Amy Cole Ahmed

​Founder/Director

Amy Cole Ahmed is a former professional ballerina who first trained in New Jersey at the Irine Fokine School of Ballet and then with Leonid Kozlov, formerly of the New York City Ballet. She was invited to join the Alabama Ballet’s apprenticeship program during its inaugural year and was promoted to the company two years later. 

​Ms. Cole has performed soloist roles in Don Quixote, Dracula, Swan Lake, Divertimento #15, and Serenade as well as the principal roles of Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Dew Drop Fairy in Roger Van Fleteren’s The Nutcracker, Queen of the Dryads and Mercedes in Don Quixote, Dew Drop and Hot Chocolate in Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, and Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. Ms. Cole spent the 2003–2004 season touring nationally with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, a project of the Kennedy Center, where she had the opportunity to perform an exclusively Balanchine repertoire, including Tempo de Valse and Stars and Stripes. 

Ms. Cole received teacher training certification through the Alabama Ballet Center for Dance Education and subsequently taught in the school. In Tuscaloosa, Ms. Cole has taught at two local dance schools, choreographed for the University of Alabama Dance Department, and served as Artistic Director of Tuscaloosa Community Dancers for the 2012-2013 season, mounting two full length ballets at the Bama Theatre. In 2011, Ms. Cole received the Druid Arts Award for Dance Educator and in December 2015 earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Leadership Studies from the University of Alabama.