New Ballet Ensemble is the professional group of performers who appear both on the main stage and in our community schools where students are engaged, educated and recruited for scholarships to the New Ballet School. Ensemble members serve as Teaching Artists in the New Ballet School instructing children from ages 3 to 18 and in Memphis City and County Schools in residencies and workshops related to outreach performances.

Community partnerships are at the heart of the work performed by the Teaching and Performing Artists at New Ballet. For the 2008/09 season, New Ballet partnered with Opera Memphis in La Traviata, Treemonisha, and Faust; in 2010, Orpheus; 2011, Aida and in past seasons, performed in Porgy and Bess and Macbeth. Other NBE partners include, Girl's Inc, Dunbar Elementary School in Orange Mound, The Brooks and Dixon Museums, Rhodes College, the University of Memphis and many more.

The New Ballet Ensemble is comprised of professional dancers and dancers in training. New Ballet’s CEO and Artistic Director, Katie Smythe (View Bio), works with the Ensemble on a daily basis.

The Ensemble Intern Training program was established in 2005. Graduating students are given an opportunity to further their training on the professional level while training as teachers and, in some cases, attending college classes at the University of Memphis and Christian Brothers University. Since entry into the program, trainees have performed as Lincoln Center Institute performing artists and in schools throughout Memphis. Artists In Training attend on a company schedule, 30 hours per week and have the opportunity to graduate into the company or move on to University BFA programs with facilitation from Ms. Smythe and other mentors such as our guest teaching artists.

New Ballet Ensemble has enjoyed partnerships with Blakely White McGuire of the Martha Graham Company, Uri Sands and Toni Pierce Sands (formerly Ailey company and now Co-Directors of TU Dance), Elizabeth Corbet of Frankfurt Ballet and Francesca Harper, formerly of Frankfurt Ballet and Dance Theater of Harlem.

The Professional Ensemble is a group of performers and teaching artists dedicated to arts education and dissemination. The New Ballet Ensemble is made up of a diverse group of dancers from different backgrounds who are fluent in ballet, modern, flamenco, jazz, and urban dance. 

There are no upcoming auditions for positions at this time.