International Ballet Exchange (IBE) had its origins in 1993 as the American-Ukraine Ballet Exchange, which was a partnership between Wissahickon Dance Academy (WDA) in Philadelphia and the Pisarev Choreography School in Donetsk, Ukraine. Since its inception, teachers from the Pisarev School have been invited to teach at WDA, or talented WDA students have had the opportunity to study abroad in a special intensive ballet program in Donetsk.

IBE was established as a non-profit organization in 1998, with several objectives: to offer Philadelphia ballet students an opportunity to study with highly skilled Russian ballet masters, to bring ballet residency programs to schools in the Philadelphia School District, to give students a year-long goal of being part of a ballet performance, for students in the Philadelphia School District and residents of the Philadelphia area to experience low-cost ballet performance by a world-class Russian ballet company and free final performances by residency students.

To actualize our mission, IBE initiated a pilot, in-school ballet residency program in 1999 at Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia. With the full support of school administrators, 25 students received ballet training with a ballet master from the Pisarev Choreography School, and then had the rare experience of performing with the Donetsk Ballet in a free community performance of Peer Gynt.

Since 2000, IBE has placed ballet residencies at University City High School, Kenderton Elementary School, Girls’ High School, Northeast High School, Anna B. Pratt Elementary School and George Washington High School.    Our residency at Simon Gratz has been ongoing since its onset in 1999.

Through IBE, school communities have also had the opportunity to see free performances of the Donetsk Ballet in Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere and Peer Gynt. The response has consistently been overwhelming.