Premiere Dance Company Director - Charlene White
The Premiere Dance Company has provided quality performances around the Helena area community for more than twenty years under the leadership of Artistic Director Charlene White, who runs the Creative Arts Center. Charlene began her dance training at the age of twelve in Rhode Island, but her interest in choreography began before that age. Her first “works” were seen on neighbors’ lawns and were performed by the many children who attended a daycare across the street from her parents’ home. She gives credit for pursuance of dance to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles White, for supporting her interests and to those children who needed something to do on long summer days.
In high school, she was a member of Project Talent, a school program for talented dancers. Charlene later became a member of the New England Ballet Company, under the direction of Myles Marsden. Her desire to teach led her to the school of the Hartford Ballet’s Teacher Training Program in Connecticut where she received her teachers’ certificate in dance. Charlene has been teaching in Helena since 1985. During the summer of 2001, she transformed the former Ice Cream Parlor building into the new home of the Creative Arts Center of Helena, home of the Premiere Dance Company. She founded Premiere Dance Company in 1987, sensing there was a need to give young, talented, Helena area dancers more opportunities to perform and to experience the workings of a dance company. Her talents in choreography have delighted Helena audiences over the years both in classical and contemporary dance. Charlene’s knowledge of Vaganova Syllabus, the official syllabus of the Russian School of Ballet, has enabled her to develop her students into some to the best dancers in Helena and in the state of Montana. Her students have consistently been recognized for their talents and technical abilities with scholarships from numerous professional dance schools. Charlene is the past president of the Montana Dance Arts Association and she has served on the boards of the Montana Alliance for Arts Education, the Helena Arts Advocacy Coalition, and the Advocacy Committee for Arts Plus.