The Maple Youth Ballet is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization under Section
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Colby Parsons was born and raised in Santa Barbara,, California. He first began studying classical ballet at the at the Santa Barbara Ballet Center with Denise Rinaldi when he was 13. During his high school years he trained intensively in Los Angeles with Glen Edgerton, Vladimir Kolesnikov and Brian Bender. Colby continued to train on full scholarship at the Rock School for Dance Education in Pennsylvania. During his summers, he has attended American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive, the Chautauqua Dance Intensive and Houston Ballet Intensive, all on full scholarships. Colby was named a finalist at the New York Youth American Grand Prix in 2007.
At the invitation of school principal, Franco DeVita, Parsons joined the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet Theatre in 2007. There he danced leading roles in original pieces by DeVita and Raymond Lukens. He joined American Ballet Theatre’s ABT II in 2009.
Colby's repertoire at ABT II includes the principal lead in Kevin McKenzie’s Swan Lake, Wes Chapman’s The Nutcracker, Azure Barton’s Barbara, Jerome Robbin’s Interplay and Jessica Lang’s Ballo per Se. He has also danced featured in Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, Kirk Peterson’s Renaissance Suite, Alex Ratmansky’s Gala, Susan Jaffe’s In process and Raymonda.
Colby will perform in the Maple Youth Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker for five performances on December 18-23 at the Northwood Performing Arts Theatre in Irvine.
© American Ballet TheatreAmerican Ballet Theatre's acclaimed ABT II is a classical company of 13 young dancers, ages 16-20, who show outstanding potential and are hand-picked from around the world by the artistic staff of American Ballet Theatre. Under the artistic direction of Wes Chapman, ABT II dancers are exposed to new and established choreographers and composers. They perform in national performances, lecture-demonstrations and academic residencies throughout the United States, as well as with American Ballet Theatre's main company in large-scale ballets such as Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. ABT II brings the excitement of close contact with a professional company into a variety of communities around the country. ABT II dancers train in the program for one or two years before joining American Ballet Theatre's main company or other leading national and international professional companies.
