Kristina Kambalov
Executive Director

KRISTINA KAMBALOV was born in Evansville, Indiana, and at the age of nine began studying ballet with Jean Allenby. She continued her studies at North Carolina School of the Arts and at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York, and danced with Ballet Theatre Pennsylvania and Russian Ballet Theatre of Delaware.

In August of 1999, Kristina and Pasha Kambalov opened Russian Ballet Centre in Newport, Delaware and later incorporated the school as a non-profit organization, First State Ballet Theatre (FSBT). In 2003, FSBT moved to Wilmington’s historic Grand Opera House, and in 2008 the professional company was born with ten dancers. Today FSBT comprises 22 dancers and performs statewide from August to April each season.

Ms. Kambalov served as FSBT School Director for 17 years before assuming the role of Executive Director in 2016. FSBT has staged hundreds of performances, collaborated with dozens of arts and community organizations statewide, commissioned a number of world premières by new and established choreographers, and created Danceworks!, Delaware’s largest dance educational outreach program.

Ms. Kambalov continues in her role as teacher, coach, and ballet mistress for the company and the school.  Ms. Kambalov has also served on the jury of the World Ballet Competition and in 2006 she received the Wilmingtonian Award for outstanding contributions to the quality of life in Wilmington. In 2023, Kristina was named among the most impactful leaders in Delaware by Delaware Business Times.

Kristina is proud to be part of FSBT’s collaboration with the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children making FSBT the first arts organization in the country to receive their Shield of Protection. The Shield of Protection is a unique program designed by the Beau Biden Foundation’s experts in law, education, and law enforcement to help ensure schools and youth-serving organizations have the best policies, procedures, and programming in place to help protect children from all forms of child abuse and neglect.