weeks. More than 12,000 people were able to enjoy “The Dream” IBT ‘s last production at low cost or no cost at all. In 2009 we donated proceeds from one performance to assist an HIV Foundation for children in El Salvador.
WHO WE ARE:
Ballet Teatro Internacional (BTI) is a dance company that performs classical and contemporary ballet, modern dance, and aerial dance. and a Dance Institute created to generate Transformational Dance Training Programs in the Washington, DC area and Latin America.
The International Ballet Theatre has two branches.
a)Professional Dance Company:
Ballet Teatro Internacional (IBT) is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit Dance company headquartered in Washington, DC that fosters culturally unique and innovative collaborations between musicians and dancers, artists and audiences, and choreographers and composers. Through dance and music, the company strives to express human emotion, abstract concepts, and social commentary that reflect the intricacies of current and past global cultures. The company presents choreography and music by both established and emerging choreographers, and attracts dancers from all over the world to perform a repertoire of classical and contemporary ballet, modern dance, and aerial dance.
b)Dance School — We are a dance institute created to generate transformational Dance training programs. We partners with other outreach organizations, non-profit agencies, and public high schools, to ensure that youths in the Washington, DC area and Latin American countries have access to free or low cost long term dance programs, dance workshops and seminars - focusing on modern dance techniques, leadership, and choreography. The majority of the youths that obtain scholarships come from underserved backgrounds and neighborhoods, and the IBT community outreach program teaches them how to use dance as an alternative to violence or drugs. The company is committed to inspiring a new generation of dancers and arts patrons, and hopes to empower youths by teaching the value of dance as a means of expression. Each year IBT performs in front of 10,000 students, and its instructors teach in more than 10 locations across the Washington, DC area.