Idalee Hutson-Fish

Director, choreographer, producer, and instructor Idalee Hutson-Fish began her dance training at the age of 12 in Boise, Idaho after being inspired by a performance of The Green Table by the Joffrey Ballet. Two years later she received her first of two summer scholarships to study with the Joffrey Ballet in Tacoma, Washington. She then went on to San Francisco Ballet School, Ballet West at Aspen and fours summers with Charles Bennett’s Summer Dance Lab. To pursue her ballet career, Idalee graduated high school at the age of sixteen then attended one year at the University of Utah as a ballet major and one year at the Juilliard School. She left her formal education behind to become an apprentice with First Chamber Dance Company.

In 1976, Idalee was brought to Walla Walla by Charles Bennett, director of First Chamber Dance Company, to be dance captain and lead dancer in Trails West. In 1978, Idalee began her thirty years of teaching ballet at Whitman College. She moved to Arizona from 1981-83, where she was a soloist with the Arizona Metropolitan Ballet. In 1984 she moved back to Walla Walla to resume her teaching at Whitman. In 1986, she opened her private ballet school, The Dance Center. In the summers from 2001-2011 Idalee also taught ballet at the Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy.

Now she is celebrating thirty years of choreographing, directing, teaching and producing dance performances for her students and other organizations as well. In 1988, Idalee organized a group of student dancers with an idea of “Students who dance ballet, inspiring students to dance ballet”. The group was then known as “The Performing Company.” In 2014 the Danza Classica Ballet Foundation (DCBF) was founded to support the art of ballet in the Walla Walla Valley through education, scholarship and performance opportunities home and abroad.

The official Danza Classica Ballet Company was established under the 501(c3) non-profit of DCBF with Idalee as the artistic director.

Every other year, Idalee takes a group of dancers and parent chaperones on a two-week performance tour of Spain and Italy. They compete in an international dance competition, Dance Grand Prix Europe and have consistently brought home overall high point awards in ballet, choreography, theater dance, and modern. They then perform at various event venues throughout Italy while learning about the history of ballet with its beginnings in Italy.