INDIANAPOLIS -- After more than a decade of hard work - Indianapolis once again has a professional ballet company.
In November 2005, the city's oldest professional ballet company, Ballet Internationale, was preparing for its annual Nutcracker performance at the Murat Theater when the company suddenly closed their doors - canceling the upcoming show and leaving professional dancers in Indianapolis out of work.
For Victoria Lyras that was the beginning of a long twelve years to bring professional ballet back to the Circle City.
"They asked me 'how do you feel about this,' and I said 'this is devastating for any metropolitan community to lose its only professional ballet company,'" said Lyras. "And they said, 'so what are you going to do about it?'"
Nine months after Ballet Internationale shut its door, Lyras opened the Indianapolis School of Ballet. And over a decade later - Indianapolis has its own professional ballet company once again.
The school's first graduate was Kristin Young, who went on to college and danced professionally across the country.
Now, she's back in Indianapolis - dancing for the new Indianapolis Ballet.
"It's really exciting to have a professional company in Indianapolis because as a professional dancer I could be someone that the young dancers look up to," said Young.
Tickets for the Indianapolis School of Ballet's annual Nutcracker featuring members of the Indianapolis Ballet went on sale Friday.
The new company's full schedule will be announced in early October.
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