Défilé | Ashley Ballet Arts Academy

2025 Défilé

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Showcase #1: 11:30am | Showcase #2: 2:30pm

Ives Theatre, Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center
11411 Masonic Home Drive, Bloomington, MN

What is Défilé?

The French word “défilé” translates in English to a “procession or show.” This is Ashley Ballet Arts Academy’s annual semi-formal end-of-the-school-year showcase. Although our motif may alter from year to year, we maintain a tradition of hosting Défilé not as a full-length ballet production with extravagant costumes, but rather as an intimate performance where our students can demonstrate the skills and progress they have gained during the school year.

Our 2025 Défilé will highlight music and excerpts from the Ballet "La Bayadere", tying in the "dreamy" theme in our Jazz and Modern music selections.

Défilé Poster

About Défilé

Though highly recommended, participation is not mandatory. Learning choreography is a fun and essential part of dance training, so even if students choose not to participate in Défilé, they will still learn the choreography during class time. The attached Participation Form is due by Saturday, January 18, 2025 whether or not your dancer will participate.

Each class level has a syllabus which students progress through from September to May. Beginning in February, instructors start stringing together skills from the syllabus and set them to music to create a choreographed “piece” which the students will perform at Défilé. This enables us to make technique the forefront of our classes, yet also give the dancers experience learning and performing choreography — another valuable element of their training. For our 2024 Défilé, we are also thrilled to revive our classical ballet theme, and will be using music and drawing inspiration from the ballet Paquita. Due to the nature of the class work, pre-pointe, pointe prep, and Mind/Body classes will not have a performance piece.

Photography

Steve Lucas Photography will be taking in-studio photos of each class and individual shots of each dancer during your normal class time, Feb 5-10, 2023. Photos may be purchased directly through Steve Lucas Photography; you are not required to purchase any photos. SLP will email you ordering information approximately 2 weeks after the photo shoot. For questions, please contact: info@lucasphoto.com, (952) 949-0578.

Videography

We have arranged for a professional video company to produce a DVD of the performances. Each dancer who participates in Défilé will receive a DVD of the performances (Show #1 and Show #2) which will be available for pickup at ABAA approximately 6-8 weeks after the performance. This is included in your participation fee.

Défilé participants are not required to purchase a costume. Students wear their class uniform and/or loaner items for the performance.

Accessories and Loaner Items:

Pre-Ballet: loaner tutu & hair accessory
Junior & Senior Ballet: loaner Ballet dress & hair accessory
Junior & Senior Modern/Jazz: loaner hair accessory
Pointe: loaner headpiece, tulle cummerbund and/or costume pieces
Unreturned items are subject to replacement fee

Hair & Makeup

Female dancers wear hair in a high bun, no part, no bangs. Please, no bun forms or scrunchies.
Male dancers wear hair neat.
All dancers wear light stage makeup.

Don't forget to bring or wear your tights, shoes, nude leotard (if applicable), and extra hair pins, hairspray, lipstick, etc.!

Tickets

Purchase Your Tickets

Online ticket sales will begin on Saturday, March 15, 2025.

Each family may purchase up to 6 tickets in the initial round of ticket purchasing. You will be emailed the ticket site link and your individual purchasing code by Monday, March 10, 2025. Please ensure that your email address is up to date in our system and that you are receiving ABAA’s emails. Each code is limited to 6 tickets; do not share your code.
Any tickets remaining on Monday, March 24, 2025 will be for sale on a first-come-first-served basis.
Seating will be assigned.
Ticket pricing: $20. Reduced price of $15 for seniors (ages 65 and older) and children (ages 12 and under).

Virtual Tickets

Virtual tickets for a livestream of the entire day of performances (Showcase #1 11:30am-1:30pm and Showcase #2 2:30-4:30pm) will be available for $30 per household.

Information Packet & Participation Form

Défilé Information Packet

Our Défilé information is available online on this page (Tip: bookmark or save this page for easy access during the performance week), or via our "Défilé Information Packet" (PDF above).

Participation forms are due by Saturday, February 10, 2024 whether or not your dancer will participate in Défilé. Participation forms may be submitted in person, or via email (PDF; please no JPG, PNG, etc.). Paper participation forms are available at the front desk; feel free to stop by with any questions, and fill out your form in person.

Participation Fees

Participation fees are listed per dancer. This fee covers the cost of theatre rehearsal & performance time, performance DVD, and costume/accessories. A 5% processing fee applies to card transactions.

Pre-Ballet Participation Fee: Included with Session 2 Tuition
Junior Level 1-5 Participation Fee: $50
Junior Level 6 & Senior Level Participation Fee: $75

Showcase #1 Dress Rehearsal Schedule

Thursday, May 22, 2025, 4:30-9:00pm
Ives Theatre, Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center
11411 Masonic Home Drive, Bloomington, MN

Please check in with ABAA staff near the theatre entrance, then find seats in the auditorium. ABAA staff will guide dancers onstage when it is their turn to rehearse. While we strive to be accurate with rehearsal times, rehearsals may run early or late. Please arrive by your scheduled check in time to ensure that you are in the auditorium when we call your class for rehearsal. Dancers are excused after they have rehearsed, they are not required to stay for the "final bow" rehearsal time.

Detailed Schedule Coming Soon!

Showcase #2 Dress Rehearsal Schedule

Friday, May 23, 2025, 4:30-9:00pm
Ives Theatre, Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center
11411 Masonic Home Drive, Bloomington, MN

Please check in with ABAA staff near the theatre entrance, then find seats in the auditorium. ABAA staff will guide dancers onstage when it is their turn to rehearse. While we strive to be accurate with rehearsal times, rehearsals may run early or late. Please arrive by your scheduled check in time to ensure that you are in the auditorium when we call your class for rehearsal. Dancers are excused after they have rehearsed, they are not required to stay for the "final bow" rehearsal time.

Detailed Schedule Coming Soon!