Sunday, July 20, 2025

Boitsov Delivers an Artistic Triumph

Local Ballet School Brings Performing Arts to Clearing Library


By Tim Hadac
Managing Editor
Southwest Chicago Post

A big tip of the cap and a bouquet of roses to Madam Elizabeth Boitsov, founder and owner of the Boitsov Classical Ballet School & Company, for once again delivering the joy of the performing arts to the greater Midway community.

Her Growing Minds, Going Green...A Kaleidoscope of Dance presentation on Saturday, July 19 at the Clearing Branch Library was an artistic triumph.

The Boitsov students were joined by young adult performers from the Bray Ballet Company and Main Stage Academy of Ballet (of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin).

The performance included selections from Cinderella (music by S. Prokofiev), romantic classical interludes like Dying Swan (music by Saint-Saëns), and more.

The Boitsov School, located on 63rd Street in Clearing, accepts girls and boys as young as age 4 and teaches them all the way to adulthood.

If you are interested in possibly enrolling your son or daughter, please click this link: https://www.boitsovballet.com/school/index.php

Here are a few photographs of the July 19 event, taken by SWCP photographer Kelly White.



































































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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

All Are Invited to Special Ballet Program

By Tim Hadac
Managing Editor
Southwest Chicago Post

If you agree that exposing children to the performing arts is important--and you want that for your child (ages 4-9)--then please attend Growing Minds, Going Green...A Kaleidoscope of Dance, a presentation set for 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Saturday, July 19 at the Clearing Branch Library, 6423 W. 63rd Place.

The event will feature a performance by students of the acclaimed Madam Elizabeth Boitsov, founder and owner of the Boitsov Classical Ballet School & Company.

The Boitsov students will be joined by young adult performers from the Bray Ballet Company and Main Stage Academy of Ballet (of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin).

The performance will include selections from Cinderella (music by S. Prokofiev), romantic classical interludes like Dying Swan (music by Saint-Saëns), and more.

There is no admission charge.

Background

Madame Elizabeth Boitsov was born in the old Soviet Union and started practicing ballet at age 4.

As a young adult in the 1970s, she left home to teach ballet in Poland and later Sweden, before coming to the U.S. and eventually setting up shop in Chicago in early 1980.

With her husband, Vladimir, she founded her school in the South Loop, along with a ballet company. Both thrived and drew critical acclaim until Vladimir died from lung cancer in 2000. 

The company shut down, but Madame Boitsov maintained the school.

In 2013, she closed its downtown location and relocated to the Midway area—a move she called “a dream” she and her husband shared, to make classical ballet more accessible to communities not normally exposed to it. Today, she lives in Garfield Ridge.


The school teaches the Vaganova Technique of Russian classical ballet. “This technique is practiced around the world,” according to a statement on the Boitsov website. “It is the highest standard by which a professional ballet dancer is trained.”

The school accepts girls and boys as young as age 4 and teaches them all the way to adulthood.

Here are a few Southwest Chicago Post photos of a Boitsov School ballet presentation held last year at the Clearing Branch Library, taken by SWCP photographer Kelly White.

















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