The History of the TCB

Twin Cities Ballet had its ancestral origin in the mid-1990s with a school show of The Nutcracker directed by Denise Vogt, which was developed and presented over several years.

After the 2002 performances, Lakeville City Ballet (TCB’s former name and corporate parent) was created as a separate and independent non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation to enable Ms. Vogt, TCB’s Board of Directors, and hundreds of volunteers, students, parents, and the community to move to the next level and continue performing and expanding the scope and quality of The Nutcracker.

Lakeville City Ballet (as TCB was then known) independently produced and performed its Nutcracker ballet annually from 2003 through 2009, primarily at the 1000-seat Lakeville South High School Theater.

The Nutcracker’s popularity, performance quality, and geographic breadth of its cast and audience continued to increase over the years. Also, the classical ballet academy Ballet Royale Minnesota was founded and opened in 2009, providing spacious state of the art rehearsal facilities and a steady influx of an ever-increasing level and quality of dancers to the production. 

Eventually, in 2010 TCB’s Board of Directors determined that to more accurately embody the scope and quality of the organization, its productions, and its vision, a new name was called for, reflecting the broader regional make-up of its cast, staff, collaborators and audiences, and a more professional performance venue was needed.

Therefore in 2010, Twin Cities Ballet of Minnesota was born and became the official new name of the company. TCB moved to the premier professional theater of the south metro, Burnsville’s Ames Center, became its resident dance company and premiered its Nutcracker to packed houses. 

Later that year Denise’s husband and former professional dancer Rick Vogt left his partnership with a prominent Minneapolis law firm to devote his time and energy to TCB and Ballet Royale Minnesota and became TCB’s Associate Artistic Director and co-choreographer.

In spring 2011 TCB created and performed its first all-new original full-length production since The Nutcracker, Wizard of Oz-The Ballet, and in 2013 TCB hired its first full-season group of professional, salaried dancers, forming the foundation of ever bigger and better things to come. 

In 2015, it added a mainstage performance series at the Cowles Center in Minneapolis, where in 2018 it had unprecedented success with the World Premiere of Pink Floyd’s The Wall: A Rock Ballet. 

 TCB’s current company has grown to 12 dancers: six professionals, four adult apprentices, and two student Company Trainees.