Meet the Team
Our Story
Build A Ballet™ was created by a sweet, ballet obsessed seven year old and her game adoring, family time loving parents, Katie and Chris, in 2021.
Our daughter, Olivia has been obsessed with ballet since she was just 18 months and as she got older, we struggled to find many ballet related games and toys to support her passion outside of the classroom. Between her love of ballet and our family’s love of playing games and spending quality time together, it only made sense we'd create something of our own. At just 7 years old, Olivia was an integral part of helping us to create this, and over the months and years, she has been the driving inspiration and a huge contributor to this card game. At some point, we realized the game could fill that same void and bring joy to other families and we decided to really fine tune it to get it to a place that we could bring it to the world. Over the last couple of years, we have worked as a family to create a game we are incredibly proud of. We put a lot of love, thought and care into creating Build A Ballet™, and have had an absolute blast working on it and bringing it all the way from dream to fruition. We hope our card game brings your family as much joy as it does ours, and that it serves as a centerpiece for many special family memories and treasured connections.
Ballerina
Our ballerina! Olivia has been dancing since she was just 18 months old, and we never could have imagined the adventures and passion that would follow that fateful "mommy and me" class all those years ago. She’s our inspiration for all we do, the light of our life, the sweetest girl you’ll ever meet, and an integral part of our Build A Ballet game team. With a point of view beyond her years, she's full of creativity and the greatest ideas, and is the twirling heart behind it all!
Magic Maker
Katie is our magic maker and details gal. As a former owner of a successful Chicago event planning business, she’s no stranger to spreadsheets, timelines, and particulars. She’s our visionary- with an eye for style and an ability to dream big! She loves to celebrate the every day and create memories with and for our family.
Chief Executive of Fun
As our CEF (Chief Executive of Fun!) Chris loves a good game. His wheels are always turning and he keeps us laughing constantly. He’s also got a knack for learning, as he’s a high school math and computer science teacher and cross country and track coach. He spends his summers as a summer camp administrator and loves to create entertainment for kids.
Art Director
With more than 40 years of art and graphic design experience (and being Katie’s mom!) there was no one more qualified to bring our creative vision to life. From birthday invitations and Halloween costumes, to card games and more, Gigi can literally make any creative dream a reality. We’re so grateful she’s ours!
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