Artistic Directors

Gari Boehm

Gari Boehm started his professional career as a member of the Joffrey II Ballet Company of New York City and has danced as a guest artist with many companies. Recipient of scholarships at an early age to several prestigious ballet schools, he has studied with such masters as Edward Caton, William Griffith, Marya Kennett, and Hector Zaraspe. He was accepted into the American Ballet Theatre, Cleveland Ballet, Harkness Ballet and the Frankfurt Ballet of Germany. Boehm has danced principal roles in Giselle, Les Sylphides, Swan Lake, Firebird, Nutcracker, Les Patineurs, Etudes, and many other classics.

Patricia Thornton

Patricia Thornton began her studies in Wichita Falls with Irina and Frank Pal. As early as age 13, she was offered a scholarship to the North Carolina School of Fine Arta and later to TCU. A scholarship to the American Ballet Center (school of the Joffrey Ballet) at 17 took her to New York where she also studied at the American Ballet Theatre and the Luigi Jazz Center. Now settled in Wichita Falls, she and her husband, as artistic directors, have channeled their energies toward dancing, teaching, choreography and have taught master classes in New York, Alaska, and Texas. In addition to maintaining two ballet schools, the couple have served as presidents, vice presidents and adjudication chairmen on the Executive Board of the Regional Dance America/Southwest.