DanceAspen elevates: Emerging ballet company stages two nights of performance and premieres

When the new ballet company DanceAspen staged its first performances at the Wheeler Opera House in September, they were greeted by enthusiastic sold-out audiences. When they staged an open rehearsal on the rooftop of the Aspen Art Museum in January, it drew a standing-room-only crowd.

And seven months after the nonprofit company’s founding, as it prepares for its second program at the Wheeler, the company appears to have been fully embraced by Aspen’s ballet fans, whose appetite and appreciation for contemporary dance was fed by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet for 25 years before the company was dissolved amid the coronavirus pandemic.