About Michelle Dolighan-Rodenbeck

Owner/Director, Ballet & Pointe Instructor

Michelle Dolighan-Rodenbeck was trained as a full scholarship student at the School of American Ballet, Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Academy of Colorado Ballet. Ms. Dolighan-Rodenbeck was the 1st place winner at the Denver Ballet Guild Young Dancers Scholarship Competition in 1990 and recieved the highly coveted Florence Ruston Award of Excellence. She danced with Colorado Ballet for 12 years. As a principal dancer for Colorado Ballet, her many leading roles included the Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara in The Nutcracker, Odette/Odeile in Swan Lake, Lilac Fairy and Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Swanhilda in Coppelia, Myrtha in Giselle, Lucy in Dracula, Titania and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, principal roles in Alvin Ailey's The River and principal roles in George Balanchine's Apollo, Concerto Barocco, Serenade, Stars and Stripes, Rubies, Western Symphony and Who Cares?. She has appeared as a guest artist throughout the U.S. as well as toured as a guest artist with the International Stars Gala in the United States and Mexico.

With an impressive teaching resume throughout Colorado and the United States, she has utilized her vast knowledge of ballet to create the highest quality ballet programs at dance schools throughout Colorado, whether recreational or professional. In 2004 she was invited as a guest instructor for the Hula I Kala Dance Intensive on the island of Waikiki. In 2005, she returned to Colorado Ballet as a teacher in the Children's Program and served as Director of the Academy of Colorado Ballet from 2006-2009. During that time she also staged and rehearsed all children chosen to perform in Colorado Ballet's professional productions such as The Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Coppelia. Ms. Dolighan-Rodenbeck also co-founded the Academy of Colorado Ballet's highly successful competiting and performing company formerly known as Aspirations. She continued instructing young dancers of the Academy of Colorado Ballet as a ballet and pointe instructor until June 2010.

Ms. Dolighan-Rodenbeck long had a vision of her own school where students could thrive with the highest quality training in all genre's of dance in a warm, nurturing, positive environment. Her vision came to light with the opening of Classic Dance Academy in July 2010.

Please read the letter from the director