Our Mission

The mission of the Aiken Civic Ballet Company is to encourage dance as an accessible and vital art form, to promote outreach education by facilitating the development of important life skills through the discipline of dance, and to provide premiere training and performance opportunities for young dancers in the greater Aiken area and beyond.

Artistic Director – Diane Toole Miller

Diane is a native of Aiken, SC who started studying dance under Carl Crosby at age 8 and by age 13 became a member of the Aiken Civic Ballet Company. At age 17 she was crowned Miss South Carolina in the 1978 Miss South Carolina Pageant in Greenville, SC and was a Talent Award Winner. At the Miss America pageant the same year in Atlantic City, NJ, she also received Talent Award Winner and was a recipient of the Talent Scholarship for her performance of the ballet Pas de Quatre.

While attending college in Spartanburg, SC, Diane performed with both the Spartanburg Civic Ballet and the Orchesis Modern Dance Theater. She performed for several years with the Miss South Carolina Pageant Dancers, dancing both jazz and ballet for live and television audiences.

In 1982 Diane auditioned for and joined the Augusta Ballet under the direction of Ron Colton (formerly of the New York City Ballet) and Zanne Colton. As a member of the Augusta Ballet, she performed many roles in the Nutcracker, including: the Dew Drop Fairy, Waltz of the Flowers, Spanish Dancer, Bo Peep, Snowflakes and the Party Scene. She also performed in Les Sylphides, Coppelia, Giselle, Tilt by Stanley Zompakos; Episodes and Symphony 13 by Duncan Noble; and the Augusta Ballet’s first Balanchine ballet, Valse Fantasie – among many others.

Diane has worked with teacher Ron Cunningham and choreographer Duncan Nobles of the North Carolina School of the Arts, Tom Pazik of the Atlanta Ballet, and Victoria Simon of the New York City Ballet. She has attended and performed at several Southeastern Regional Ballet Association Festival Galas in Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia; Miami, Florida; and Charleston, South Carolina. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of South Carolina in 1983 and continued graduate studies toward a Masters in Education afterwards.

By 1986, Diane became a Dance Lecturer at University of South Carolina – Aiken and spent several years there teaching Beginning and Intermediate Ballet. In 2006 she became the owner and artistic director of the Crosby School of Dance and continues the tradition started by Carl Crosby with the Crosby-Miller School of Dance.

Most recently, in 2008 Diane attended summer training in Taos, NM with Jilliana (formerly of the New York City Ballet) to study the Balanchine Technique and Balanchine Style of ballet.

Studio – Crosby-Miller School of Dance

The members of the Aiken Civic Ballet train at the Crosby-Miller School of Dance, located at 142 Greenville Street SW, under the direction of Diane Toole Miller.