The 2026-2027 season will be Adam Sklute’s last as the artistic director of Ballet West. He announced his retirement in May, after nearly 20 years with the company.
He told KPCW he is comfortable leaving as Ballet West is strong financially and artistically.
“I feel very good about now turning over the reins. I think a good director knows when to step aside and let someone else take over and move forward,” Sklute said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” May 28.
Before Ballet West, Sklute spent 23 years with The Joffrey Ballet. There, he rose from dancer to teacher to Associate Artistic Director, helping to build the company up after closing and starting again in a new city.
So, when Sklute was offered the artistic director job at Ballet West in 2007, he knew he could take on the challenge.
At the time, the company was struggling. Ballet West often featured fewer than three productions per year and officials were considering closing Ballet West Academy due to a lack of enrollment.
Since then, he said the company has experienced slow and steady growth.
Founded in 1963, Sklute said Ballet West is now one of America’s top 10 ballet companies, has expanded to offer seven performances a year and its school has over 900 students across five campuses, including one in Park City.
Sklute said adding new, modern works to the company’s repertoire helped.
“Our company was built on these wonderful, great classical ballets,” he said. “I invested a great deal of care and commitment in those, but at the same time we hadn't done any new works at Ballet West for nine years … and I thought, well, that isn't going to further the future of our art form.”
Sklute said the reality TV series Breaking Pointe, which began airing in 2012, put Ballet West on the international map. Moving into the Jessie Eccles Quinney Ballet Centre in 2014 was another big step forward for the company.
“All of a sudden we had space to house the academy and the company all together in a way that we hadn't before, and I think that that really helped move and grow things,” he said.
For his final season with the company, Sklute said he will bring back audience favorites and old school classics. They include Dracula, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote and Carmina Burana, which features a full chorus of 70 singers.
