For 28 years, CORPS de Ballet International has supported the development, exploration, and advancement of ballet in higher education. By seeking excellence in ballet pedagogy, scholarship, and choreography, we promote and recognize the contributions of all those who have shaped and continue to shape the art form.

CORPS de Ballet International’s 28th Annual Conference Once Upon a Ballet: Storytelling in Ballet Culture Pedagogy, Production, and Scholarship is held in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine and the National Choreographer’s Initiative (NCI), an annual choreographic festival. NCI notably provides choreographers with the time and space to pursue and tell their own creative stories. Inspired by NCI’s commitment to community and creativity, CORPS seeks to explore the act and process of “storytelling,” as its overarching theme this year.

In 2026, we consider the stories we tell in Ballet — culturally, creatively, historically, and pedagogically — onstage and off. In this year’s conference, we aim to consider how the bodies, minds, and storytelling of dancers, teachers, scholars, and choreographers mold and shape our field. We also aim to consider how these stories change when focus shifts from those who have traditionally held the spotlight to those waiting in the wings. Through thoughtful academic investigation and physical embodiment, we intend to share stories passed down through ballet’s lineages and developed from our individual experiences, exploring the arc of ballet through the past to present day and beyond.