Established by Artistic Directors Kyle Davis and Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan in 2025, Green Bay Ballet Theater is Northeast Wisconsin’s only professional ballet company.
The idea for a professional ballet company deeply connected to Green Bay and Northeast Wisconsin developed decades ago. Davis, a Green Bay-native, noticed early on a missing component in the Greater Green Bay community – no professional dance to call our own. In order to pursue a professional career in ballet performance and choreography, Davis left Green Bay at the age of 15 and returns with twenty years of experience to ensure aspiring dancers and ballet lovers of all ages have a professional ballet company to call their own.
Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan, critically acclaimed principal dancer, combines her knowledge and passion for ballet with Kyle’s to provide the Greater Green Bay community with exceptional dance performances by the highest caliber artists.
Davis and Ryan lead Green Bay Ballet Theater committed to creating opportunities for audiences to experience brilliant dance and for new art to be created specifically for our community, championing the intersection of live music and dance and dedicated to the collaborative nature of art.
Green Bay Ballet Theater is excited to connect artists and audiences through our shared love of dance and the fine arts.
Timeline
1996: Kyle Davis takes his first dance lesson at Danz Elementary School through the Green Bay Department of Parks and Recreation, following in his older sister’s footsteps
1999: Kyle Davis performs for the first time at The Weidner Center for the Performing Arts as a mouse and party child in a touring company’s production of The Nutcracker
2001: Kyle Davis begins focusing on ballet and starts attending classes at Makaroff School of Ballet; Davis continues exploring tap, jazz, and contemporary at Northern Dance Academy (now NEW Fusion Dance & Performing Arts).
2004: Kyle Davis wins Junior Grand Prix prize at the Youth America Grand Prix competition in Chicago, IL, dancing original choreography created by his mom.
2005: Kyle Davis leaves Green Bay to finish his dance education; Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan and Kyle Davis cross paths for the first time at The Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia, PA.
2008: Kyle Davis joins Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, WA.
2012: Kyle Davis premieres his first choreographic work.
2016: Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan joins Pacific Northwest Ballet.
2019: Kyle Davis and Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan begin conversations with Green Bay community leaders about bringing professional ballet to Northeast Wisconsin; Denis Buehler, President & CEO of the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation, advises the timing is right.
2020: The Covid-19 Pandemic brings all conversations about professional ballet in Green Bay to an immediate end; Davis is named artist-in-residence at Gonzaga University Department of Theater and Dance.
2022: Conversations about starting a professional ballet company in Green Bay reignite thanks to Kelli Strickland, Executive & Artistic Director of The Weidner Center for the Performing Arts.
2024: The Weidner Center for the Performing Arts produces Green Bay Ballet Festival, with Kyle Davis and Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan as co-Artistic Directors; among other events, the Festival offers the Green Bay community free youth dance classes, innovative adult dance lessons, a masterclass intensive – hosted by NEW Fusion Dance & Performing Arts, and a mainstage performance at The Weidner Center for the Performing Arts.
Davis and Ryan bring together leading artists from Carolina Ballet, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Philadelphia Ballet, along with Water Street Dance Milwaukee and aspiring artists from Makaroff Youth Ballet and Northeast Wisconsin Dance Organization, to perform a full evening of dance accompanied by the Weidner Philharmonic, under the baton of Emil de Cou.
2025: Davis and Ryan return to Green Bay as Artistic Directors of The Weidner Summer Dance Intensive, offering dancers of all ages a ballet-focused look into the professional world of dance; Kyle Davis and Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan establish Green Bay Ballet Theater, with fiscal sponsorship from the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation, taking off from the groundwork they built with the Green Bay Ballet Festival.