Elaine Willingham is well known for introducing scores of children and their families to the art of ballet. She was gracious enough to spend some time answering some questions about her life and business, including the source of her passion, and the incredible journey that took her to The Big Apple and back home.
“My mother grew up during the Depression and made sure my sister and I got exposed to lessons in music and dance because she never got the opportunity. I always enjoyed classical music when I was a child, and my mother noticed,” she shared.
“At age 10 she took me to the only dance school in Cullman, owned by Anita Burbage. After one year, Mrs. Burbage asked my mother to take me to the Birmingham Civic Ballet School since she would be moving due to her husband’s job transfer,” Willingham recalled. “She saw potential in me and told my mother of this great school in Birmingham. I fell in love with dance from the beginning. Even though I tried tap, acrobats and ballet, it was ballet I enjoyed the most, I think because of the classical music.”
She continued, “I progressed quickly into pointe shoes after one year and auditioned for the Birmingham Civic Ballet Company and was accepted as an apprentice at 13, then full company member by 14. With a change of directors, the name of the ballet company changed to the Alabama Ballet Company, where I was dancing seven days a week and touring the Southeast performing in ‘Nutcracker,’ ‘Giselle,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and many other individual ballets created by well-known guest choreographers. During that time, I was recognized by the School of American Ballet by talent scouts while I performed in the Southeastern Ballet Festival.
“I was offered a summer scholarship to the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet Company. After one week in the five-week summer program I was invited to return on a full scholarship for three years. I guess I could say my passion for dance kept growing, but I soon realized the big city was not for me.”
Even if one doesn’t want to pursue a career in dance, said Willingham, the lessons learned in ballet are beneficial to other aspects of one’s life.
“The discipline it takes to learn ballet is very challenging and helps teach anyone discipline in other areas of life. Physical exercise is great for everyone. Dance helps with body awareness, and moving to music is good for everyone. It lifts our mood and we feel great accomplishment,” she explained. “But those who take ballet even just for fun and understand its complexities eventually become our most appreciative audience.”
Willingham has been the owner and artistic director of The Cullman Ballet Theatre School since 1973. In 1995, she added The Cullman Ballet Company and The Cullman Ballet Society (nonprofit), and in 2020, the Performance Center was built.
“I’m going into 53 years of being the owner and artistic director,” she smiled. “I believe my whole dance training/experience led to me coming back home. Especially since I realized at 18 in New York City that it didn’t need me and I felt my hometown did. Or at least I was going to try. I was offered a job teaching ballet at Athens College and grabbed the opportunity to come back. Also, at that time I opened Cullman Ballet Theatre School, teaching only 10 students a week. Two years later I married and while my husband finished his last semester at Auburn I was asked to teach ballet at the university. I taught until he graduated. Once back home and continuing to help my school grow, I also taught at Snead State and children in Boaz and Albertville while my husband was in law school. I was thrilled when he passed the bar exam and I was able to stay in Cullman to concentrate on my school and raise our three children.”
Willingham said after 20 years, she realized her students needed more than she could do alone.
“In 1995 I sent a letter to several parents about helping me form a nonprofit to help start a ballet company and a summer scholarship program, both for the more serious dancer,” she said. “Several parents were interested and did the hard work of making Cullman Ballet Society a nonprofit and I became the director of the Cullman Ballet Company. Cullman Ballet Society also started sponsoring the newly formed Cullman Junior Dance Company for the younger dancers to have more opportunities.”
In the summertime, Willingham always schedules short camps and classes so students don’t lose the progress they’ve made throughout the school year.
“Several of our wonderful Cullman Ballet Theatre School faculty are involved, along with me and my daughter and oldest granddaughter,” she said.
Cullman Ballet Theatre School teaches three methods of ballet: Russian, Vaganova and American Ballet (as taught by George Balanchine). The school specializes in instruction in ballet, but also includes jazz for enhancement of the ballet student.
Students who have studied with Willingham for several years have acquired skills that allow them to take classes and perform at renowned places, including The Rock School in Pennsylvania, the Alabama School of Fine Arts, School of the Alabama Ballet Company, the Satellite School of the "Kirov" in Washington, D.C., the American Ballet Theatre Summer intensive, the University of South Carolina Conservatory and HARID Conservatory in Florida.
“We in the South are so involved with sports that I think the art of ballet in particular is overlooked. I have always said that there is a lot of talent in our community and it isn’t all on the ball field.”