HISTORY

Our History

Our organization was founded in 1951 as a school of classical ballet named The Miami Conservatory and a not-for-profit performing Company called The Miami Ballet. In 1988 a scholarship program was instituted for training in the school. In 1996 the performing Company was re-named The Thomas Armour Youth Ballet in honor of the organization’s founder, and added to its mission an emphasis on community outreach, ballet education, and making the world of ballet accessible to under privileged youth both as audience members and as performers.

In 2004 the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet received an extraordinary, $1 million gift from an anonymous donor, which made it possible to absorb The Miami Conservatory ballet school and purchase the historic South Miami building in which it is housed. In addition to the South Miami center, Thomas Armour Youth Ballet now operates satellite community outreach centers in Morningside/Little Haiti (established 2001), the Redlands (established 2004), West Coconut Grove (established 2004) and Homestead (established 2008).

The Thomas Armour Youth Ballet now provides ballet training to over 1,000 students annually, with nearly 400 on full scholarship at our satellite locations and an additional 120 on full or partial scholarship at our main site in South Miami. In addition we provide the means for advanced students to take advantage of summer intensive trainings across the country and present performances to over 10,000 audience members each year. A college assistance program was added in 2006 to aid our high school graduates in their quest for higher education, and summer programming was augmented in 2007 to include classes in tap, ballet history and vocabulary. The success of the Summer 2007 addition of tap classes has carried over into the regular school year, where we continue to offer tap in addition to classical ballet instruction.

Mr. Thomas Armour (1908 – 2006)

Thomas Armour, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 95, was a world renowned classical ballet dancer, trained in Paris by the legendary Olga Preobrajenska. During his career he was a principal soloist with the Ida Rubenstein Company, the Nijinska Company, the Woijikowski Company, the De Basil Company and finally, Leonid Massine’s famed Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo. His performing contemporaries included; Alexandra Danilova, Igor Youskevitch, Andre Eglevsky, Rosella Hightower, Alicia Markova and Frederic Franklin. One of his most celebrated roles was Vaslav Nijinski’s “Spectre de la Rose”.
After being drafted into Military Intelligence during World War II, Mr. Armour’s performing career ended. In 1949, after the war, he returned to South Florida, where he took over a small ballet school. He started the Miami Ballet Guild, which became the Miami Ballet, with 501c3 non-profit status, in 1951.The Miami Ballet’s goal was to provide first class training and stage experience for aspiring dancers, by presenting full-scale classical ballets, with professional guest artists, such as Cynthia Gregory, Edward Villella, Natalia Makarova, Peter Martins, and Violet Verdy, to name but a few. Ballets presented, include: Giselle, Swan Lake, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadere.The Miami Ballet was also a co-founder of the Southeastern Regional Ballet Association (SERBA). Mr. Armour was honored with many awards over the years, most recently a “Lifetime Achievement” recognition from Dance For Life for his contributions to the South Florida dance community.

Robert Pike (1925 – 2009)

Director Emeritus, was a member of the Miami Conservatory faculty and administration for over 47 years. Mr. Pike received his dance training at the Chicago Conservatory of Music and Ballet, and later at the Ballet Theater school in New York with William Dollar and Anatole Vilzak. For several seasons, he performed with New York City Opera Ballet as a soloist and with the touring companies of ”The Student Prince” and “Bells are Ringing”. In 1953 Mr. Pike returned to Miami to study with Mr. Armour, and joined the faculty of the Miami Conservatory and the Miami Ballet Company as a dancer and choreographer. He danced in many ‘summer stock ‘ productions in Miami and in such musicals as “Red Head” and “Pal Joey”. For several years Mr. Pike performed on cruise ships sailing in the Caribbean. Mr. Pike retired from the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet in 2006.