Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Dimmel.
Hi Liz, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Dramatic Truth School of the Arts History
Dramatic Truth School of the Arts started as a flame in my heart in 1986. I had no idea it was even possible, but our pastor in Nashville asked me to bring ballet into the church. At that moment my passion for ballet and my love for Jesus merged into one, and a 35-year journey called Dramatic Truth was ignited! Over the next six years we developed a ballet school at the church, and later an afterschool program at a nearby Christian school. During those years I traveled extensively as a ballet instructor to worship dance conferences nationwide. (which I didn’t even know existed!). I began choreographing new pieces inspired by my relationship with the Lord, and felt a new level of worship I had never experienced before in my lifetime. I was never the same! This deep connection between my worship of Jesus and the ballet I loved became the cornerstone of what Dramatic Truth was and is to this day. It is what made this school unique and began drawing people here from all parts of the world.
In 1992 we headed back to our hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. News of Dramatic Truth spread quickly among local believers and we were asked to start Dramatic Truth in Kansas City. We began with three students and three mirrors in the foyer of a beautiful old government building! Over time, as interest grew, we decided to rent out the basement of a radio station, later a gym, then the off hours of a local dance studio, and lastly the off hours of a larger local studio. By 1995 we had over 80 students and formed Dramatic Truth Ballet Theatre as a small touring company.
In 2001 we became incorporated and made our mission clear: Celebrating Christ and Embracing Excellence. We would equip our students with excellent technique, and cultivate within them a heart of worship. In order to produce consistent excellent technique, we needed to codify our syllabus. I chose to study in depth the Vagonova 100 lessons in ballet written by Vera Kostrovitskaya, and the Lord helped me create a syllabus that could produce the desired results within the American lifestyle. We then created a testing system to measure the results in order to qualify students for advancement. This system has been very helpful in keeping our training consistent over these many years.
Soon we began offering small summer workshops, but the need for larger rooms and accommodations for growing numbers of interested students became apparent. We decided to rent a campground on the outskirts of town for a week, brought in a worship band, held daily classes, and held worship and teaching sessions in the evenings. This was our first intensive! We had over 30 students. God was so present and we could see that this was providing a beautiful extension to the work we were doing in the school.
For the next few years, as we still had no studio of our own, we rented ballrooms, dining areas, and rooms at the Embassy Suites Hotel for our intensives.! The Lord was definitely doing things! We were even able to baptize the new believers in the hotel swimming pool!
Then in 2004, we were finally able to rent a space we could call our own at the Birchwood Shopping Center! We began with one average sized studio, two small studios, and a playroom . This enabled us to begin having yearly intensives in our own space! These events began attracting more and more students from outside the Kansas City area. Over the years these students came from Turkey, Malasia, Guam, The Martial Islands, England, New York, Canada, California, Minnesota, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Iowa, Chicago, Colorado and of course the states surrounding Missouri: Kansas, Nebraska and Arkansas. Many decided to move to Kansas City in order to train at Dramatic Truth, and later became part of our professional company. Soon our population grew to well over 120 students! Every couple of years, we expanded by breaking through the walls of the adjacent storefronts, eventually more studios! With the steady influx of new students, and the acquisition of more space, we were in a much better position to create new ballets. And that we did! Ballets like “The Mystery of Christmas” “Dethroning the Prince”, “The Book of Ruth”, “The Story of Esther, “Never Again”, “The Masquerade”, and many more . We built sprung floors in every studio and decorated this place to become our home. How blessed we have been to have such wonderful and beloved friends to help us bring all these things to fruition.
In 2025 we decided it was time to update and finetune our syllabus even further! Currently, with more than 160 students, an administrative staff, faculty and performance company, we are seeking the Lord’s path to fulfilling the original vision He gave us for Dramatic Truth:
Our Vision:
A campus complete with studios, locker rooms, showers, sewing and costume rooms, prop and storage areas, and a 500 seat fully equipped state of the art theater. Here, we will be able to change the lives of hundreds of students, and as well as local artists we can bring quality life changing productions to our community. He has carried us this far….We know He will be faithful to complete the vision He birthed over 35 years ago!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think not having anyone in our organization with a strong financial background, or experience in fundraising has caused us to struggle affording a nice facility or moving to better part of town in order to grow.
Finding those people who align with our vision has taken time but I believe our persistance and patience has paid off.
Another area of struggle has been getting the word out about what we are doing. These are both difficulties that were caused by lack of finances.
Fortunately we are now working in a new business model, that is equipping us to market what we are doing and run the business side of the ministry much more efficiently. And we are seeing good fruit for our efforts.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As I shared in my history, finding the connection between my faith and ballet literally changed my life. Once I began exploring that connection through choreography and creating full length ballets that offered hope, I knew I needed to ensure that the students at Dramatic Truth would develope that same connection through our training.
This I feel is our greatest accomplishment. This is what sets us apart from others. From the time our students begin training as young as three years old, every class they take has both the components of faith and excellent technique. These students spend their time worshipping Jesus, and learning from professionals teaching Russian Vagonova technique. By the time they come through our program (at approximately the age of 18) they are eligable to audition for our professional company, Dramatic Truth Ballet Theatre which brings ballets of hope and redemption to the hurting people of the world.
Dramatic Truth developes professional young dancers with a heart of worship. I don’t think anyone else does this quite like we do!
Another of our most significant acomplishments is the production of the Mystery of Christmas. Over the span of about10 years, in an act of obedience to the Lord, I with the help of our amazing team wrote, costumed, choreographed, staged and lit the true story of Christmas. In contrast to the original Nutcracker, Grandpa, at the Staulbaum Christmas party, reads to Clara from the book of Luke. Rather than dreaming about the Kingdom of Sweets and the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Holy Spirit trasports Clara and the auduence back in time to witness the birth of the Savior. Dancing to the melodies of Tchaikovski’s classic score, angels lead Clara and the startled shepherds to the newborn king. In Act II the nations celebrate His birth with exciting ethnic dances and the finale pas de deux brings to fruition the complete story of salvation. We are in our 28th season of performing this life transforming professional production!
Tickets at www.dramatictruth.org
What do you like and dislike about the city?
The thing I like best about Kansas City is that you have all the amenities of a big city: the beautiful fountains, the ballet, the opera, the symphony, the Plaza! And yet there are suburbs and farms and countyrside and lakes and lots of trees!!
What I don’t like is that we still have some areas that are not safe, and have crime.
Pricing:
- To attend our school is very reasonable
- To bring oour professional company to you costs anything from free, to a donation, up to whatever you can afford or like to give.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dramatictruth.org
- Instagram: Dramatic Truth Ballet Theatre
- Facebook: Dramatic Truth Ballet Theatre
- Twitter: Dramatic Truth Ballet Theatre
- Youtube: Dramatic Truth Ballet Theatre
