Westchester Ballet Company: Turning 75 With Plans of the Future

“There’s a subset of kids for whom ballet is the perfect salvation,” says Amy Harte, Executive Director at Westchester Ballet Company. “You don’t have to talk. You just get to be and learn a language and show that language through your body, and move to music, and collaborate with other human beings, not compete. I find that ballet is, for young children, just incredible.”

Harte has been with the Company since 2018, initially on the Board of Directors before stepping up into the executive leadership role in 2025. But Westchester Ballet Company (WBC) has been around for much longer—75 years, to be exact.

A Mission of Education and Access

WBC is known for its annual production of the holiday classic The Nutcracker, which features a cast of 110 dancers at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in the Bronx. This year will mark the 40^th season of this version, which was choreographed by the company’s until-recent co-artistic directors, Beth Fritz-Logrea and Jean Logrea. The Company also presents an annual spring repertoire show, and occasionally new smaller ballets in locations throughout Westchester.

But WBC is, and always has been, about more than these performances. The company’s mission is “Excellence in ballet. Access for all.” It accomplishes the first part by gathering a group of young dancers aged six through 18 from all over the region—current members come from 23 schools—and giving them the opportunity to work together for months to create a professional-level show to be seen by thousands of audience members.

This instills confidence, and a love of the art of ballet, while connecting dancers across generations and towns. “Kids come out of their bubbles and meet each other,” Harte said. “The young ones are sitting in rehearsal with the older ones as the ballet gets put together; the older ones are instilling and sharing their knowledge about roles and characters to the younger ones.”

The second part of the Company’s mission—access for all—is at the heart of what the company does. WBC has a strong scholarship program that allows talented dancers in need to participate in the Company for reduced or no cost and provides financial assistance with classes at the dancer’s school of choice.

In a new partnership with United Way of Westchester and Putnam, it now offers after-school ballet classes to around 100 public school students throughout Westchester. Harte says that the response to the recreational program has been incredibly positive.

Looking to the Future

WBC was founded, and led for the first 30 years, in 1950 by dancer and choreographer Iris Merrick in Ossining, a former student of the famous Russian ballet master Michel Fokine. Now in its 75^th year, WBC has ambitious plans for the future. “We are poised for big growth,” says Harte.

The company will continue to present The Nutcracker and a spring repertoire performance. They hope to add more opportunities for choreographers to create new works and will also continue—and hopefully expand—their program in the public schools.

But big changes are coming, too. Fritz-Logrea and Logrea, who celebrate their 40^th season with the company this year, have recently stepped into an Artistic Director Emeriti position, so the search for a new artistic leader will begin later this season.

Also on the horizon is the move to an independent space. This new home base will be a cultural center where WBC can gather for rehearsals and company classes, and offer more classes to people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. WBC’s 75^th anniversary fundraiser on June 11 will raise funds for the Company’s scholarship and financial aid program as well as capital improvements—like a sprung floor and mirrors—for its new space.

“We take what we’re doing very seriously,” says Harte. “We fight for ballet because even though it is sort of antique, it is beautiful in its analog nature. And it’s beautiful in its connection to the past and storytelling. We will not forget where we have come from.” She explains that ballet has evolved over time to be “more open and self-reflective in terms of how it’s presenting itself and making itself accessible to all.”

“And,” she adds, “we’d like to think that Westchester Ballet Company is playing a positive role in those positive changes.”