The Sacramento Ballet opened its 55th season with the First Annual Capital Choreography Competition at the Crest Theatre Oct. 17 and 24.

Both days consisted of three dances choreographed by Viktor Kabaniaev, Amy Seiwert and Matthew Neenan, who competed for a cash prize as well as a Tiffany & Co. star.

Neenan’s dance, The Ration, took the judges award, while Seiwert’s On Frail Wings won the peoples choice award during both showings.

Pepper Von, international fitness instructor and choreographer and a judge for the Oct. 24 performance, said Neenan and Seiwert used the theater beautifully.

“The two who exhibited (the use of space) best, in my perspective, were Amy and Matthew,” Von said.  “I don’t do safe, you don’t grow and you don’t blaze trails if you stay in a safe box, and those guys came out of the box.  They took risks, they took a chance, they challenged the dancers.”

And challenging the dancers as well as the audience is what the Sacramento Ballet is known for.

Founded in 1954 by Barbara and Deane Crockett, the company started as a regional school. It later became a professional company, but still offered classes for ages 6 to 18.  Twenty-four classes per week are taught now.

Ron Cunningham joined the company in 1988 and his wife, Carinne Binda, joined the following year, according to the Sacramento Ballet Web site.  They became co- artistic directors of the company in 1991.

Cunningham and Binda had been dancers at the Boston Ballet Company for 15 years, and Cunningham became the resident choreographer.  But they were ready for the next step.

“At a certain point, when we had our first child, we decided we wanted our own company,” Cunningham said.  “We thought that beginning with a fresh start from the ground up was an opportunity to build a company and an institution with our vision.”

Cunningham and Binda did just that.  The Sacramento Ballet is known for its diverse repertoire and talented dancers.

The Sacramento Ballet has 16 dancers this season, some from around the world, such as Australian Richard Porter, who's been with the company for two seasons.

“I decided to come (to Sacramento), and this company here has a great repertoire,” Porter said. “Here, you get to dance a whole lot more, everyone here gets a good shot of showing their ability, which you train so many years to do and in a larger company often you can get stuck in the back for a long time.”

The diversity of the programs attracts not only dancers, but audience members as well.

Karen Finerman, a subscriber, said the diversity keeps her coming back.

“They do a traditional ballet, the whole tutu, they’ll do story ballet, they’ll do the children’s ballet,” Finerman said.  “They always select such great programs year after year.”

Finerman, who has been a ballet subscriber for eight years,  said she plans to continue for years to come because of the repertoire.

Diversity is what the company strives for, Cunningham said, since it competes with companies whose budgets are larger.

“We are always trying to look and do innovative things, where our dancers work directly in the creative process,” Cunningham said.  “We have 18 of George Balanchine’s ballets in our repertory and we do a lot of my repertory, which is unique to me and that give the company kind of a unique signature.”

Cunningham said the Sacramento ballet does six to eight new works a season.

Many of the dancers also create 5- to 10-minute pieces that, when combined with one another dancer's, could become a whole performance.

Audience member Geoffery Kimbrough said the Sacramento ballet has a lot of cohesiveness. 

“Sacramento Ballet is a much better company than Sacramento deserves,” Kimbrough said. “It’s a top notch company. The local audience has no idea what they’ve got.”