Columbia City Ballet to Honor the Emanuel 9

    The ballet will examine the realities of bigotry, prejudice and hate – rooted in fear and ignorance, then provide a view of the marginal progress we’ve made in issues of tolerance and racial equality.   The Columbia City Ballet is producing a new, full-length, multimedia ballet in the upcoming 2016-2017 performance season.  It is important that South Carolina take the lead in bringing the messages of healing and racial... Read More

Grande Dames of the Ballet Boards – 10 Questions with the Ladies Lumpkin and Harris

By Cynthia Boiter The adage that behind every great man is a great woman has never been truer than when peering over the shoulders of the artistic directors of Columbia’s two top ballet companies, William Starrett of Columbia City Ballet and Radenko Pavlovich of Columbia Classical Ballet. Respectively, Coralee Harris and Lee Lumpkin have served for years as the backbones of the ballet companies they love, support, sponsor, and fight for. Sometimes... Read More

Journy Wilkes-Davis – Telling Stories through Dance

By Bonnie Boiter-Jolley Twenty-three year-old Journy Wilkes-Davis comes from a tight knit, supportive family of seven. The Columbia City Ballet dancer says that though his parents have always been “extremely supportive” of his dance career, they are also his biggest critics – something he is grateful for. It is no surprise that this combination of support and criticism have led Wilkes-Davis to constantly pursue the perfection of his craft. He... Read More

Off Pointe and Into the World – Costume Designer Alexis Doktor

by Susan Levi Wallach Twelve weeks after dancing the role of Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty, the Columbia City Ballet’s season finale – which also is twelve weeks into her retirement as a ballet dancer – Alexis Doktor is thinking that the only thing better than being a dancer is not being a dancer. “I never liked ballet class,” she says over midmorning coffee. “I never liked the rehearsal process or anything in the studio. I’m not going... Read More

Crafting Broadway Bobby Star

By August Krickel There is a moment on stage at Workshop Theatre, during The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, in which “volunteers” are plucked from the audience. At first they are given simple words to spell, then are quickly dispatched via increasingly difficult words; a judge rings a loud bell to signal their elimination. On opening night, Bobby Craft was chosen. Upon receiving his impossible word, Craft paused, looked around,... Read More