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About MBT

Founded in 1989, Metropolitan Ballet Theatre and Academy is a nonprofit organization committed to inspiring students to dance by providing structured training while giving each dancer the opportunity to experiment with their own creativity. MBT is also committed to bring arts education to the community with performances and outreach programming.

MBT offers professional instruction in a nurturing environment to all who are interested, regardless of technical ability, age, body type, previous experience, future aspirations, or financial means. Many students enjoy taking dance classes and performing while pursuing other interests; and some are intent on dance careers and have spent their summers studying with the American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, The Rock School, Pacific Northwest Ballet, School of American Ballet, Carolina Ballet, and others. Many of our graduates have majored in dance at schools such as the University of Cincinnati, Radford University, Indiana University, and have been accepted into pre-professional companies such as Boston Ballet.

MBT trains dancers in ballet, jazz, modern, tap and hip hop through The Academy with dance studios in Gaithersburg and Clarksburg, Maryland, and gives academy students the opportunity to perform in professional ballet performances alongside professional artists.

Vision, Mission & Values

MBT’s Mission:

Providing arts opportunities for all through exceptional dance education, community outreach and inspiring performances.

MBT’s Vision:

MBT is a distinguished dance academy in the DC Metro area and a leader in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in dance education, creating a lifetime connection to the arts for our students and the community.

MBT’s Core Values in Instruction and Performance:

Care – teach each child to their individual ability in a caring/nurturing environment
Character – emphasize confidence, discipline, responsibility to the community and to the artform, responsibility to studio classmates
Community – create a welcoming, family-style community for MBT’s academy parents and students
Diversity & Equity – actively advance racial and gender diversity and equity initiatives in the study of dance at MBT, and strive to build a staff and board whose racial and gender diversity mimics the community we serve
Excellence – promote exceptional instruction and performance
Inclusivity – advance cultural diversity, gender diversity, racial diversity, and welcome all shapes/sizes/abilities to study dance
Opportunity – promote unique opportunities for students, and be flexible to offer different opportunities, reacting to student or patron demand
Reliability – provide consistency in instruction, performance, and outreach; reliable communication to stakeholders

MBT’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access:

During the course of developing MBT’s most recent strategic plan (July 2018-June 2020, and ongoing), members of MBT’s staff and Board of Directors engaged in several education and training opportunities in an effort to learn more about cultural competency in the arts, cultural bias, and how to more fully recognize and begin to dismantle systemic racism in our daily work. Given recent events in the US, the need is clear to not only be anti-discriminatory and anti-racist, but to also be engaged in addressing racism in the arts, actively seeking equitable opportunities for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Color). Each portion of our strategic plan will define progress already made and specific objectives for these plan years. The Board has also created an official standing committee – a Race Equity Committee – to work with staff and the Board toward DEIA goals.