Serenade. Choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo by Kayla Foxworth

Mission

The mission of New Orleans Ballet Theatre (NOBT) is to be the premier resident ballet company of the Gulf South, internationally renowned for world-class performances, innovative choreography and outstanding professional training, enriching our community and expanding access to dance.

Vision

Gregory Schramel and Marjorie Hardwick Schramel founded New Orleans Ballet Theatre in 2002 with the goal of providing local dancers a platform to pursue a full-time career in ballet. That goal has been achieved and expanded. Over the last 20 years, NOBT has evolved into Louisiana’s premier ballet company, becoming the prestigious example and epicenter of classical and contemporary ballet for the Gulf Coast Region.

With a professional company now in place, NOBT’s foremost goal is to meet the needs of the community by offering excellent concert dance and dance education to New Orleans residents across all ages and backgrounds.

NOBT is an artistic reflection of a city that vibrantly stands out in its lustrous and diverse culture.  The company is shifting its focus outward and becoming an ambassador on a national level; it seeks to share and represent the unique interplay of multi-ethnic and creative influences that make up New Orleans in the 21st century.

New Orleans Ballet Theatre is 501c3 compliant, not for profit foundation.

Staff

Artistic Director
Gregory Schramel

Assoc. Artistic Director
Marjorie Schramel

Executive Director
Lisa Keller MacCurdy

Resident Choreographer
Oliver Halkowich

Head of Wardrobe
Mary Wyatt Johnson

SCOD Teaching Faculty

Danielle Belohlavy

Katherine Hanson

Mary Wyatt Johnson

Khen Kurulkar

Lisa Keller MacCurdy

Lily Mangiaruga

Aubrey Morgan

Denise Oustalet

Drew Pearson

Greg Schramel

Marjorie Schramel

Maya Taylor

Kaylin Wilson

Barre Association Chair
Melyne Holmes

Past Chairs
Marianna Clayton

Virginia Sweet Dupuy

Lori Gordillo

Maribeth Del Castillo

Board of Directors

President
Dan Falstad

Ben Allen

Marianna Clayton

Jane Davis

Sweet Dupuy

Aaron Jackson

Catherine Makk

Suzanne Phelps

Gregory Schramel

Gregory Schramel founded New Orleans Ballet Theatre in 2002 after returning to his hometown at the end of his professional ballet career. Frustrated at having no opportunity to pursue his chosen profession in New Orleans, he and his wife Marjorie set out to create a world class ballet company and school in the city that he so adores. He started his ballet training at NOCCA and soon left for the School of American Ballet, the training ground for the New York City Ballet. His 20 year career took him to Oklahoma City Ballet, Dallas Ballet, Vienna, Austria, Paris, France, Miami City Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and finally Atlanta Ballet. He has toured throughout Europe and Asia as well as Moscow and South America and also served as the tour director for the Atlanta Ballet. Mr. Schramel, in his tenure with NOBT, has brought to the city many never before seen Balanchine ballets including; Concerto Barocco, Apollo, Who Cares?, Agon, Tarantella, Stars and Stripes pas de deux, Tchaikovsky pas de deux, and Serenade. He has won many Big Easy awards for his choreography and has had the honor of being the choreographer for many of New Orleans Opera’s productions.

A native of Dallas, Ms. Schramel started her early ballet training with Dallas Ballet under the great American Indian ballerina, Marjorie Tallchief and George Skibine. Ms. Schramel left Dallas to train with the School of American Ballet and accepted her first professional contract soon after. She was in the corps de ballet in American Ballet Theatre in the 1980’s when Mikhail Baryshnikov was the artistic director of the company. Ms. Schramel had the opportunity to appear with Mikhail Baryshnikov in many PBS specials of Dance in America. She also danced with Dallas Ballet, and and CATS Paris and CATS Vienna, Cincinnati Ballet, Miami City Ballet as well as Atlanta Ballet during her 25 year career. She performed as a soloist or principal dancer and recreated many of the female protagonist roles of the Balanchine repertoire including; the full length Jewels, The Four Temperaments, Serenade, Agon, Apollo, Concerto Barocco, Bourree Fantasque, La Sonnambula, Western Symphony as well as the classical ballets from Giselle to Nutcracker. She has appeared at the famed Kennedy Center, Wolftrap, Spoleto Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, The Metropolitan Opera House, the Olympic Arts Festival in Korea and Atlanta, and the Edinburgh Festival. After receiving a Louisiana Artist’s Fellowship in 2005, the Schramels were able to establish headquarters at the Contemporary Arts Center for Schramel Conservatory of Dance. The school has grown and trained numerous professional dancers and serves as the training ground for the future dancers of NOBT. The children of the school perform annually in the Nutcracker, as well as other full-length productions. Ms. Schramel is a certified teacher of the American Ballet Theatre curriculum which the school follows.

Lisa is a Los Angeles native, where she trained primarily under Ms. June Chin. A graduate of Duke University with a BS in Biology, she continued her studies of ballet under renowned faculty Tyler Walters, Julie Janus, Walters, and M’Liss Dorrance, and was a member of the Duke Ballet Repertory and Duke Jazz Repertory Ensembles. After graduation, she returned to California where she taught ballet, tap, and jazz and became business manager for the Peninsula School of Performing Arts in Palos Verdes, California. She continued her professional career by performing as a professional tap dancer with Le Jazz Hot and as a principal ballet dancer with Southern California Dance Theatre, performing lead roles in The Nutcracker, La Boutique Fantasque, and Les Sylphides. Since moving to New Orleans in 2015, she has performed with New Orleans Ballet Theatre regularly. She has also continued her love of teaching at Schramel Conservatory of Dance and is a certified teacher of the American Ballet Theatre curriculum. In 2017, she took on the role of Administrative Director of New Orleans Ballet Theatre and is a director for the school. She has held the position of Executive Director since 2021, and has helped the company emerge further as a leading arts organization.

Oliver Halkowich grew up in South Florida. He performed in Miami City Ballet's first Nutcracker at the age of seven, fell in love with both Tchaikovsky and ballet and migrated west to train at the San Francisco Ballet School. In 2001, he began his professional dance career with the Boston Ballet. A year later, he settled on middle ground in Texas. He joined Houston Ballet as a Corps de Ballet member in 2002 and rose through the ranks to First Soloist, dancing 19 seasons with the company. He has danced a variety of classical, contemporary and character roles: Alain in Sir Frederick Ashton's the misunderstood stepsister in Stanton Welch's Cinderella, the jazzy couple in red in George Balanchine's Rubies and the bulldog sailor in Jerome Robbin's Fancy Free. He has also performed in work by Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Hans Van Manen, Christopher Bruce, Mark Morris, Ben Stevenson OBE, Justin Peck, Aszure Barton and Jerome Robbins, among others. Oliver has choreographed for Houston Ballet, Dance Alive National Ballet, Houston Contemporary Dance company, Mercury Ensemble, the Texas Contemporary Art Fair, the Blaffer Museum, Houston Cinema Arts Society and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Alongside his good friends and fellow dancers, Melody Mennite and Connor Walsh, he co-produces REACH, a platform for Houston dancers and choreographers to create new work while raising money for arts education. He debuted his first solo commission for Houston Ballet’s 50th Anniversary season in 2019, and choreographed NOBT’s production of “Romeo + Juliet” in May 2023 before joining the NOBT staff full-time in the fall of 2023. Oliver’s “Dracula” premiered May 2024 and “Prodigal Son” in 2025, among numerous other creations for the company.