A Home For Every Dancer
Ballet Co.Laboratory strives to be an artistic home for everyone. We encourage discovery over fear and foster originality over stereotypes. A diverse representation of cultural, racial, socioeconomic, and gender identities is essential to our art form. Ballet Co.Laboratory recognizes that it is our responsibility to create a community that embodies equity and inclusion through its behaviors, policies, and practices. In doing so, we foster awareness, acceptance, and accessibility throughout our organization and in the communities we serve. We stand together as artists, students, and staff to uphold these values every day as we continue learning and growing.
Ballet Co.Laboratory is a professional ballet company and school located in Saint Paul, MN. Founded in 2018, our organization honors the foundations of classical ballet while moving the art form forward by collaborating with the community and advancing equity in the art form.
All programs and activities at Ballet Co.Laboratory fall within one of our three artistic principals to Co.Create, Co.Develop, and Co.Inspire.
CO.CREATE
The Company of Ballet Co.Laboratory includes 10 professional dancers who perform classical and contemporary ballets highlighting athleticism, storytelling, and unique collaborations. Ballet Co.Laboratory is committed to creating new ballet works that expand on the many stories and life experiences that have not yet been shared on a major stage. Each season, the organization creates five productions and performs for 4,500 audience members throughout the Twin Cities.
CO.DEVELOP
Learning the art of ballet and dance is a life-long journey, whether one is pursuing a professional career or simply the freedom to move. For this reason, Ballet Co.Laboratory offers ballet and movement classes for all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Throughout the 2020/21 school year, 195 students ranging in ages 3 - 87 will explore the art of dance through a variety of classes. Both dancers in our pre-professional and drop-in programs are invited to perform alongside Company dancers in two productions each season.
CO.INSPIRE
A crucial component of re-imagining ballet for the 21st-century is working to ensure ballet continues to expand in diversity and accessibility. Ballet Co.Laboratory invests in this work by bringing dance performances and workshops into underrepresented communities throughout Minnesota. Last season, 3,800 individuals experienced a free performance and/or dance workshop through this programming.
MISSION
Ballet Co.Laboratory works to reimagine how ballet is taught, created, and presented.
VISION
To use the universal language and transformative power of dance to connect humanity, nurture artists, and inspire our community.
VALUES
Collaboration
Unique connections, partnerships, and works with the input of diverse perspectives and skillsets to further the mission of Ballet Co.Laboratory and the future of our art form.
Evolution
Consistently challenging preconceived notions to bring ballet into the 21st-century while developing a new standard for the art form.
Inclusion
Providing a welcoming environment that embraces all identities by actively listening to different viewpoints, broadening perspectives, and expanding access to programming and audiences.
Excellence
Holding one's self to the highest standard in every aspect of the organization, working to constantly learn, improve, and refine.
Zoé Emilie Henrot
Artistic Director & Founder
BCL Artistic Director Zoé Henrot (She/Her) received her early dance training at Boulder Ballet, becoming an Apprentice with the Company in 2007. In addition to her training in Boulder, Henrot trained with Kansas City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Joffrey Ballet. Zoé graduated summa cum laude from Mount Holyoke College in 2012 with a double major in Dance and Biological Sciences. She has worked with prominent choreographers such as Peter Davison, Joseph Morrissey, Kinsun Chan, and Diane Coburn-Bruning who have very much influenced her artistry and choreography.
In 2013, Henrot relocated to Minnesota to serve as the Artistic Director of St. Paul Ballet. In August 2018, Henrot founded Ballet Co.Laboratory. The School and Company is now about to enter its fourth season. In her 9 years of experience as an Artistic Director and choreographer, Zoé has created over ten original works and six full length narrative ballets. Her mission is to diversify ballet narratives and repertoire.
Critics have said, “Henrot has already proved herself as a choreographer to watch, offering a contemporary and often feminist take on classic ballet” and the Company has been praised as being “founded on tenets of collaboration and exploration, while also pushing against tropes of what ballet is supposed to be”.
In her free time, Zoé enjoys doing home improvement projects with her wife Martha and cuddling with her cats Milou, Bradley and Frederick.
rachel koep
managing director
Rachel Koep (She/Her) joined BCL as Managing Director in August 2019. Koep has melded her lifelong passion for dance into a career of uplifting flagship performing arts organizations in the Twin Cities. She previously served as Co-Executive Leader and Director of Development at The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts where she provided the strategic vision and direction for the overall operations of the Midwest’s largest nonprofit dance and education campus. Prior to her position at The Cowles Center, Koep served as the Senior Manager of Individual Giving at the Tony® Award-winning Children’s Theatre Company.
Koep holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communications and a Minor in Dance Performance. She received her early dance training at Stage Door of Performing Arts (now Northern Force Dance Company) studying ballet under the direction of Ted Kivitt and performing contemporary and jazz works by Mia Michaels, Marguerite Derricks, and Liz Imperio.