Revered East Bay school for future ballet stars eyes next chapter

For 60 years, the Contra Costa Ballet Centre was one of the mainstays of dance education in the East Bay suburbs, offering elite training to young artists, some who have gone on to become principal dancers at major companies or who have applied all that practice and discipline to any number of other professions, including medicine.

But after Sunday, May 31, the Walnut Creek-based Contra Costa Ballet Centre will be no more, and its students put on their last public performance, “Alice in Wonderland,” at the Lesher Center for the Arts last weekend. Fortunately, the ballet center’s closure won’t leave a void in pre-professional training in the East Bay dance community.

This week, the ballet center’s longtime owners and directors, Zola Dishong and Richard Cammack, announced that two other ballet professionals will take over their studio space on North Broadway in Walnut Creek. The Orza Academy of Ballet will carry on “a tradition of excellence while shaping a strong future for dance in our community,” Dishong and Cammack said in a press release.

The new academy will be run by Aaron Orza, a 13-year member of San Francisco Ballet’s company, and his wife Kristin Lindsay Orza, who previously danced with Ballet Florida and Company C Contemporary Ballet, which was also based in Walnut Creek.

Dishong and Cammack, who took over running the dance center 39 years ago, announced in April that they would be closing its doors. They said it was not an “easy decision” but the school, like a lot of other arts organizations, was a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic and its “lasting financial toll.”

Dishong naturally expressed sadness that their school is closing. “It’s been a while,” said Dishong, who previously performed with the American Ballet Theatre and who danced and taught at the San Francisco Ballet. “It’s been a wonderful journey. We’ve been so blessed to work with the greatest people. Our teachers have just been such fine, outstanding people. Wonderful artists. Wonderful people.”

The school was originally founded in 1967, with Cammack, the former director of the San Francisco Ballet School, and Dishong taking over in 1987. They taught students from the ages of 5 and up, with older, more experienced, talented and committed students eligible to join their pre-professional company where they had the opportunity to train with professionals, perform classic dance pieces and work with guest choreographers.

The company became known for its annual holiday productions of “The Nutcracker,” which was first performed at the newly opened Lesher Center in 1990, Dishong said. The company also put on a spring production every season. For its final show on May 22 and 23, the company performed “Alice in Wonderland,” with music by Bay Area-based musician and composer Daniel Berkman and choreography by Robert Dekkers, artistic director of the Berkeley Ballet. Dishong said, “It was quite a production, lots of fun.”

For more information about Orza Academy, Dishong said people should email [email protected].