Ballet Northwest celebrates 50 years of arabesques, pirouettes, and oh those leaps!

Ballet Northwest, Olympia’s oldest dance company, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, beginning Saturday with a gala fundraiser.

In the company’s first half-century, more than 2,300 dancers have performed with the company, said Ken Johnson, who since 2008 has been running Ballet Northwest and its school, Johansen Olympia Dance Center, with his wife, Josie Johnson.

Among those thousands of dancers was Ken Johnson. In December 1988, Johnson, then 8 years old, danced the role of a boy in the party scene in the company’s “Nutcracker.”

“That was my very first experience with ballet,” he told The Olympian. “I did the ‘Nutcracker’ and then started ballet classes the next month.

“I loved it,” he said. “It was a great environment and a great community and a lot of fun. That’s what got me hooked.”

Though his history with the school goes back more than three decades, Johnson is a newcomer compared to Bernard “Bud” Johansen and his wife, Mary Johansen, who began at Ballet Northwest in 1972.

The Johansens turned what had begun as a production company that brought dance performances to town into a full-fledged ballet company and associated school, then called Johansen School of Ballet.

The couple retired in 2008, but both are still deeply involved.

“I’m teaching twice a week,” Bud Johansen told The Olympian. “I teach the adult beginner and intermediate class. I’m 84, and I’m still moving — slower every year, but I’m still moving.”

Mary Johansen also continues to teach classes and serves as the school’s office manager.

The couple moved to Olympia when Bud, then dancing and teaching in his native Minnesota, was offered the chance to build a dance company and teach at The Evergreen State College, where he was on the faculty for 27 years. Mary co-founded the ballet school and served as its director.

Ballet Northwest’s first full-scale ballet was “A Christmas Carol,” staged in 1972 at the Capitol Theater.

Its first production of the “Nutcracker” — the beloved holiday ballet that is now the anchor of the company’s yearly season that also includes a spring ballet and the 10-year-old Olympia Dance Festival — was in 1983 at the Experimental Theater at Evergreen.

Prior to that, Johansen said, he was taking a break from the Tchaikovsky classic.

“I was fed up with the ‘Nutcracker,’ ” he said. “I had done it for so many years, and I thought, ‘Let’s do some other stuff.’ ”

The company at first rotated holiday ballets, the same way it does with spring productions, but Johansen eventually gave in to the popularity of “Nutcracker,” which it has produced every year since the early ’90s.

“It’s the only thing people go to,” Johansen said. “They think it’s the only ballet in the world. It’s crazy, but it’s a beautiful ballet, and it’s a Christmas tradition.”

These days, he’s a “Nutcracker” stalwart: He’s played the comedic role of the grandfather each year since his retirement.

The company recently produced its 35th “Nutcracker,” and Olympia has since 2009 had another “Nutcracker,” produced by Studio West Dance Theatre, whose artistic director, Stephanie Wood-Ennett, also started her dance career at Ballet Northwest.

Quite a few Ballet Northwest alumni — including Ken Johnson, who danced in Connecticut for several years before returning to Olympia in 2004 to work in arts management and teach at Ballet Northwest — have danced professionally, but training pros has never been the company’s mission, Johansen said.

“We don’t really push that,” he said. “it’s a rough field. Our goal is for them to enjoy themselves and have fun. People don’t necessarily go into dance but it gives them the confidence and the experience to get out there and do things.”

He said he is impressed by how far the company and its young dancers have come over the years.

“The company keeps growing, and it keeps getting better,” he said. “A lot of our dancers don’t just study here. They do a lot of work in the summer. They go to other places. They’re pushing themselves.”

Ballet Northwest’s 50th Anniversary Gala

• What: Ballet Northwest launches a yearlong celebration of its 50th season with a gala featuring professional dancers, memorabilia displays and video interviews — plus desserts and dancing.
• When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25
• Where: The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia
• Tickets: $45, or $95 including pre-show reception at 6:30 p.m. with appetizers, dinner and drinks. Proceeds will benefit the company’s costume fund and its scholarship fund.
• More information: 360-753-8586, washingtoncenter.org

Notable alumni

• Rebecca (Ratliff) Herrin: Danced professionally with Kentucky Ballet Theatre, Lexington Ballet, Ballet Theatre of Chicago, and Milwaukee Ballet, and currently teaches at the University of Oklahoma’s dance department.
• Ashley Baker: Graduated from the Professional Division of the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and currently dances professionally at Ballet Idaho.
• Jennifer Seifter: Graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and has performed professionally on Disney Cruise Lines and in regional theater.
• Kimo Kepano: Trained at Cornish College of the Arts and the Ailey School in New York, and has performed professionally on Norwegian Cruise Lines and in film, on television, in dance and theater.

This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 5:45 AM.