RMBT China 2014 Tour
11 days,
7 full-length performances
4 cities
traveling more than 1700 milies.
Video reporter Emily Foster and writer Laurie Horowitz document the RMBT tour to Beijing, Zhengzhou, Nanning, Liozhou and Rong'An China for the Missoulian.
RMBT Dancers exchange performances with Chinese troupes
RMBT Dancers get celebrity treatment after China performance
RMBT dancers, musicians, find China exhilirating, challenging, welcoming
RMBT provides diplomacy through dance on 14 day tour of China
The Destination Missoula Program features the majestic beauty of America, our unique culture,landscape, native animals, and pioneering entrepreneurial spirit!
Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre is a ballet company and school located in Missoula, MT that brings the American West experience to audiences throughout the world.
Imagine a cowgirl tap kickline,
blue herons dancing to Mozart on pointe,
a wild Montana Turkey
And a true Montana cowboy and his ballerina.
These ballets are performed by talented young Montana dancers who encapsulate the spirit of the West and Charlene Campbell Carey is the choreographer. Ms. Carey opened Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre as a premiere ballet training facility in Missoula MT and a performing company for her origianl ballets. Since 2002, RMBT has performed for audiences in Austria, China and Italy; for visiting dignitaries and Ambassadors in MT; on International programs for the University of Montana; and for programs hosted by senator Max Baucus--now the US Ambassador to China.
Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre's Great American West ballets bring the enchantment of our Western landscape and the authentic American Experience to audiences everywhere.
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Charlene Campbell Carey
Charlene Campbell Carey, Artistic Director, was born in Chicago and began her ballet studies with her mother, Elisabeth Gillette Campbell. Ms. Campbell Carey trained on scholarship throughout high school at the National Academy of Arts with Lupe Serrano and Michael Maule. This led her to American Ballet Theatre on scholarship, where she became a member of the faculty and was assistant to Director Patricia Wilde. Ms. Campbell danced at Radio City Music Hall following in her Mother’s footsteps, who danced at Radio City for 13 years after World War Two. Charlene became choreographer for Chicago’s “Light Opera Works” and Ballet Mistress for the Hubbard Street Dance Company for seven years.
Ms. Campbell’s career has been uninterrupted since 1976. She has been a leading dancer or choreographer for hundreds of ballets, operas, night club acts, and industrials including the Macy’s Parade Coleco floats, the Los Angeles Japan-America conference with Ronald Reagan, Beverly Hills events such as the Christmas Show with Whoopi Goldberg, “Murder, She Wrote” starring Angela Lansbury, “Indestructible People” for ABC-TV; and “On My Toes” with Katya Artyushkina from the Bolshoi Ballet. Ms. Campbell choreographed the film “Desire” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and showcased many of the world’s top ballet dancers. She made her screen acting debut in “Desire” co-starring with Johan Renvall, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. She produced the feature film “Season of Change” starring Michael Madsen, served on faculty of Yvonne Mounsey’s Westside Ballet School, Stanley Holden’s Ballet School and coached celebrities in Los Angeles for 8 years.
In 1998 Ms. Campbell opened Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre in Missoula, Montana. RMBT has over 50 original ballets in its repertoire and began touring internationally in 2002. RMBT dancers were in “The Flying Dutchman” starring Rod Steiger and Eric Roberts shot in Darby, MT by Hannibal pictures and also in “Kismet” and “Candide” productions with Light Opera Works in Chicago. She continued to coach dancers all over the world including the Broadway Dance Center in New York City, the Balletto di Roma, the Korper Choreographic Institute in Naples and the Compagnia Nazionale del Balletto di Roma.
In 2008 prior to the Olympics Ms. Campbell led the RMBT delegation of 46 Montanans to Beijing, Guilin, Yangshou, Shanghai, and Suzhou China. This was a two year project producing the “Montana” program and administrating the liaison between China and Montana. Ms. Campbell gave master classes at the National Ballet of China. The tour was a diplomatic and artistic success leading to an immediate invitation to return to China October 2008 to participate in the Beijing Dance Academy International Ballet Competition as a master teacher and coach. RMBT began a tradition of offering command performances in Montana for Senator Max Baucus, visiting Ambassadors and diplomats from Peru, Vietnam, Colombia, Morocco, Panama, Chile, South Korea, Australia, Tajikistan, the Russian Federation, Japan, New Zealand, Bahrain and many more.In 2010 she took “Montana” to the Guangxi Province cities of Liuzhou and Nanning to create new relationships between Montana and China. RMBT traveled on to Shanghai to be showcased as headline performances in the American Square and American Pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo. RMBT Directors continued the cultural exchange to the Suzhou Ballet, the Robert Mundell University for Entrepreneurship, and again to The National Ballet of China and Beijing Dance Academy.
RMBT has performed throughout Europe numerous times including the Balkan states. RMBT was invited to participate in an official Trade Mission with Senator Max Baucus to both Brazil and Colombia. That maiden voyage in 2011 facilitated new projects for the future including an invitation to perform in the Olympics Cultural Festival in Rio de Janeiro 2016.