Salt Creek Ballet presents "The Nutcracker", Hinsdale

It's amazing what a dream can do. In 1985, Royal Ballet School-trained dancer Patricia Sigurdson had a vision of a world-class ballet company serving the western suburbs of Chicago—and it was a vision she made into a reality. From the year of its founding until her retirement in 1998, Sigurdson led the company in a wide range of classic and contemporary works that entertained tens of thousands of local dance lovers and countless stagehands. Today, the ballet continues to thrive under the direction of Sergey Kozadavey and Zhanna Dubrovskaya, both trainees of the celebrated Vaganova School in Saint Petersburg. And Salt Creek Ballet's focus on sharing dance with the community remains as strong as ever—besides staging lavish ballets, the artists train performers of all ages, and schedule lecture demonstrations that offer a peek behind the curtain.