Legacy of Grace: Toni Pimble and the Rise of Eugene Ballet

By Candy Puterbaugh

 

Once upon a time, a child in England donned ballet shoes, opening the way to the stuff of fairy tales. Years later, that little girl would form a small-town ballet company that would grow to pirouette onto the world stage.

 

Now, 46 years on, Toni Pimble is retiring as Eugene Ballet’s artistic director and award-winning resident choreographer.

“I’ve been in the right place at the right time,” says Toni, the country’s longest acting female director of a ballet company. Among the top 50 in the country, Eugene Ballet has toured the world, won awards and grants, attracted 20,000 attendees in a single season, and revolutionized Eugene’s arts culture.

 

“When people first attend a performance, they have a pre-idea that it’ll be a small-community production,” Toni says. “They leave astonished by the sets, costumes, and beautiful productions.”

 

Being in the right place at the right time began with her birth in Camberley, England, home of the prestigious Elmhurst School of Ballet. At age seven, Toni — who “never could sit still!” — spent so much time dancing instead of practicing piano that her mother enrolled her in ballet.

 

“I took to ballet like a duck to water!” she says. Indeed, at age 11 her teacher suggested she audition at Elmhurst. This next fairy tale chapter found Toni studying professional classical ballet for seven years.

 

Then, at 18, she was recruited by a German opera company as a last-minute replacement for an injured dancer. Toni took her first plane flight and the first steps of her professional career.

 

During her years in Germany, Toni met and fell in love with fellow dancer, Riley Grannan, who hailed from a filbert farm in Junction City, Oregon. They eventually married and moved to Eugene, hoping to start their own ballet company.  Serendipitously, the Eugene School of Ballet, where Riley had studied as a youth, was for sale.

 

“I was 28 and so young and innocent,” Toni says. “We just thought it would be simple: ‘Let’s put on a show!’ We didn’t even have a board! We were creating works by the seat of our pants.”

 

The couple spent the first decade teaching, while dreaming of someday creating a little side touring troupe, “Eugene Ballet.”

The troupe came to be, first performing at local high schools. Eventually the company would take up residence at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, where they still perform today. Their first year there,

the company performed “Firebird” by Russian composer Stravinsky.

Toni played Firebird, her all-time favorite role.

 

Reflecting on the magic during a ballet performance, Toni says, “There’s an energy that fills the air as the lights dim and the music begins. The stage transforms into a world where every movement onstage, every note from the orchestra tells a story. It’s breathtaking to witness the dancers, whose bodies become instruments of expression, breathe life into the choreography. You can feel the dedication of the entire team — dancers, designers, and technicians — all coming together in a seamless dance all its own. It’s in these moments that all the hard work behind the scenes blossoms into something truly extraordinary. Watching it all come to life, I am reminded of why I fell in love with ballet in the first place.”

Eventually the demands of performing and running the company and school led Toni to hang up her toe shoes for a time. The company’s fame had spread — a single audition for two spots drew more than 100 dancers.

 

Today, Eugene Ballet has toured to more than 150

cities in 32 states and seven countries. The company takes its well-loved “Nutcracker” to Anchorage, Alaska each year, sending set and costumes by ship.

 

The company of 24 dancers, including 10 men, focuses on family ballet. Toni’s choreography is nationally renowned; she’s choreographed more than 60 productions, including “Romeo and Juliet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Cinderella,” and others. Live music is often performed by Orchestra Next.”It’s remarkable for a company in a market this size

to have a resident orchestra,” notes Eugene Ballet Communications Director Michelle Ferguson.

 

If balancing a ballet school, company, touring productions, and choreography weren’t enough, Toni is credited with establishing The Midtown Arts Center, home to eight nonprofit arts organizations,

plus the Eugene Ballet School and rehearsal space.

 

While formally retiring, Toni will remain active in the company, including, she hopes, designing and making costumes.

 

Looking back, she says, “I never imagined I would have one of the country’s 50 top ballet companies in a beautiful facility! I owe a lot to my parents for supporting me. Ballet is a universal language and that adds to our success. We are a little jewel of an organization in a community that supports the arts in a fabulous way.”

 

This April, Eugene Ballet will celebrate Toni with “The Toni’s,” a tribute featuring Orchestra Next and performances from Toni’s past works. Tickets go on sale Oct 1st.