In a former warehouse on the outskirts of Elkhart County, teenage dancers spend six hours a day perfecting grand jetés and fouettés under a strict Vaganova regimen. The building sits less than ten miles from two other professional-track ballet programs, all clustered around Simonton Lake—an unincorporated community in northern Indiana that has quietly developed one of the most concentrated ballet training pockets in the Midwest.
This is not a story about coastal conservatory pipelines or feeder schools attached to major companies. It is about how a region better known for RV manufacturing became home to a trio of serious ballet institutions, each with a distinct philosophy and a growing reputation for producing working dancers.
Why Simonton Lake?
The cluster is no accident. In 1987, former American Ballet Theatre corps member Jane Simonton retired from performing and moved to the area, where her husband had taken a job in Elkhart's recreational vehicle industry. She began teaching in a church basement. By 1992, she had founded the Simonton School of Ballet, and her rigorous, company-style training began drawing students from South Bend, Fort Wayne, and eventually Chicago—a 90-minute drive west.
Two decades later, two additional schools opened within commuting distance, each responding to a different gap in regional training. The result is unusual: three programs within a 15-minute drive of one another, collectively offering pre-professional Vaganova training, a Cecchetti-inspired academy track, and a deliberately hybrid contemporary-classical curriculum.
The Simonton School of Ballet
Founded: 1992
Technique: Vaganova method
Best known for: Pre-professional boys' program and company-style schedule
Jane Simonton built her school on the same schedule she knew at ABT: two-hour technique classes, followed by pointe or variations, then rehearsals. The school operates six days a week during the academic year and runs a five-week summer intensive that draws male scholarship students from across the Midwest.
The boys' program is particularly notable. Simonton offers full tuition scholarships for male dancers starting at age 10, contingent on attendance and progress. The policy has produced a string of alumni now dancing professionally, including Connor Miles (Houston Ballet, corps de ballet, 2019–present) and Diego Rojas, who spent two seasons with Cincinnati Ballet before joining Colorado Ballet in 2023.
Facilities are spare but functional: three studios with sprung floors, one with marley flooring installed in 2018, and a small black-box theater used for two student productions annually. There is no affiliated professional company, which Simonton says is deliberate. "We are a training school. The stage time is about learning repertory discipline, not about selling tickets."
Tuition range: $3,200–$4,800/year for the pre-professional track; scholarships available for male dancers and demonstrated need.
Ages: 8–19 for the pre-professional division; adult open classes offered mornings and Saturdays.
Lake City Ballet Academy
Founded: 2008
Technique: Cecchetti-based with Balanchine influencess
Best known for: Discipline, precision, and international competition placements
If the Simonton School resembles a company apprenticeship, Lake City Ballet Academy operates more like a competitive academic magnet. Founder and director Maria Chen, a former Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancer trained in the Cecchetti method, demands exacting placement, clean lines, and what she calls "academic rigor applied to the body."
Students wear mandated leotard colors by level. Exams are held annually. The academy sends finalists to the Youth America Grand Prix regional semi-finals in Chicago most years, and in 2022, student Lena Okonkwo placed in the top 12 of the senior classical category at the New York finals.
Chen's Balanchine influence appears in the academy's speed, musicality, and emphasis on épaulement. "Cecchetti gives you the structure," Chen says. "Balanchine asks you to dance in it rather than just through it."
The academy added an adult division in 2017 and now runs beginner through advanced classes four evenings a week. The pre-professional track remains small—roughly 35 students—and Chen personally teaches every advanced class.
Tuition range: $2,800–$5,200/year; competition and exam fees additional.
Ages: 3–18 in the children's and pre-professional divisions; adult open division ages 18–65.
Indiana Ballet Conservatory
Founded: 2016
Technique: Hybrid classical-contemporary
Best known for: Cross-training, choreographic development, and non-traditional repertory
The newest of the three programs, the Indiana Ballet Conservatory, was
