San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet’s mission is to provide a professional dance experience in a pre-professional setting. Our vision - Transforming People and Ideas through Dance! SA Met Ballet, founded in 1983, produces two performances per season: a fall story-book ballet and mixed repertory spring concert – including student choreography. Dancers, age 9-25, are auditioned annually for membership in our Trainee, Apprentice, Junior Company, Senior Company and Artist-in-Residence programs which includes weekly training classes and rehearsals. Annual admission-free student performances are offered to Bexar County Title I schools and in-school docent-lecture programs include movement studies, ballet and music history and projects that correlate to Drama and Reading TEKS. Through annual collaborations with ARTS San Antonio, SA Met Ballet offers free auditions, rehearsals and performance opportunities with a professional ballet company for their presentation of “The Nutcracker”. SA Met Ballet attends Regional Dance America (RDA) festivals, which include master classes, performances and auditions for scholarships to summer intensives and college recruitment to dance department programs. The 2017 National Festival in Phoenix included 75 member companies from across the US. Through RDA, SA Met Ballet is adjudicated by a master dance teacher who evaluates the artistic and technical merit of the company in an effort to maintain a high level of artistic standards. Student choreographers who present works to the adjudicator are given one-on-one constructive feedback to further their artistic endeavors and an opportunity for their piece to be performed at a Regional or National Festival.