Since January 2020, American Midwest Ballet has been the resident dance company of the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center, a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary arts facility in Council Bluffs, Iowa – minutes away from the heart of the Omaha metro area.
Designed and built based on community input, and funded by a consortium of community partners, the 95,000-square-foot Hoff Center is a unique combination: a renovated 1894 warehouse originally built for the McCormick Reaper Company, joined to a newly-constructed, fully-equipped theater and production facility, the Polina & Bob Schlott Performing Arts Center.
In addition to American Midwest Ballet, the Hoff Center is the home of the Chanticleer Community Theater, Kanesville Symphony Orchestra, the Kitchen Council (a startup incubator for food service entrepreneurs) and Pottawattamie Arts, Culture and Entertainment [PACE], which manages the facility. An art gallery, individual artist studios, and classrooms, meeting rooms and event spaces all help make the Hoff Center a community hub for the arts.The AMB professional company’s primary work spaces are two large studios designed especially for dance, with floor-to-ceiling windows and abundant natural light. A third studio accommodates small-group rehearsals. After company hours, all three studios host classes of the American Midwest Ballet SchoolWith costume construction, classes, rehearsals, and administrative and production offices all under one roof, the creation of dance becomes a smoother, more productive process for dancers, choreographers, and staff… leading to a more exciting, more rewarding artistic experience for dancegoers, sponsors, and the community.
Our venues: welcoming Our audiences
American Midwest Ballet meets its audiences at three primary venues. The Hoff Center’s performance space, the Polina & Bob Schlott Performing Arts Center, is a contemporary 280-seat theater with a full proscenium stage and advanced lighting and production equipment. Omaha’s Orpheum Theater, a renovated 1927 movie palace in the grand style, accommodates more than 2,600 guests beneath a trio of spectacular Czech crystal chandeliers. Also in Omaha, Joslyn Art Museum is an Art Deco landmark that boasts both an acoustically superb concert hall and a world-class collection of European, indigenous, and contemporary art.
Top: The Hoff Center’s Polina & Bob Schlott Performing Arts Center is a superbly-equipped showplace for American Midwest Ballet works such as Frank Chaves’ Habaneras, the Music of Cuba. Above: Joslyn Art Museum’s Witherspoon Concert Hall (left) and the Orpheum Theater (right) provide memorable experiences for student matinee crowds and adult viewers alike.
More about our facilities
Take a virtual tour of the Hoff Center with AMB company dancer Katerina Schweitzer.
This film from PACE gives the background of the Hoff Center project and its importance to the community.
