Owners/Directors

This ballet school was originally established in Wichita Falls at Midwestern University in 1952 with ballet instructors Irina Kladivova Pal and Frantisek Karhanek Pal. Its now co-owner/co-director Patricia Thornton began training with Irina and Frank in 1957 and continued her training with them until a full scholarship from artistic director Robert Joffrey took her to Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. While at Joffrey she met fellow Joffrey Co dancer Gari Boehm. Subsequently P & G (as their students refer to them) have been instructing ballet in Wichita Falls for 34 years.

Gari Boehm started his professional career as a member of the Joffrey II Ballet Company of New York City and has danced as a guest artist with many companies. Recipient of scholarships at an early age to several prestigious ballet schools, he has studied with such masters as Marya Kennett, Edward Caton, William Griffith, and Hector Zaraspe. He was accepted into the American Ballet Theatre, Cleveland Ballet, Harkness Ballet and the Frankfurt Ballet of Germany. Boehm has danced principal roles in Giselle, Les Sylphides, Swan Lake, Firebird, Nutcracker, Les Patineurs, Etudes, and many other classics.


Patricia Thornton began her studies in Wichita Falls with Irina and Frank Pal. As early as age 13, she was offered a scholarship to the North Carolina School of Fine Arta and later to TCU. A scholarship to the American Ballet Center (school of the Joffrey Ballet) at 17 took her to New York where she also studied at the American Ballet Theatre and the Luigi Jazz Center. Now settled in Wichita Falls, she and her husband, as artistic directors, have channeled their energies toward dancing, teaching, choreography and have taught master classes in New York, Alaska, and Texas.


In addition to maintaining two ballet schools, the couple have served as presidents, vice presidents and adjudication chairmen on the Executive Board of the Regional Dance America/Southwest.

Ballet class dancing instruction