Texas Ballet Theater Celebrates The Closing Of Its 2023-2024 Season With A French-Themed Soirée
Inside The Lavish, Beauty and the Beast-Inspired Fort Worth Event
By Courtney Dabney //
As the Texas Ballet Theater’s 2023-2024 season came to a close, the heralded company welcomed its most loyal Fort Worth patrons to an enchanting Beauty and the Beast-inspired dinner before the city’s opening performance of the fairytale ballet on May 17.
Event Chair Lynsey Blair along with her team of 18 hostesses unfolded a French-themed dinner ― an ode to the French origins of the Beauty and the Beast ― in celebration of the rousing season of Texas Ballet Theater (TBT).
McDavid Studio in downtown Fort Worth was transformed into a French chateau, filled with “velvets and luxurious jewel tones filled the room, accented by gold lighting and twinkling five-foot candelabras adorned in stunning florals, courtesy of Central Market Fort Worth,” according to event chair Lynsey Blair.
The four-course dinner was presented by City Kitchen, beginning with rosemary focaccia and Gruyere cheese fondue and ending with white chocolate and raspberry petit fours decorated with rose petals by Wonderful Kakes. The rest of the menu included a bibb and butter lettuce salad and a main course of seared chicken breast in Bearnaise sauce.
New Artistic Director Takes A Bow
As his first year serving as Artistic Director drew to a close, Tim O’Keefe relished his elevated role with one of the oldest ballet companies in Texas, which he joined in 2002. O’Keefe assumed the position after Ben Stevenson transitioned to Artistic Director Laureate in 2023.
“After dinner, guests were privately escorted underground to Bass Hall for Fort Worth’s opening night performance of Beauty and the Beast,” Blair says. “Principal Dancers Alexander Kotelenets and Paige Nyman danced the titular roles, amazing the audience with their grace and precision. Their flowing dance patterns communicated the true moral of Beauty and the Beast: love doesn’t have to be perfect — it just needs to be true.”
Holiday Decor
Patrons and guests received a preview of the upcoming 2024-2025 season, “which most notably includes a new staging of Giselle from O’Keefe next spring.”
Texas Ballet Theater, which performs at both Bass Hall in Fort Worth and AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, has seating packages for next season currently on sale.
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